By RUSSELL CONTRERAS and HILLEL ITALIE Associated Press RIO RANCHO, NM (AP) – Trini Lopez, a singer and guitarist who rose to fame through his versions of “Lemon Tree” and “If I Had a Hammer” in the 1960s and brought his talent to Hollywood, died Tuesday. He’s 83.
Filmmaker P. David Ebersole, who recently finished filming a documentary about Lopez with Todd Hughes, showed Lopez died of COVID-19 headaches at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, California. He finished recording a song “If By Now”, a song intended to raise the budget of COVID-19 food banks. “And here he dies of everything he sought to fight,” Chavira said. Lopez went to the theater, appearing in the World War II drama “The Dirty Dozen”, the comedy “The Phynx” and television credits “Adam-12”. He also designed guitars that have become the favorites of Dave Grohl and other rock stars.
Trained by Buddy Holly and Frank Sinatra, Lopez has become a foreign star acting in English and Spanish. Unlike Mexican-American singers like Ritchie Valens, Lopez rejected the recommendation to replace his call and brabbyly embraced his Mexican-American heritage despite warnings that it would damage his career. “I’m proud to be a Lopez. I’m proud to be a Mexican. Born in Trinidad López III to immigrants from Guanajuato, Mexico, Lopez grew up in the impoverished Dallas community in Little Mexico. The family’s terrible economic scenery forced Lopez to drop out of high school and work.
His life was replaced after his father bought him a $12 black Gibson acoustic guitar from a pawn shop. His father taught him to play the instrument, which led young Lopez to perform in Dallas nightclubs that did not allow Mexican-American clients. Buddy Holly saw Lopez at a small nightclub in Wichita Falls and took him to Norman Petty, his record producer. Clovis, New Mexico. Holly died in a plane crash six months later, and Lopez soon replaced him as lead singer of The Crickets. Lopez moved to Southern California and was offered a regular concert at the P.J. Night Club in West Hollywood. Sinatra saw him play and presented him with a contract with his new label, Reprise, where Lopez achieved his first major success with “If I Had A Hammer”. It reached number one in nearly 40 countries. They have become friends and were seen combined in social circles in Las Vegas and Palm Springs, California. has had good luck in the Spanish language market with “The Latin Album” and “The Second Latin Album”. a rare Latin in rock and global folk of the time, he occasionally spoke of resisting the tension of record managers to replace his call and probably attract more white audiences.
Lopez earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist in 1963 and, in early 1964, was so in touch that he and the Beatles were co-headlineds during an 18-day engagement at the Olympia Theatre in Paris. That was just before the British band went to the United States, gave the impression of “The Ed Sullivan Show” and interrupted Lopez’s career and many others. French newspapers would say “Bravo Trini Lopez! Who are the Beatles? Lopez later told the website www.classicbands.com. “When we finished doing the shows, the last night we were there, the hounds came to my dressing room. My dressing room was next to theirs and they said, “Mr. Lopez, the Beatles are going to New York. Do you think they’ll be a success? “I said, “I don’t think so. “‘Trini used to say that he had come to California, broken and on a break. He thanked Sinatra for “finding out,” Chavira said. “Sinatra said, ‘No, it was meant to be.’ Lopez was rarely on the charts after the 1960s, however, his diversity of Gibson Trini Lopez guitars released from 1964 to 1971 quickly influenced a generation of young guitarists, adding Grohl, The Edge and Noel Gallagher. Ebersole and Hughes recently finished filming a documentary about Lopez titled “My Name is Lopez”, which is expected to be published in 2021.
Hillell Italy reported from New York.
Associated Press Russell Contreras is a member of the AP Race and Ethnicity team. Follow Contreras on Twitter on http://twitter.com/russcontreras
He wants news and data to do business in Fort Worth. Sign up today.