Album:
Trini Lopez At PJ's
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:51
Size: 82.1 MB
Styles: Pop/Rock
Year: 1963/2013
Art: Front
[3:51] 1. A-Me-Ri-Ca
[2:59] 2. If I Had A Hammer
[2:18] 3. Bye Bye Blackbird
[2:03] 4. Cielito Lindo
[3:51] 5. This Land Is Your Land
[3:12] 6. What'd I Say
[4:37] 7. La Bamba
[3:20] 8. Granada
[6:35] 9. Medley Gotta Travel On Down By The Riverside Marianne When The Saints Go Marching In Volare
[3:02] 10. Unchain My Heart
This was the album that made Lopez explode nationally, reaching number two, staying in the Top 40 LP charts for about a year, and yielding the hit "If I Had a Hammer." All of this seems to have been largely forgotten today, but at the time Lopez was ubiquitous indeed. What he did, at the head of a trio with Mickey Jones (later to play briefly with Bob Dylan) on drums and Dick Brant on bass, was to make folk-pop swing. There is certainly some folk music on here, including "If I Had a Hammer," "This Land Is Your Land," and "Gotta Travel On." It could be surmised that by treating such material in this fashion, Lopez had a tiny influence upon the subsequent folk-rock movement; Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane has said as much. In truth, however, Lopez was more the all-around entertainer with a Latin lilt than he was a folk singer, so you also get "America" (from West Side Story), "La Bamba," Ray Charles' "What'd I Say," "Volare," and "When the Saints Go Marching In." The live party-a-go-go atmosphere did much to put Lopez's likable energy over, and likely influenced the similar live-in-a-small-club ambience on Johnny Rivers' early hits, especially as Jones played with Rivers as well. ~Richie Unterberger
Trini Lopez At PJ's
Album:
More Trini Lopez At PJ's
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 33:02
Size: 75.6 MB
Styles: Pop/Rock
Year: 1963/2005
Art: Front
[3:23] 1. Oh, Lonesome Me
[2:45] 2. Never On Sunday
[2:21] 3. The Gang That Sang Heart Of My Heart
[4:05] 4. Corazon De Melon (Watermelon Heart)
[2:02] 5. Go Into The Mountains
[2:14] 6. If You Wanna Be Happy
[2:32] 7. Walk Right In
[2:26] 8. Lonesome Traveler
[2:38] 9. Green, Green
[2:25] 10. Goody Goody
[2:46] 11. Yeah
[3:19] 12. Kansas City
The success of Trini Lopez's live debut, Trini Lopez at PJ's, ensured that the formula would be repeated with the release of More Trini Lopez at PJ's a few months later. The album was another success, barely missing the Top Ten on the album charts, and giving Lopez a second hit single with his hard-rocking performance of "Kansas City." The album was as varied as the debut, offering Latin-tinged, good-time renditions of folk, country, and rock & roll songs, standards, and even an original composition ("Yeah"). Less folk-oriented than the first album in terms of repertoire but no less entertaining, More Trini Lopez at PJ's rivals Lopez's debut in overall quality despite its more modest chart placement. ~Greg Adams
More Trini Lopez At PJ's