Trini Lopez

Singer, actor, entertainer BORN 1937

The young Trini Lopez’s life was changed by a $12 guitar from a Dallas pawnshop. A fan of blues and rock’n’roll, in his late teens he played The Vegas Club, owned by Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassin Jack Ruby. Though rockabilly and instrumental releases and a plan to replace Buddy Holly in The Crickets came to nothing – he also spoke soberly of the anti-Mexican discrimination he experienced – after coming to Frank Sinatra’s attention he signed to Reprise, and hit big in 1963 with his solo debut Trini Lopez At PJ’s and its breezy Latin-folk global smash 45 If I Had A Hammer. He was back in the Top 20 with Lemon Tree in 1965. He continued to record and perform, enjoyed screen credits including the 1967 movie The Dirty Dozen, and designed two guitars for the Gibson corporation (writing in tribute, Dave Grohl said he recorded every Foo Fighters album with his red Trini Lopez model guitar). Active in charity work, his last song, If By Now, was written to benefit food banks during the pandemic. He died after contracting Covid-19.

Ian Harrison