DON McLEAN ![]()
Sadly the Latin presence in American rock and roll is not at all recognized. Most people only know about Ritchie Valens, who had a couple of hit songs back in the 1950’s, “Donna” (or “Oh Donna”) and “La Bamba” (the title of a 1987 biopic film about him, La Bamba starring Lou Diamond Phillips). Along with the better known Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, Valens died in the 1959 plane crash in Iowa that was immortalized in Don McLean’s haunting “American Pie” as “The Day the Music Died”. (January 2011) |