var storyKeywords = “US BAMBA”; var RTR_ArticleTitle = “Breakthrough Spanish song still going strong”; var RTR_ArticleBlurb = “By Ayala Ben-Yehuda LOS ANGELES (Billboard) – ”La Bamba” was the first Spanish-language song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and its universal catchiness has led to big business for the hundreds-of-years-old Mexican folk…”; addImpression(“3098077_Article Tools”); var showComments = false; var allowSLCall = false; /** START SITELIFE INTEGRATION **/ if( self == top ) { var re = //article/; var articleExist = top.document.location.href.match(re); if(articleExist != null) { allowSLCall = true; var uniqueArtKey = “USN1242390820080913”; var articleUrl = document.location.href.split(“?”)[0]; var tempTitle = unescape(“Breakthrough+Spanish+song+still+going+strong”); tempTitle = replaceString(“+”, ” “, tempTitle); var articleTitle = tempTitle; var articleSection = “Main_US”; var articleCategories = document.location.href.split(“article/”)[1].split(“/”)[0]; } if(articleExist != null) { var slArtPage = new SLSectionPage(); slArtPage.varName = “slArtPage”; slArtPage.base.varName = “slArtPage”; } } function singlePageView() { document.location.href = ReplaceQueryStringParam(document.location.href, “sp”, “true”); } function replaceString(oldS, newS, fullS) { // Replaces oldS with newS in the string fullS for (var i = 0; i < fullS.length; i++) { if (fullS.substring(i, i + oldS.length) == oldS) { fullS = fullS.substring(0, i) + newS + fullS.substring(i + oldS.length, fullS.length); } } return fullS; }
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By Ayala Ben-Yehuda
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) – “La Bamba” was the first Spanish-language song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and its universal catchiness has led to big business for the hundreds-of-years-old Mexican folk tune.
Singer-songwriter Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba” made it to No. 22 on the chart in 1959 — the year of his untimely death in a plane crash — but it wasn’t until 1987 that the song reached No. 1, in the form of Los Angeles band Los Lobos’ cover of the song from the Valens biopic “La Bamba.”
The soundtrack from the movie shipped more than 2 million copies, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. That success ushered in “La Bamba” covers by everyone from regional Mexican stars Selena and Valentin Elizalde to Wyclef Jean, Jose Feliciano and animation character Dora the Explorer (featuring Los Lonely Boys). Don Ho and Dusty Springfield also have recorded the song; Valens’ copyrighted arrangement has had 1,187 licenses for mechanical and digital use registered with the Harry Fox Agency (HFA) since it was added to the agency’s system in 1973.
“There’s so few songs that have over a thousand licenses,” HFA Latin licensing agent Eduardo Morales said. “It’s basically things like Christmas songs, ‘La Bamba’ and ‘Happy Birthday.'”
The song’s popularity has remained strong, with publisher EMI Longitud issuing licenses for everything from karaoke machines to fitness videos, children’s musical toys and “American Idol: World’s Worst Auditions.”
A recent license for “La Bamba” went to Sega for its rhythmic videogame “Samba de Amigo,” which is being released for the Wii after previous incarnations in arcades and on Dreamcast.
Reuters/Billboard