Ritchie Valens - Ritchie Valens

Facts Includes 4 bonus tracks! During the course of his brief life, the legendary Ritchie Valens fused numerous musical genres together to form his own remarkable style. He left a lasting impact on rock & roll with his classic rocker "La Bamba" - a highenergy reworking of an old Mexican wedding song that Valens learned from his cousin. Ritchie put a rock & roll spin on this spirited folk tune, juicing it up with garage-rock riffing and a raw, enthusiastic solo. In essence, he invented Latino rock with this two-minute rock & roll classic. It's driving simplicity foreshadowed garage-rock, frat-rock and punk-rock. Ironically, "La Bamba" was the B-side of "Donna", a dedication to Valens' girlfriend that rose to number 2 on Billboard's singles chart. "La Bamba" also charted, but only climbed as high as number 22. This double-sided smash marks one of the greatest rock & roll singles of the Fifties.