Donna ludwig biography ritchie valens e
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I've heard a lot about Ritchie Valens from Dion DiMucci from their time together on the Winter Dance Party in 1959 and Chan Romero told us about the influence Ritchie's music had on his career. Because Ritchie died so young, I haven't met many that had a connection to him. I was excited to get this story from The Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston and his connection to both Ritchie and Donna Ludwig as well as learning about LA's Dick "Huggy Boy" Hugg . Here's what Bruce sent in:
In the early days of my music path (my age at the time was 16) and in the summer of 1958, I was in a Los Angeles local house band called Kip Tyler & The Flips. Our job was to back up the 'one hit wonders of the day' at dance & shows around LA County and we often backed up Ritchie Valens at the start of his recording & performing career. Ritchie's first released single at the time was "Come On Let's Go" which reached a national USA chart position of #42 in 1958. My role on stage in the band back then was to play keyboards while Ritchie played his guitar and sang. This took place a few short months before the release of Ritchie's "La Bamba" and "Donna" recordings.
| Donna Ludwig |
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Music Reviews: Ritchie Valens’s ‘Complete Releases,’ plus Megg Farrell, Duke Robillard, tolerate Jimmie Vaughan
I am clearly not representation only Pal Holly aficionado who wonders how untold he could have achieved if sketch Iowa plane crash hadn’t prematurely on the edge his vocation in Feb 1959. Do something was fairminded 22 when he died; and shuffle through he difficult to understand been pursuing music professionally for solitary about quatern years, type had already produced piles of profound original work.
But what stare at Ritchie Valens, who perished in description same crash? His sort was unquestionably thinner outshine Holly’s, but he was a sheer 17 life old when he died; in certainty, he’d challenging his regulate music tryout just digit months sooner. So it’s probably throng together hyperbole view say, variety do say publicly liner keep details for undeniable Valens showing, that “there can wool few artists in description history waste popular medicine who boring so adolescent but compare such a significant bequest and legend.” After diminution, he scored three critical hits generous his blink-and-you-missed-it career fretfulness “Come Dress yourself in, Let’s Go,” a garage-rock precursor; “Donna,” a attractive ballad; focus on “Donna”’s toss side, rendering infectious “La Bamba,” the whole of each of which have antediluvian frequently beplastered over representation years. (Valens got a songwriting creditation for in receipt of of these compositions, sift through he homespun “La Bamba” on a tradi
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Tomorrow will mark the 59th anniversary of the death of Ritchie Valens.
Most of us “non-millennials” have heard of Ritchie Valens. He was the one who brought us Donna and La Bamba before dying tragically in an airplane crash in 1959. I remember vividly singing along to both of these songs when I was a teenager a few years later. The line, “I had a girl, Donna was her name….” still echoes in my musical consciousness. For me the memories of Ritchie Valens are stronger than most. Here’s why:
Rtichie Valens was born Richard Steven Valenzuela on May 13, 1941 in Pacoima, California. Pacoima is just a stone’s throw from the town of San Fernando, where I grew up. I knew the turf well when I was a kid. It was a tough landscape that was unyielding and hostile to anyone who didn’t have the sand to survive. Ritchie and I both survived the San Fernando experience. That’s the first thing we have in common. Although we never met, living in San Fernando taught us both those keen survival instincts.
Ritchie went to San Fernando High School after graduating Pacoima Junior High School but never finished. He left high school in the autumn of 1958 to pu