Richard Valens Accomplishments

The first Hispanic rock star, Richard Steven Valenzuela aka Ritchie Valens was born May 13, 1941 near Los Angeles California. At an early age Valens developed a love for music; being able to play several instruments. While exposed to the rhythm and blues music though his father, Valens vowed to devoted most of his time to the guitar and would slowly strive to aspire his dreams of being an artist. By the age of 16 Valens joined his first band The Silhouette, an integrated group who played local high-school dances, church social functions, and neighborhood parties. These gigs would quickly catch the attention of Bob Keane who is the head of Del-Fi Records. Keane saw the potential Valens had as an artist and was willing to help him breakthrough in the music industry. Valens auditioned
After a performance on February 2, 1959, several of the performers elected to fly in a plane chartered by Holly rather than ride on the tour bus with a broken heater in sub-zero temperatures. Valens earned a seat on the plane by winning a coin toss with Crickets guitarist Tommy Allsop and was killed along with Holly, the Big Bopper, and the 21-year-old pilot when the plane crashed in a cornfield. Richie Valens has to be one of my favorite musicians to this day, his music brings back good nostalgic memories and he broke tons of boundaries for Hispanic artist all over the globe. Though he does not have much music out, the very few songs that were released to the public did very good for him. I would have been cool to see what else he would have made if he didn’t die in that plane crash. He was so young and was doing big things, Rest In