Trinidad Lopez III was an American singer, guitarist, and actor.
24 Facts About Trini Lopez
2.
Trini Lopez designed two guitars for the Gibson Guitar Corporation, which are now collectors' items.
3.
Trini Lopez had four sisters and a brother, Jesse, who is a singer.
4.
Trini Lopez dropped out of high school in his senior year in order to earn money to help support the family.
5.
Trini Lopez formed his first band in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the age of 15.
6.
Trini Lopez left the group and made his first solo recording, his own composition "The Right To Rock", for the Dallas-based Volk Records, and then signed with King Records in 1959, recording more than a dozen singles for that label, none of which charted.
7.
In late 1962, after the King contract expired, Trini Lopez followed up on an offer by producer Snuff Garrett to join the post-Holly Crickets as vocalist.
8.
Trini Lopez landed a steady engagement at the nightclub PJ's, where his audience grew quickly.
9.
Trini Lopez was heard there by Frank Sinatra, who had started his own label, Reprise Records, and who subsequently signed Lopez.
10.
Trini Lopez performed his own version of the traditional Mexican song "La Bamba" on the album; his recording of the tune was later reissued as a single in 1966.
11.
Trini Lopez produced a single promoting the Coca-Cola soft drink Fresca in 1967.
12.
The soundtrack, released as The Trini Lopez Show, has him singing his hits with The Ventures as his backing band.
13.
Trini Lopez continued his musical career with extensive tours of Europe and Latin America during this period; an attempt to break out by releasing a disco album in 1978 proved a flop.
14.
In 2002, Trini Lopez teamed with Art Greenhaw for Legacy: My Texas Roots.
15.
Trini Lopez was still recording and appearing live in the years leading up to his death.
16.
Trini Lopez took part in a benefit concert to raise money for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and appeared as a guest performer in a number of shows held in Maastricht in the Netherlands with the Dutch violinist and composer Andre Rieu.
17.
Trini Lopez continued to record; El Inmortal was released in 2010, and the following year he released his 65th album, Into The Future.
18.
Trini Lopez is featured in the documentary My Name Is Lopez, which premiered in his home town of Palm Springs, winning Best Documentary at the AmDocs Film Festival.
19.
Trini Lopez' popularity led the Gibson Guitar Corporation to ask him in 1964 to design a guitar for them.
20.
Trini Lopez ended up designing two: the Trini Lopez Standard, a rock and roll model based on the Gibson ES-335 semihollow body, and the Lopez Deluxe, a variation of a Gibson jazz guitar designed by Barney Kessel.
21.
Trini Lopez was one of The Dirty Dozen, appeared as himself in The Phynx, and played the title role in Claudio Guzman's Antonio.
22.
Trini Lopez made two appearances on the television program Adam-12.
23.
Trini Lopez died on August 11,2020, at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, California.
24.
Trini Lopez was 83, and developed complications from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in California.