Ritchie Valens In Concert at Pacoima Jr. High
Encyclopedia
Ritchie Valens In Concert at Pacoima Jr. High was the third and final of the posthumously released "original" albums by Ritchie Valens
. It consists of the only live performance of Valens ever recorded.
On December 10, 1958, Valens, having completed a recent tour of Hawaii, gave a performance at his old Pacoima Jr. High School. The show was emceed by Gail Smith, a close friend of Ritchie's who later became president of the Ritchie Valens Memorial Fan Club in Los Angeles. Valens' guitar and vocals were only accompanied by drummer Don Phillips. The concert was taped using a small portable tape recorder.
After Valens' untimely death on February 3, 1959, numerous Ritchie Valens Fan Clubs were formed all over the nation. By late 1960, with no further records released since the "Ritchie" album a year before, Valens' manager Bob Keane received letters en masse from fan club members who were hoping there were more of Ritchie's songs to be released. Keane responded by obtaining the tape of four songs from the Pacoima Jr. High show and pressing it to record. To fill the "live" side of the album, an early demo of "Come On, Let's Go", bearing no resemblance to the released "hit" version, was added with live audience dubbed in. As Valens' entire Gold Star Studios
master output had been released on his first two albums, Side 2 was filled with unfinished demos recorded at Keane's home studio. Keane provided narrative descriptions of each track.
Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist....
. It consists of the only live performance of Valens ever recorded.
On December 10, 1958, Valens, having completed a recent tour of Hawaii, gave a performance at his old Pacoima Jr. High School. The show was emceed by Gail Smith, a close friend of Ritchie's who later became president of the Ritchie Valens Memorial Fan Club in Los Angeles. Valens' guitar and vocals were only accompanied by drummer Don Phillips. The concert was taped using a small portable tape recorder.
After Valens' untimely death on February 3, 1959, numerous Ritchie Valens Fan Clubs were formed all over the nation. By late 1960, with no further records released since the "Ritchie" album a year before, Valens' manager Bob Keane received letters en masse from fan club members who were hoping there were more of Ritchie's songs to be released. Keane responded by obtaining the tape of four songs from the Pacoima Jr. High show and pressing it to record. To fill the "live" side of the album, an early demo of "Come On, Let's Go", bearing no resemblance to the released "hit" version, was added with live audience dubbed in. As Valens' entire Gold Star Studios
Gold Star Studios
Gold Star Studios was a major independent recording studio located in Los Angeles, California, United States. For more than thirty years, from 1950 to 1984, Gold Star was one of the most influential and successful commercial recording studios in the world....
master output had been released on his first two albums, Side 2 was filled with unfinished demos recorded at Keane's home studio. Keane provided narrative descriptions of each track.
Side 1 (From the Pacoima Jr. High show)
- Introduction by Bob Keane
- "Come On, Let's Go"
- "Donna"
- "Summertime Blues" (J. Capehart & E. Cochran)
- "From Beyond"
- "La Bamba" (Traditional, adapted by R. Valens)
Side 2 (Unfinished demos)
- "Rhythm Song"
- "Guitar Instrumental"
- "Malaguena" (Banks & Lecuona)
- "Rock Little Darling" (R. Valens & R. Kuhn)
- "Let's Rock and Roll"