Editing Ritchie Valens (section)

==Career==
[[File:Donna - La Bamba - Billboard ad 1958.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' advertisement, December 15, 1958|left]]
A self-taught musician, Valenzuela was an accomplished singer and guitarist. At his appearances, Valenzuela often improvised new lyrics and added new riffs to popular songs while he was playing.

[[Bob Keane]], the owner and president of small record label [[Del-Fi Records]] in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]], was given a tip in May 1958 by San Fernando High School student Doug Macchia about a young performer from Pacoima by the name of Richard Valenzuela. Kids knew the performer as "the [[Little Richard]] of [[San Fernando, California|San Fernando]]". Swayed by the Little Richard comparison, Keane went to see Valenzuela play a Saturday-morning matinée at a movie theater in San Fernando. Impressed by the performance, he invited Valenzuela to audition at his home in the [[Silver Lake, Los Angeles|Silver Lake]] area of Los Angeles, where he had a small recording studio in his basement. His recording equipment comprised an early stereo recorder (a two-track [[Ampex]] 601-2 portable) and a pair of [[Georg Neumann GmbH|Neumann]] U-47 condenser microphones.
After this first audition, Keane signed Valenzuela to Del-Fi on May 14, 1958. At this point, the musician took the name "Ritchie" because, as Keane said, "There were a bunch of 'Richards' around at that time, and I wanted it to be different." Similarly, Keane recommended shortening his surname to "Valens" from Valenzuela to widen his appeal beyond any obvious ethnic group.<ref>"Valens, Ritchie." Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th ed. Ed. Colin Larkin. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.</ref> Valens was ready to enter the studio with a full band backing him. The musicians included [[René Hall]], [[Carol Kaye]], and [[Earl Palmer]]. The first songs recorded at [[Gold Star Studios]], at a single studio session one afternoon in May 1958, were [["Come On, Let's Go"]], an original, credited to Valens/Kuhn (Keane's real name), and "Framed", a [[Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller|Leiber and Stoller]] tune. Pressed and released within days of the recording session, the record was a success. Valens' next record, a double A-side, had the song "[[Donna (Ritchie Valens song)|Donna]]" (written about a real girlfriend Donna Ludwig<ref>{{cite news|last=McIntosh|first=Barbara|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/09/04/the-reveries-of-valens-donna/dfcd57aa-ab5d-48f2-bea5-06ebf3ab5b29/ | title=The Reveries of Valens' Donna|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=September 4, 1987|access-date=May 30, 2020}}</ref>) coupled with "[[La Bamba (song)|La Bamba]]". It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a [[music recording sales certification|gold disc]] by the [[Recording Industry Association of America]].<ref name="The Book of Golden Discs">{{cite book| first= Joseph| last= Murrells| year= 1978| title= The Book of Golden Discs| edition= 2nd| publisher= Barrie and Jenkins Ltd| location= London| page= [https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/108 108]| isbn= 0-214-20512-6| url-access= registration| url= https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/108}}</ref>

By the autumn of 1958, the demands of Valens's career forced him to drop out of high school. Keane booked appearances at venues across the United States and performances on television programs.[[File:GoJohnnyGoRitchieValens1959.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Valens in 1959]]
=== Concerts and appearances (late 1958–early 1959) ===
On October 6, 1958, Valens made his first appearance on [[Dick Clark]]'s ''[[American Bandstand]]'' singing "Come On, Let's Go". Soon after, Valens traveled to [[Honolulu]], Hawaii, to perform under the banner of the "11th Show of Stars".<ref name=":3" /> On December 10, 1958, after his trip to Honolulu, Valens made an appearance back at Pacoima Junior High School (now [[Pacoima Junior High School|Pacoima Middle School]]). This concert was posthumously released as ''[[Ritchie Valens in Concert at Pacoima Jr. High]]''; it was Valens' only live performance ever recorded. In mid-December 1958, Valens left for [[New York City]]. Keane had managed to book him as a late addition to "[[Alan Freed]]'s Christmas Jubilee Show" where Valens performed with [[The Everly Brothers]], [[Bo Diddley]], [[Chuck Berry]], [[Jackie Wilson]], [[Eddie Cochran]] and others.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Ritchie Valens - The Official Website |url=https://www.ritchievalens.com/ |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=www.ritchievalens.com}}</ref> On December 27, Valens performed "Donna" on ''[[The Dick Clark Show]]''.{{cn|date=March 2024}} He played a few more shows in New York, including his only performance at the famous [[Apollo Theater]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Where Was Ritchie |url=https://www.ritchievalens.com/where-was-ritchie-valens.html |access-date=2023-06-18 |website=www.ritchievalens.com}}</ref> On January 17, 1959, he appeared at [[West Covina High School]] with [[Sam Cooke]] for a student organized fundraiser called "The Teen Canteen Foundation".<ref name=":3" />