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Lopez made his name on the club circuit of the Southwestern United States
before being 'discovered' in 1962 playing at the club PJ's in Hollywood,
California, by record producer Don Costa. Costa was taken with Lopez's
Latinized versions of contemporary hits and signed him up to Frank Sinatra's
record label, Reprise Records. His debut album, Trini Lopez Live at PJ's,
was released in 1963. The album included a version of "If I Had a Hammer",
which reached number one in 36 countries (No. 3 in the United States) and
was a radio favorite for many years. He also performed his own version of
the traditional Mexican song "La Bamba" on the album; his recording of the
tune was later re-issued as a single in 1966.
His popularity led the Gibson Guitar Corporation to ask him in 1964 to
design a guitar for them. He ended up designing two: The Trini Lopez
Standard, a rock and roll model based on the Gibson ES-335 semi-hollow body,
and the Lopez Deluxe, a variation of a Gibson jazz guitar designed by Barney
Kessel. Both of these guitars were in production from 1964 until 1971 and
are now highly sought after amongst collectors.[citation needed] Some owners
of the guitar include Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Noel Gallagher of
Oasis.[citation needed]
He scored 13 chart singles through 1968, including "Lemon Tree" (1965), "I'm
Comin' Home, Cindy" (1966) and "Sally Was a Good Old Girl" (1968). On the
adult contemporary chart, he ranked up 15 hits, including the Top 10 singles
"Michael" (1964), "Gonna Get Along Without Ya' Now" (1967) and "The Bramble
Bush" (1967). Beyond his success on record, he became one of the country's
top nightclub performers of that era, regularly headlining in Las Vegas,
Nevada.
During the 1960s and 1970s Lopez moved into acting, though his film career
was not as successful as his music. His first film role was in Marriage on
the Rocks (1965), in which he made a cameo appearance in a nightclub scene;
Lopez's soundtrack song, "Sinner Man", became a hit single (No. 54 pop/No.
12 adult contemporary). He was one of The Dirty Dozen (1967) and starred in
Antonio (1973). He made two appearances (playing different characters) on
the television program, Adam 12. He 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.
Since then, Lopez has done charitable work and received honors such as being
inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in 2003. He was
still recording and appearing live in the early 2000s. Recently[when?] he
took part in a benefit concert to raise money for the victims of the 2004
Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.
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