This week in Texas music history: Trini Lopez splits a bill with the Beatles

Buddy Holly and Frank Sinatra launched the pop-folk singer toward an appearance with the Fab Four.

By Jason Mellard, Alan Schaefer & Avery Armstrong, The Center for Texas Music History at Texas StateFebruary 3, 2025 1:44 pm, , ,

This Week In Texas Music History is supported by Brane Audio.

From Jan. 16 to Feb. 4, 1964, Dallas singer Trini Lopez and the Beatles shared a residency at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, accompanied by French yé-yé singer Sylvie Vartan.

It’s no surprise that the Dallas-born Lopez would be crossing paths with a new band on the rise. His first big break came after his group the Big Beats got to know fellow Texan Buddy Holly in 1958. Holly helped get them a contract with Columbia Records. The big break fizzled, though, after Holly’s tragic death and Columbia’s desire to oust Lopez as lead singer because he was Mexican American.

Lopez moved to Los Angeles, tried and failed to join the post-Holly version of the Crickets, and took up a residency at the Hollywood hangout PJ’s. One night Frank Sinatra caught his act and got him a new contract on his label Reprise Records.

The resulting 1963 LP, “Trini Lopez at PJ’s,” was a hit. The breakout single “If I Had a Hammer” took the folk and civil rights classic, revved up the tempo, and kicked it off with a Tejano trill. Lopez rode the album’s success to a European tour.

Lopez’s European sets reflected his recent nightclub background, covering standards and hits of the day like Ray Charles’ “What I’d Say,” which he interspersed with Texas-style gritos, and giving the folk-rock treatment to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”

In Paris, Lopez and the Beatles traded off headlining duties. When asked in the Belgian press about the Beatles’ future in America the day before their plane left for New York, he replied that they would make the most of the American tour: “They’re very nice boys,” he said, “and they have great talent.”

Lopez continued to climb the charts, too, with popular singles “I’m Comin’ Home Cindy” and “The Lemon Tree.”

He also appeared in television and film, including as a guest host on the TV variety show “Hullabaloo.” In a notable appearance there, Lopez “unmasked” San Antonio’s Doug Sahm and the Sir Douglas Quintet as fellow Texans, after they had marketed themselves as Englishmen in the Beatlemania mode Lopez knew so well, but that’s a story for another day.

Sources:

Philip Norman. Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation. 2005.

Before teaming up with Sinatra, Trini Lopez began his musical journey in Dallas

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUTX.org. Thanks for donating today.