TRINI LOPEZ

What do you get when you take a rockin', rollin' Tex-Mex singer from Dallas and transplant him into a trendy Los Angeles nightclub frequented by Hollywood celebrities? In the case of Trini Lopez, the result was a nightly, crowd-pleasing party atmosphere in the best spot to catch the attention of one of the most famous people in show business. Just being affiliated with Frank Sinatra gave Lopez enough clout to boost him to a million-selling pleateau, though who'd have figured the two would become close friends and eventually hang out regularly as neighbors in Southern California's desert oasis?

Christened Trinidad Lopez III in 1937, he grew up in the Little Mexico neighborhood a couple of miles north of downtown Dallas. His father, Trinidad II, had worked as a singer when he was young and taught his son many folk songs; he bought him an inexpensive guitar and Trini's musical obsession began. By the time he reached his teens, he was singing just about everywhere: on the streets, at school and at the occasional Mexican festival held in the area. In high school he was in a band that included Domingo Samudio (who later achieved fame as Sam the Sham). Trini dropped out before graduating high school in order to help support his family and before long he found steady work in nightclubs and hotels in the Dallas area and other parts of Texas.

At a 1957 gig in Wichita Falls, he met Dallas native Snuff Garrett, a deejay in the area with ties to Buddy Holly. Garrett introduced the two and Holly took Lopez to Clovis, New Mexico to record at Norman Petty's Nor Va Jak studio. Four instrumental tracks were completed, which Petty licensed to Columbia Records under the name The Big Beats; Trini's first records featured his guitar playing but not his eventually-familiar voice. After seeing the band in a local nightclub, Dallas entrepreneur John F. Sheffield showed interest in recording them; "The Right to Rock," a Lopez original, was released on Sheffield's Volk label in August 1958; though it failed to get much radio play, a review in Billboard caught the attention of Syd Nathan of King Records in Cincinnati.

Trini was amazed when Nathan so quickly offered him a contract, considering his sound bore little resemblance to the King-Federal stars (prmarily R&B acts like Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Little Willie John and James Brown). Between 1959 and '61, ten singles were issued on King and while none of them reached the national charts, there was plenty of solid material including "Yes You Do" and "Rock On," offering a vocal sound much more assertive than the Volk disc. Other releases "Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die," "Sweet Thing" and "Jeanie Marie" took a slightly softer approach and recieved airplay on WAIL-AM 1460 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, though most of his output was unable to take hold anywhere else. As of 1962, Holly's group The Crickets had been hitless in the U.S. (but not England) since their beloved leader's death three years earlier; Trini headed for California to audition for lead singer of the band, hoping his connection to Holly would help...but it didn't.

He was then hired to open for Joanie Sommers at Ye Little Club in Beverly Hills, a two week engagement that lasted nearly a year (long after Joanie had gone on to bigger things). Two singles were recorded for the small DRA label; the second, "Sinner Not a Saint," became a mainstay of the singer's live shows, particularly after it was re-released on United-Modern in late '63. Earlier that year, he began a stint at P.J.'s nightclub on Santa Monica Blvd., which within a few months of opening had seen some of Hollywood's top stars come through its doors, dancing the night away to up-and-coming acts. One local favorite, pianist Eddie Cano, a regular in the club's early months, secured a contract with Reprise Records (its owner that ultra-famous blue-eyed guy), and had a Southern Cal hit in the summer of '62, "A Taste of Honey."

Singer-saxophonist Nino Tempo caught Trini's show one night, then returned with producer Don Costa who, suitably impressed, signed the young singer to his talent agency. Before long, Frank Sinatra made a grand entrance at P.J.'s and handed him an offer he couldn't refuse: an eight-year contract with Reprise, Frank's rapidly-growing label with the promotional power of parent company Warner Bros. Costa's idea was to record the singer live at the club where all the excitement happened. In the spring of 1963, Trini Lopez at P.J.'s appeared; its first single "A-me-ri-ca," one of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's great songs from West Side Story (still hot a year and a half after its release) received healthy airplay in L.A. and other parts of the west coast.

