ARTIST: Various (Mostly Los Lobos)
TITLE: La Bamba
YEAR RELEASED: 1987
CHART ACTION: #1
SINGLES: Come On, Let’s Go (#21 US, #18 UK), La Bamba (#1 US, #1 UK), Donna (#83 UK)
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: All of them but not these versions.
LINEUP: Los Lobos (8 tracks) with cuts from Howard Huntsberry, Marshall Crenshaw, Brian Setzer, and Bo Diddley
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Big, huge soundtrack (at least sales wise) to the move about the life of Ritchie Valens.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: If you weren’t going to use the original songs by Ritchie Valens and others (and just WHY NOT – I mean, they sound great now), then having Los Lobos record the Ritchie Valens was the least you could do.
It struck gold. The movie made a big box office impression, and the soundtrack hit the charts and made Los Lobos a household name, at least for a summer.
Yet, now, it seems unnecessary. Every song on here is found easily on the web in the original forms, and while Los Lobos does a great and reverent job with the Valens tracks, they’d be the first to tell you that you need to have the originals.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: I don’t need to tell you the title track was Los Lobos only #1 hit.
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No
GRADE: C-: Not necessary in this day and time.