Trini Lopez The Rare Reprise Singles (CD)

(Omnivore Records) 24 tracks, Digipack

The first collection of rare A and B sides from the Reprise years.

Trinidad López III was born in Dallas, TX on May 15, 1937 and formed his first band, The Big Beats, at the tender age of 15. Trini played guitar and his repertoire consisted of Mexican folk songs, rhythm-and-blues hits and rock and roll favorites. The Big Beats played local clubs in Texas, where he met Buddy Holly. Holly referred him to his producer Norman Petty , and Petty helped The Big Beats and Trini land their first recording contract with Columbia Records. Unfortunately, Petty wanted the band to be an instrumental group. Trini was not interested in this style of music and left the band soon after. He then recorded some solo sides for Volk and King Records, but by 1962 he was without a label and began playing in clubs in Los Angeles.

Living and playing in Los Angeles, Trini developed a large following. Soon he had a permanent spot in one particular club, PJ's in West Hollywood. Record producer Don Costa, who worked for Frank Sinatra's new label, Reprise Records, brought the boss to one of Trini's gigs one night, and shortly thereafter Lopez was signed by Reprise and released his first album, Trini Lopez At PJ's. The album reached #2 on the Billboard album chart, and Trini's live cover of Pete Seeger's If I Had A Hammer soon went gold and reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Trini went on to have a stellar career with Reprise, releasing 20 albums between 1963 and 1969 and establishing herself as one of the first Latin crossover acts on the pop charts. But the long player wasn't the only place to hear new music from Trini Lopez, as he released several A and B sides outside the LP over the years.

Omnivore Recordings is proud to announce the release of The Rare Reprise Singles, a 24-track compilation featuring all of the non-LP tracks Lopez recorded for Reprise Records between 1962 and 1970. Many of these songs are heard for the first time on CD, including the studio version of A-Me-Ri-Ca, The Bramble Bush (from the MGM production The Dirty Dozen, in which Trini starred) and a cover of Randy Newman's Love Story, produced by Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons.

With liner notes by former Warner Bros. scribe Gene Sculatti, photos and ephemera from Trini's career with Reprise, this is the ultimate Trini Lopez rarities collection!

Trini Lopez

Trini Lopez was born Trinidad López III on May 15, 1937 in Dallas, Texas. His father, Trinidad López II, worked as an actor and singer and taught him how to play the guitar while Trini was growing up in poverty with four sisters and a brother. He attended Dallas Elementary School and later N.R. Cro- zier Technical High School which he soon had to quit for work as his family needed financial support. After working as a busker on Dallas’ streets for a time, Lopez formed his own band and started to play clubs in Texas and New Mexico. At a gig in Wichita Falls, Trini met deejay Snuff Garrett, who introduced Trini to Buddy Holly. Through Holly, Trini met Hol- ly’s producer Norman Petty, which resulted only in a jam ses- sion at Petty’s Clovis studio (a dispute between Trini and his band at Petty’s studio resulted in Lopez not waxing any vo- cals; the band adopted the name of The Big Beats and cut several 45s for Columbia).

Trini started to write and perform his own songs, which came to the attention of John F. Sheffield, who was looking for artists he could record on his brand new label Volk Records, which he had established in June of ’58. He found Lopez and his band in a Dallas nightclub. Volk 101, The Right To Rock b/w Just Once More, was issued in August of 1958 and was the first release for both, artist and label. Sheffield worked hard to promote the record, managing to get a pop record review in the September 1, 1958 issue of ‘Billboard’ maga- zine. This attracted the interest of King Records in Cincinnati, Ohio; its owner Syd Nathan offered Lopez a three-year re- cording contract. Trini’s first King release came in January 1959.

Although Lopez made a slew of recordings for King, he didn’t score a hit and left when his contract ran out. Popular music was changing by then, and Trini Lopez started to concentrate on his folk music roots. Lopez signed a con- tract with Reprise Records in early 1963. It didn’t take long for Trini Lopez to sail up the charts with the help of producer Don Costa; his revival of Pete Seeger and Lee Hays’ If I Had A Hammer soared to #3 on ‘Billboard’s’ Hot 100 during the summer of 1963. Lopez placed thirteen Hot 100 hits in ‘Bill- board’ between 1963 and 1968. His LP ‘Trini Lopez at PJ’s’ went all the way to #2 on ‘Billboard’s’ pop album charts and became his best selling album. Lopez’s long stint with Re- prise Records lasted until 1970. Trini Lopez soon wanted a second string to his bow. He started acting in movie and TV roles, and his mentor was singer, actor, and founder of Reprise Records, Frank Sinatra. Lopez...

Marc Mittelacher in August 2020

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