LOS LOBOS CAPTURED THE SPIRIT OF THE MEXICAN ELVIS FOR THE MOVIE LA BAMBA

Back in the late 80`s, the legend of Richie Valens was brought back to life in quite spectacular fashion in the movie bearing his most famous song, LA BAMBA. 

Valens of course went down in history as one of the three rockers who tragically died on 2nd February, 1959, in a light plane crash amongst an icy corn paddock in Iowa. 

The ultimate rock hero Buddy Holly and one hit wonder The Big Bopper were the others, as Don McLean did say over a decade later it was the day the music died, although he was mainly referring to Holly with that famous quotation.

Valens might not have had the musical abilities that Buddy Holly had, but he sure had some Elvis-like charisma, most of his songs were typical romantic laced rock `n`roll with a hint of California swing and tex-mex. 

DONNA is another one of his soppy songs which fitted perfectly with late 50`s radio playlists. For nearly three decades after he
died, there was very little recognition of his musical legacy until the idea was formulated to make a movie about his life and rise to stardom, however brief it was. 

Lou Diamond Philips was a young half-mexican actor with more than an uncanny resemblance to the real McCoy, who played Richie Valens in LA BAMBA, and Los Lobos was the band given the job of recording two absolute pearler versions of La Bamba and the lesser known rock`n`roll dance classic, Come On, Let`s Go. 

Known themselves for their strong and gritty tex-mex inspired rock, Los Lobos let their hair down for these two songs and it has to be said made them sound richer and a whole lot better than Valen`s more subdued versions.

Tuck into the You Tube clip above, I decided
to go with Come On, Let`s Go only because it
isn`t as well known as La Bamba, but they are both classic old fashioned rock`n`roll tunes.