Category: Flashbacks

Billboard | May 15, 1965

Don Costa heard Trini Lopez at PJ’s in Los Angeles in 1963 and signed him as an artist with his production company. He then placed the singer with Reprise Records. Here is his analysis of the ingredients in Trini’s style which account for his mercurial success.

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By DON COSTA

Trini Lopez will be the biggest ballad singer in America within two years. I’m absolutely convinced of that. Trini’s style involves the ability to communicate to his audience and make them feel that they’re part of the act. Some of the things he does come under the heading of community singing. He sings well, in tune, and with a definite jazz feel.

Like most kids his age who grew up in the rock ‘n’ roll era, he should really only have this orientation. But he doesn’t. He has a natural, instinctive jazz feel with a little of Louis and Ella in his style.

He has to learn a few things about phrasing or really knowing where to breathe. But he sings with such driving spirit that even in ballads he’s almost out of breath trying to get the point across. I‘ve developed a closer relationship with Trini than with any other artist because I’ve seen him develop right from the beginning.

When Nino Tempo took me to hear him at PJ’s, I felt the electricity he generated. The people were standing 10 deep around the stand. Trini’s rhythm feel was sensational.

PJ’s at the time was a hangout for audition and recording men. I can’t recall how many guys who saw him have come up to me since and said they should have signed him. I don’t think they took him seriously.

Recording Trini has been the easiest assignment for me. Each album gets harder as the material becomes more complex. Trini only picks songs he can wail on. There is a definite danger in doing ballads (Trini’s latest LP is “The Love Album“) but it’s something he’s never done before and wanted to do very badly. END

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Information, credit, and news source: Billboard; May 15, 1965

Trini Lopez passed away two years ago, at the age of 83, August 2020. You can view his NBC News obituary here

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Disk Exposure Is Key to Lopez Success

By Mo Ostin, General Manager, Reprise Records, also contributed by Billboard columnist, Eliot Tiegel

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Trini Lopez’s simplicity of style and animal kind of excitement are the basics behind his success in the record industry. His Latin background is one key to his universality. It’s definitely part of his singing and also adds to his personality.

Trini is the best example of an artist made successful by records. I don’t think there is anyone whose career has been advanced better on records than Trini. We go right to the very beginning with him when Don Costa called and asked if I was interested in hearing a sensational new singer.

The reason for recording his first album live before an audience was to capture precisely the kind of excitement he was generating at PJ’s.

After we recorded his first album we became so excited that I called Frank Sinatra and told him that Trini could not get national recognition if he was restricted to PJ’s. I asked about getting him booked at either the Sands or Cal -Neva and Frank said if we believed in him we’d give him this support. A booking at Cal -Neva in 1963 was the springboard in breaking him out of the local area.

The second step was his fantastic acceptance in person in Europe. His record of “If I Had A Hammer” was the sensation of Holland (#1 in 38 European countries last year) which prompted an appearance on the television program “Grand Gala De Disc” which opened the doors for European concerts. Despite language barriers, Lopez is probably the number one artist in Holland. Most discotheques in France play his records.

But in little over a year the 27-year -old Dallas singer had broken attendance marks, set the Europeans singing and dancing along with his infectious melodic style and traveled more than 100,000 miles to earn $480,000.

At the Olympia Music Hall in Paris, the Reprise artist reportedly stole the spotlight from the Beatles, earning more encores than the mop-tops. In Berlin 23,000 persons crammed an arena to hear him sing. In Buenos Aires he drew 60,000.

More of the same occurred in Holland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Australia, England, Germany, Monte Carlo, Beirut, Canada and Mexico. In Mexico City he broke the attendance record at the Terrazza Casino and earned $80,000 for two weeks’ work.

Trini’s success in Europe can be directly traced to the single, “If I Had A Hammer,” culled from his debut LP for Reprise. This LP was cut live at PJ’s, a Los Angeles night spot.

A call by Pete Fellerman, Reprise’s licensee in Holland, to Mo Ostin, Reprise general manager in Burbank, Calif., exclaiming that “Hammer” had everyone excited, alerted the record company of a developing enthusiasm for Trini. Fellerman said if Trini could appear on the Eurovision TV show “Grand Gala De Disc,” he felt the record could break wide open all over the European continent.

Lopez did go to Europe after ending a two-year engagement at PJ’s and his appearance on the TV show excited other European bookers.

[Bullets] Durgom (Lopez’s manager) relates it was “thrilling to hear European audiences, many of who couldn’t speak English, singing along with Trini on such singles as ‘Hammer,’ ‘America,’ ‘This Land Is Your Land’ and ‘Kansas City.’ “It reminded me of a revival meeting,” Durgom said. The effect worked and through advance radio exposure, audiences memorized the lyrics and came in person to see the young American with the Latin accent, the infectious rocking beat and the happy voice. Accompanying Trini on his first European tour were David Shriver, bass guitar, and Mickey Jones, on drums, since replaced by Gene Riggio.

Lopez has gone beyond merely being a singer in front of two guitars and drums. At his first Basin St. East appearance in New York last year he added new instruments to the act. He’s continually branching out on records to see if he can go in different directions. END

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Information, credit, and news source: Billboard; May 15, 1965

On August 1, Motor City Radio Flashbacks will showcase Trini Lopez’s live concert performance (including the entire Trini Lopez pre-concert interview) held in Brussels, Belgium on August 26, 1964.

Coming up, Monday! Only on Motor City Radio Flashbacks