La Bamba — Ritchie Valens (1958)

Why this song

You have probably heard it at a wedding, a street party or in an advert, and sung along without thinking about where it came from. Here is the strange part: the boy who made it famous around the world did not speak Spanish. He learned the words by ear, the way you learn a song in a language you do not understand.

Historical context

Nobody we know of wrote La Bamba. It is a son jarocho, the traditional music of southern Veracruz, in Mexico. It mixes Spanish, Indigenous and African roots, and it is played at parties called fandangos.

A fandango has small string instruments like the jarana and the requinto, and sometimes a harp. And it has one instrument you would not expect: a wooden platform, the tarima, where people dance by stamping their feet. The feet make music too.

Photo: B.jars, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In son jarocho the tune stays the same, but the verses are made up on the spot. Every fandango has a different Bamba.

In 1958 Ritchie Valens, a 17-year-old from Los Angeles with a Mexican family, recorded it as rock and roll. The opposite happened to his version: it was fixed forever on a record. It came out as the B-side of another song, Donna. Donna reached number 2 in the US charts and La Bamba only reached 22.

A few months later, on 3 February 1959, Valens died in a small plane crash together with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper. He was 17. People call it "the day the music died".

Photo: Koffermejia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Musical characteristics

Play the song and count out loud: one, two, three, four. That steady beat you feel is the pulse, and here it moves fast.

Now listen to the guitar at the start. Before anyone sings, it plays a short, catchy phrase. Then it repeats it again and again under the voice. A short instrumental phrase that repeats and that you recognise straight away is called a riff.

What holds everything up is three chords: several notes sounding together, like a cushion under the melody. Here they are C, F and G, always in that order, without stopping. C sounds like home. F moves a little away. G pulls back towards home and leaves you wanting C again. That is why the loop never gets boring: every round asks for the next one. That path of chords is called a chord progression. This one uses the first, fourth and fifth degrees, written I – IV – V.

One more thing. In Veracruz this son uses a rhythm that mixes groups of three and two, called sesquiáltera. Valens put it into rock's four-beat bar. The tune is the same, but the step is different.

Facts: C major, 4/4, about 152 BPM, 2:07. Form: guitar intro, verses and chorus sung over the same loop, a guitar solo in the middle, then back to singing.

Trivia and curiosities

• The B-side won. Donna went higher in the charts, but La Bamba is the one in the US Library of Congress National Recording Registry. A chart position does not tell you how long a song will last.

• He sang in a language he did not speak. His aunt taught him the words, and he learned them by their sound. A song can carry a family's culture even when the singer no longer speaks the language.

• Same chords, different song. Twist and Shout, the one the Beatles covered, runs on the same C – F – G loop. What you learn here lets you play both.

• In 1987 it was number 1 again. The band Los Lobos recorded it for a film about Valens' life, also called La Bamba, and it reached number 1 in the US and in the UK. A cover can travel further than the original.

Guided listening

On the official audio linked in Resources (2:07).

• 0:00 — The guitar plays the riff alone. Nobody is singing yet, but the chord loop is already there.
• 0:05 — The voice comes in. The chords do not change: it is the same loop as the intro with the melody on top.
• 1:05 — The voice stops and the guitar plays a solo. Listen underneath: the C – F – G loop carries on while the guitar improvises over it.
• 1:30 — The voice returns. Until the end (2:04) there is not a single new chord. The song stops dead, with no fade-out.

Classroom activities

• Play: C – F – G – F on the ukulele, one chord per bar, and round again. Slowly at first, counting four on each chord. When it works, speed up until you can play along with the recording. The lyrics with chords are in the class session.

• Sing: the chorus is short and comes back a lot. A good place for the whole group to sing while half of them play.

• Analyse: listen to the whole song and put your hand up every time you think the chord changes. Is there any moment with a chord that is not C, F or G?

• Create: make up a new verse together over the same loop, the way they do at fandangos in Veracruz.

Key vocabulary

• Pulse — pulso
• Riff — riff: una frase corta de un instrumento que se repite
• Chord — acorde
• Chord progression — progresión de acordes
• Solo — solo

Resources

Official audio — the original 1958 recording, uploaded by the label.

Ukulele tutorial — Club Ukelele Valencia. In Spanish: the strum and an easy riff.

Ukulele tutorial with C, F and G7 — Bernadette Teaches Music. Just the three chords you need.

Guitar tutorial — JustinGuitar. The opening riff, the chords and the strumming, step by step.

Bass tutorial — Eoin Leonard. Under three minutes.

Drum tutorial — Total Drummer. Earl Palmer's groove on the 1958 record, with the Latin cowbell.

A real fandango — La Bamba in Tlacotalpan (Veracruz), with jaranas and stamping on the tarima. Compare it with Valens' version.

• Cover image — Ritchie Valens in a 1959 promotional photo. Foto: General Artists Corporation, dominio público, vía Wikimedia Commons