“La Bamba” was a top 40 hit for Ritchie Valens and a #1 hit for Los Lobos in 1987. Their version was featured in the film La Bamba about Valens. The earliest known recording is from 1939.
Los Lobos is my favorite current band. I have seen them seven times and they always put on a great show. I don’t think they want to be identified strictly with “La Bamba” and sometimes they don’t play it. I don’t think they have ever tried just to be popular. They followed up “La Bamba” with an album of folk songs in Spanish which certainly didn’t build on the success of La Bamba. In 1993, I saw them at Hammerjack’s in Baltimore. It was a beautiful old industrial building with exposed brick interior walls that mostly had heavy metal bands. Los Lobos opened with five songs in Spanish which took guts on their part.
Sad! 