From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1964

Singer Credits Radio Jocks in Turning Selections from LPs Into Singles

NEW YORK – Trini Lopez, the Reprise Records artist, owes a lot to the disk jockey fraternity. Not only have the deejays helped catapult his records into the top-selling brackets, but they’ve also been doubling as a&r advisors for the singer.

Lopez, who is now in New York for a month’s engagement at Basin Street East (beginning June 8), openly admits that the disk jockeys have helped tremendously in deciding which side should be taken out of his Reprise albums for a push in the singles market. “It was the disk jockey action on ‘If I Had A Hammer’,” said Lopez, “that made us take it out of my album, ‘Trini Lopez at P.J.’s’ for a single release.” The result of the action was a 4,000,000 single seller around the world. The album. incidentally, also has racked up global sales around the 4,000.000 mark.

Lopez also mentioned that his culled track from his second album, single round, “Kansas City,” was “More Trini Lopez at P.J.’s” because of disk jockey preference, went on to pull in more than 500,000 sales. Similarly, his current single release, “What Have I Got of My Own” was given the deejay nod from among the songs included in his third LP, “On the Move.”

Although Lopez made his mark in the singles and album fields a little over a year ago, his current stop at Basin Street East marks his first engagement in the East. He said the delay was due to commitments overseas. “A disk performer today,” explained Lopez. “can no longer ignore the international field. His records sell in those markets and therefore it’s to his advantage that he appear there.”

In Europe, Lopez already has played in England, Paris, Rome, London, Holland, Berlin, Belgium and Scotland. He goes hack to Paris in August for a
one-man show at the Olympia Theater. In his previous engagement at the Olympia, during February and March of this year, he co-starred with the Beatles, now on his foreign itinerary in his first tour of South America. This is set for November, with stops scheduled in Brazil, Nicaragua, Peru and Mexico City. Coincidentally with the upcoming South American tour will be the release of his fourth Reprise LP to be titled, “Trini Lopez: The Latin Album.” Don Costa did the arrangements and conducted the orchestra for this package.

Costa also worked with Lopez in preparing the arrangements for his act at Basin Street East. In previous dates, Lopez worked with bass and drums accompaniment only, but for the Basin Street East date he’ll have a 10-piece crew backing him. “The sound will be larger,” said Lopez, “but it will still be like that heard on my records.” END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; June 13, 1964)