May 15
Today is the birthday of Trini Lopez. He would be 89 today.
Trinidad Lopez III was born in Dallas, Texas on May 15, 1937, in the Segundo Barrio neighborhood of West Dallas. His father played bajo sexto in the Dallas Mexican-American community, and Trini absorbed the music early. He played local clubs through his teens and moved to Los Angeles in his early twenties, landing a gig at PJ’s nightclub in Hollywood. One night, Frank Sinatra walked in. He liked what he heard.
Live at PJ’s and Beyond
Sinatra signed Lopez to his Reprise Records label in 1963. Trini Lopez at PJ’s came out that year and produced a Top 5 hit with “If I Had a Hammer.” Lopez delivered it with a driving guitar rhythm that turned a protest song into a dance floor hit. He appeared in The Dirty Dozen in 1967 alongside Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine. He became one of the most internationally recognized Latin entertainers of his era, touring Europe extensively through the 1960s and 1970s. He died August 11, 2020, from COVID-19, in Palm Springs. Dallas’s West Side sent one of its best to the world stage. Learn more on Wikipedia.