Happy Birthday, Trini Lopez!
As should be quite apparent here by now, The Cartoon Cave is mostly about nostalgia: my personal recollections of a better era of entertainment. Back in the 1960s, Trini Lopez was one of the entertainers that helped define that era for me. Although my Dad was the one who usually had the records spinning on the family hi-fi, once in awhile my Mom would take control of it and play some of her favourites. I guess she may have liked the latin sound, as she liked to play Trini Lopez and also Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Anyway, I grew up enjoying that sound too, and I've since acquired those old LPs that I wouldn't let her toss out a few years ago. Mom's happy with CDs and doesn't share my sentimental value of dusty old records!
Trini Lopez had a fun, joyous sound to his music. Sometimes it was uptempo like his rendition of "If I Had a Hammer" or "Lemon Tree". But he could also sing slower tender ballads as well. He recorded on the Reprise Records label created by Frank Sinatra in the 60s. In addition to his singing career, Trini did a bit of acting here and there, including an appearance as himself performing onstage at a nightclub in the Sinatra film, Marriage on the Rocks.
Anyway, over on the ISCA (International Society of Caricature Artists), they're continuing with a forum celebrating a different notable personality's birthday each day. I wish I could keep up with it more regularly than I do, but I decided to do one of Trini, since the mention of his name conjured up such warm feelings of nostalgia of my childhood years. I sketched his face from an old episode of the cop show, Adam-12, in which he had guest-starred. Then I looked at a video posted on YouTube to see him in concert mode to draw his shirt and jacket.
While perusing YouTube, I also came across this neat clip where Trini Lopez appears in a duet with one of my favourite girl singers, warm and lovely Vikki Carr (who I am determined to draw some time for my blog!) I hope this brings back some happy memories for you readers out there of my generation!
2 comments:
Twenty Years ago, I was a TV producer at Sea World, Trini, Marie Osmond, Waylon Jennings, Willy Tyler & Lester, and Patrick Duffy were all in a huge 2 hour CBS Special. Trini was really great to work with, but he, of all people, was really fighting some demons, and without too many details, I helped him get out of a huge jam, and he was really a grateful guy who has a huge heart of gold!
Pete, as usual, you drew him perfectly!
Thanks for that neat story, Bill! It's interesting to read that line-up of entertainers because, as you know, we'd never see any music/variety special on TV like that anymore. I really miss that era of entertainment!
There was such an inviting and happy sound to Trini's music, and he always came across as such a pleasant guy. For me he will always be one of those iconic figures of the 1960's music scene that I love.
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