Los Lobos (pronounced [los ˈloβos], Spanish for "the Wolves") are an
American rock band from East Los Angeles, California, United States.
Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco,
folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such as
cumbia, boleros and norteños. The band gained international stardom
in 1987, when their cover version of Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba" topped
the charts in the U.S., the UK and several other countries. In 2015,
they were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2018, they were inducted into Austin City Limits Hall of Fame.Los
Lobos (pronounced [los ˈloβos], Spanish for "the Wolves") are an
American rock band from East Los Angeles, California, United States.
Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco,
folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such as
cumbia, boleros and norteños. The band gained international stardom
in 1987, when their cover version of Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba" topped
the charts in the U.S., the UK and several other countries. In 2015,
they were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2018, they were inducted into Austin City Limits Hall of
Fame.Vocalist and guitarist David Hidalgo and drummer Louie Pérez met
at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, California, and bonded
over their mutual affinity for obscure musical acts such as Fairport
Convention, Randy Newman and Ry Cooder. Pérez recalls, "We’re
looking at each other, 'You like this stuff? I thought I was the only
weird one.' So I went over to his house one day for about a year,
which we spent listening to records, playing guitars, and starting to
write songs." The two borrowed reel-to-reel recorders from a friend
and created multitrack recordings of music spanning from parody songs
to free-form jazz. They later enlisted fellow students Frank Gonzalez,
Cesar Rosas and Conrad Lozano to complete the group's lineup, in 1973.
Their first album, Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles, was recorded at
two studios in Hollywood in 1977 over a period of about four months.
At that time, they all had regular jobs, and it was hard to get
together for the sessions. To accommodate that situation, their
producer Louis Torres would call the engineer, Mark Fleisher, who
owned and operated a high-speed tape duplicating studio in Hollywood,
to find a studio when he knew all the band members could get off work
that night. Most of the songs were recorded at a studio on Melrose
Avenue, located next to the Paramount studios at the time, and a
low-priced studio on Sunset Boulevard.The band members were
unsatisfied with playing only American Top 40 songs and began
experimenting with the traditional Mexican music they listened to as
children. This style of music received a positive reaction from
audiences, leading the band to switch genres, performing at hundreds
of weddings and dances between 1974 and 1980. However, Los Lobos took
notice of the popular groups on the Hollywood music scene and added
influences of rock to its sound. Los Lobos Top Movies & Young Movies