His mariachi-influenced take on "La Bamba" came next (Trini always gave credit to Ritchie Valens as the first Latino rock star), followed by "If I Had a Hammer," a very American folk song penned 14 years earlier by Weavers members Lee Hays and Pete Seeger. A version had been a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary less than a year before; against odds, it was even bigger for Trini (a million seller) and quickly became his signature song. The P.J.'s LP also reached gold status after a summer-to-fall run in the top ten that got him to the number two spot for six non-consecutive weeks. These club recordings worked so well that they repeated the gimmick with More Trini Lopez at P.J.'s, which yielded a top 30 rendition of the Wilbert Harrison hit "Kansas City" late in the year.

The surge of '63 elevated him from nightclubs to major venues throughout North America and shows in major cities overseas. King Records kept releasing singles and albums of songs he'd done during his time with the label; it seemed Trini-mania had taken hold, if only for several months before he made the adjustment to coexisting with a different kind of mania from the British isles. Chart singles in '64 included Bobby Darin's "Jailer, Bring Me Water," plus his impressively downbeat "What Have I Got of My Own" and another traditional folk song, "Michael" (a chart topper three years earlier for The Highwaymen).

Trini Lopez

The Gibson company commissioned Lopez to create a guitar for them and he countered with two: the Trini Lopez Standard, a "rock and roll" variation of the popular semi-hollow-body models, and the Lopez Deluxe, designed with jazz players in mind. Both were produced for the next seven years and have become collectors' items. Sinatra's Rat pack pals signed with Reprise, giving Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin their first hits in years. Then Frank enjoyed a remarkable career resurgence in the mid- to late-1960s; he and Trini became very good friends and bought homes near each other in the expanding city of Palm Springs. Frank's (and Sammy's) manager, George "Bullets" Durgom, represented Trini as well, getting him into the top clubs and wrangling an ongoing series of TV appearances that included two 1965 stints as the host of NBC-TV's Hullabaloo.

"Lemon Tree," a song by Will Holt that had been Peter, Paul and Mary's breathrough hit in 1962, returned Trini to the top 20 in early 1965. At this point he was recording regularly in the studio; "Sad Tomorrows" and "Are You Sincere" registered on the charts in '65. His first film appearance was a small, uncredited bit as a singer in Marriage on the Rocks starring Sinatra, Dino and Deborah Kerr; "Sinner Man," which he performed in the film, was a mid-chart entry in late '65. "I'm Comin' Home, Cindy," an original he penned with Phil Zeller, returned him to the top 40 in May 1966.

He played himself in his second movie appearance: A Poppy is Also a Flower, an anti-drug film that aired on ABC-TV, resulted in an Emmy win (Best Supporting Actor in a Drama) for Eli Wallach. Trini's peak was reached in his next movie, The Dirty Dozen, directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson and eight other well-known actors playing convicts on a World War II suicide mission. It was a blockbuster, the top money-maker of 1967. Trini sang "The Ballad of the Dirty Dozen," which he composed with "Mr. Bass Man" hitmaker Johnny Cymbal. He also left the production abruptly at Sinatra's suggestion (to prioritize his music career), which irked director Aldrich (who killed off his character prematurely) and may have affected Trini's standing in the film community.

Besides the '67 Hot 100 chart singles "Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now" and Harlan Howard's "Sally Was a Good Old Girl," Trini's airplay domain the rest of the decade was on Easy Listening stations. His own hourlong TV special, The Trini Lopez Show with guest stars Nancy Ames and The Ventures, aired on NBC in 1969. He released more than 30 albums (14 of which made the best seller lists) and continued performing for packed crowds the next couple of decades; a handful of television roles (including the 1971 war film The Reluctant Heroes) kept him popping up on the small screen in the 1970s. While he dated a number of actresses and models throughout the years, he remained a bachelor. A resident of Palm Springs until his death in 2020, Trini Lopez kept his enthusiasm intact, living his entire 83-year life doing what he loved.

- Michael Jack Kirby

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