Trini Lopez

This edition of Rock and Roll Flashback features the story of singer, guitarist and actor
Trini Lopez. During his active years from 1959 to 2020, he transitioned from a pop artist
to acting. The history behind Trini’s rise to fame had several interesting events, which
will be revealed in this edition of Rock and Roll Flashback.

Trinidad Lopez the III was born on May 15,1937 in Dallas, Texas. Lopez had a brother
and four sisters. In his senior year of high school, he dropped out of school so that he
could earn money to help support the family. Interestingly for a short time he played with Domingo Samudio, who would later go on to form Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.
By the age of 15, he had formed his first band located in Wichita Falls, Texas. Later
around 1955, his group performed at a nightclub called The Vegas Club. Interestingly,
the club was owned by Jack Ruby, who assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald, the man
accused of killing President Kennedy in 1963. By 1957, Buddy Holly’s father advised
Lopez and his band The Big Beats to go to Clovis, New Mexico to see Norman Petty,
who had been instrumental in working with Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Petty then
secured a contract with Columbia Records on behalf of the band. First release was an
instrumental “Clark’s Expedition” with “Big Boy” as the B-side.

Later Lopez left the band and recorded his first solo composition for Volk Records “The
Right to Rock”. In 1959 he signed with King Records. Over a dozen singles were
recorded, however none were able to enter the record charts.  Toward the end of 1962, the contract with King Records was terminated, Trini was then offered an opportunity to join Buddy Holly’s Crickets as the new vocalist by producer Snuff Garrett. However after several weeks of auditions, which were held in Los Angeles, the effort was terminated. While in Los Angeles he began auditioning for work and began performing at the Ye Little Club in Beverly Hills. PJ’s nightclub located in West Hollywood was one of the first LA discotheques to open in the early 1960s. The Club’s owners Bill Doherty, Paul Raffles, Phil Tanzini, Elmer Valentine opened PJ’s in 1961. Later, Tanzini and Valentine opened another club, the legendary Whisky A Go Go.  Some of the artists that performed at PJ’s include Johnny Rivers, The Bobby Fuller Four, The Standells and Rufus Thomas.

Trini learned that Frank Sinatra frequently visited PJ’s, so he decided to perform there so he could meet Frank. Lopez was initially hired to perform for a 3-week engagement.
However once Trini began performing, that 3-week engagement turned into a year and a half, playing five shows every night. With in a month after performing at PJ’s, Sinatra
showed up and offered Lopez an eight-year contract on Frank’s Reprise Record label.
Two live albums were then recorded in the main room of PJ’s nightclub.

In 1963 the debut live album “Trini Lopez at PJ’s” was released. It featured a cover of
Pete Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer”. The single climbed to number one in 36 counties,
and was number three in the US. It soon sold over a million copies and earned a gold
disc. Also on the album was a cover of “La Bamba” a traditional Mexican song that was
released as a single in 1966. Later in 1963, a second live album was recorded titled
“By Popular Demand More Trini Lopez at PJ’s”. The album featured “Green Green” a
song that was written by Randy Sparks and Barry McQuire and recorded by the New
Christy Minstrels earlier that same year.

Due to his success and being a guitar player, Gibson Guitars asked Trini to design a
guitar in 1964. He designed two models, the Trini Lopez Standard, based on the Gibson
ES-335, a semi hollow body and the Lopez Deluxe, a variation of a Gibson Jazz guitar.
The two guitar models were in production from 1964 to 1971. The guitars now are
sought after by collectors, two of the owners of the Lopez models are Dave Grohl of the
band Foo Fighters and Noel Gallager of Oasis.

By 1968 Lopez had 13 singles that made onto the charts, which included “Lemon Tree”
in 1965, “I’m Coming Home, Cindy” in 1966 and “Sally Was a Good Old Girl” in 1968.
He also had 15 hits, which made it into the adult contemporary chart, which included the top ten singles “Michael”, “ Gonna Get Along Without Ya’ Now” and “The Bramble
Bush” a song he sang in the movie “The Dirty Dozen”. In addition to his recording
success, his nightclub appearances enabled him to become one of the top performers in
the US, and a regular headliner in Las Vegas.

In 1969 NBC televised a Trini Lopez variety special that featured the surf group The
Ventures and Nancy Ames. The soundtrack from the program was released, called “The
Trini Lopez Show”, which featured Trini singing his hits along with the Ventures as the
backing band. During this time he continued touring Europe and Latin America
extensively. Then in 1978 he attempted a comeback by releasing a disco album, however it failed to generate any interest.

In addition to his music career he ventured into motion picture and television acting,
however it was not as successful as his music. His first movie role in 1965, was
“Marriage on the Rocks”, where he appeared in a nightclub scene. “Sinner Man” from the film’s soundtrack climbed to number 54 on the pop charts and number 12 on the adult contemporary chart. In 1967 he was one of the characters in the film “The Dirty Dozen” and in 1970 he appeared as himself in “The Phynx”. On television he appeared on “The Hardy Boys- Nancy Drew Mystery series and made two appearances on the Adam-12 series.

In 1993 a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California Walk of Stars was dedicated
to Trni Lopez. A documentary film titled “My Name is Lopez” was released in 2022,
which included a history of his life, career, performances and interviews. In 2003 he
was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame. On his 71st birthday he was inducted into the Las Vegas Walk of Stars. 

At the age of 83, Trini Lopez died on August 11th, 2020 in Palm Springs, California due
to complications associated with Covid 19.

This has been a look back at the history behind Trini Lopez, his rise to fame and career.