Charlena

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Charlena
Cover
The Sevilles
publication November 1960
length 2:22
Genre (s) Rock 'n' roll , Chicano rock
Author (s) Manuel Chavez, Herman Chaney
Publisher (s) Robin Hood Music
Label JC Records

Charlena is a rock 'n' roll - Song composed by Manuel Chavez and Herman "Sonny" Chaney, the first time in 1960 in the version of the Sevilles was published. In this version it reached number 84 on the American Billboard charts. Since then it has been covered many times and is considered a classic of Chicano Rock .

Emergence

Manuel Chavez and Sonny Chaney played in the Chicano and R&B band The Jaguars since 1955 and heard the piece by Robert Rodriguez, who sang his 12-year-old neighbor Sharleena Romero with it. At the Library of Congress, Chavez and Chaney were registered as authors on November 8, 1960. The Jaguars had been trying unsuccessfully to get the title up for grabs for over a year. Only the music producer Cliff Goldsmith recognized the potential of the piece and at the end of 1960 arranged a session in a studio in Hollywood with the vocal group The Sevilles, which he managed, with Chavez on rhythm guitar, Irving Ashby on guitar and Ted Brinson on bass were engaged.

The Sevilles were a black R&B band and, according to American writer and record collector Steve Propes, consisted of lead tenor Johnny White, former Shields singer Charles Wright, Tommy "Buster" Williams, who had previously been with the Turks , for this session and Johnny Morisette, formerly with the Medallions , Sliders and others. According to Marv Goldberg's research, the Sevilles consisted of Ernest Hamilton, James Spencer and Charles Smith, while the fourth singer of the vocal quartet Leroy Hicks was reluctant to record. In retrospect, Chavez insisted that it was a Jaguars song, he accepted Goldsmith's suggestion because he had to start his military service on the same day and was therefore under time pressure to finally be able to record the title.

Musical structure

In terms of the chordal structure, Charlena is a pure 12-bar blues. Manuel Chavez used roughly the groove of his composition Picadilly Rose , in which he wanted to emulate the R&B duo Don & Dewey . Many cover versions of the vocals are presented with several voices. The Sevilles harmonized in three parts on the original version.

Publications

The title appeared under the record number 116 with Loving You (Is My Desire) as the back on the label JC Records , with which the Sevilles had recently signed a contract. The head of the label was producer, songwriter and publisher John Marascalco , who was active in the rock 'n' roll scene in Los Angeles, and who also published the piece for his own music publisher "Robin Hood Music". Contrary to his habit of sub-licensing promising titles to nationally active labels, Marascalco kept Charlena in-house. In Canada Charlena appeared on Zirkon 1037, in Australia on W&G 1161. A re-release came in 1963 on Galaxy Records 721 on the market.

Cover versions

Title labels of the Los Lobos version for jukeboxes

Together with the author Chavez, Marascalco produced a cover version of the Ambertones in 1963 , and later produced and released two other versions on his Ruby-Doo Records label . When the garage rock band The K-Otics Charlena recorded for Sea-Cap Records under the direction of Rick Hall , another author was named Bobby Grant, who is also to be published by Sea-Cap Music. However, it is about the composition of Chavez and Chaney, the information on the record label is misleading and was corrected again on a further release on the label Rick Records under the number 10276.

  • The Cognac's

  • The Ambertones

  • Tommy Dawson

  • Ken Lindsey

  • Richie Knight

  • Savoys

  • Kind of Wheeler

  • The K-Otics

  • The Rubber Band

  • The Trippers

  • The Soul Benefit

  • The Soul Believers

  • Ruben and the Jets

  • Los Lobos

  • Busted flush

Importance, Criticism, and Success

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
The Sevilles
  US 84 01/23/1961 (5 weeks)

The first recording of the Sevilles reached 84th place on the American Billboard pop chart in 1961. 1963 could Richie Knight & The Mid-Knights in the popular charts radio station CHUM from the Canadian claim the top spot Toronto four weeks. The K-Otics managed to stay on the regional charts of radio station WBAM in Montgomery , Alabama for 17 weeks with their hijacked version of Charlena . Through the version of Los Lobos , Charlena found her way onto the soundtrack of the film La Bamba , which deals with the life story and early death of Chicano rock icon Ritchie Valens . In the film, Geoffrey Rivas sings the song as "Rudy Castro and the Silhouettes". The title was released in the Los Lobos version as the B-side of the number one hit La Bamba on single and thus indirectly became a million seller . Author Chavez was delighted with the late takings: "It was like winning the lottery - without having to buy a ticket." Author Greg Haynes documented 2008 in his book The Heeey Baby Days Of Beach Music. Stories and Remembrances of a Southern Music Genre the blues-eyed-soul music scene of the 1960s in the southern states, where the song was very popular and found in the repertoire of many garage bands. The documentary is encompassed by a framework story in which Charlena appears as a young groupie from the song, travels from concert to concert and gradually introduces known and unknown bands from the scene at the time.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Marv Goldberg: The Paramounts & The Sevilles. In: Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebook. Retrieved February 10, 2011 .
  2. ^ A b Steve Propes: JC. In: LA R&B Matrix. Retrieved February 10, 2011 .
  3. ↑ Jim Dawson, Steve Propes: The Jaguars: The Way You Look Tonight . Earth Angel, A Division of Mr R&B Records, 1988 (Liner Notes on LP JD-904).
  4. ^ Brian Lee: The Sevilles Records Label Shots. In: Colorradio. Retrieved February 10, 2011 .
  5. ^ A b Marvin Taylor: K-Otics. In: Southern Garage Bands. Retrieved August 5, 2011 .
  6. ↑ a b The Sevilles. Singles. In: AllMusic. Retrieved February 10, 2011 .
  7. ↑ Barry Stein: Oh Charlena. Retrieved April 6, 2011 .
  8. ↑ Randy Lewis: Jaguars, 'Charlena' reunited. In: LA Times. Los Angeles Times, September 25, 1987, accessed May 15, 2011 .
  9. ^ Greg Haynes ' blog , accessed August 7, 2014.