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They had a hit in with Meaux in 1965’s “She’s About a Mover” before heading west to mine psychedelic San Francisco and then coming back home to Texas to fly the flag of their Tex-Mex influences. The band’s name may have been concocted as British Invasion bait, but its accent was all San Antonio. Freddy, this is for you, wherever you are…” so begins the 1971 cover of “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” by Sir Douglas Quintet. “This song was written by the great Freddy Fender. He still looked plenty Mexican, however, when he was rousted in Baton Rouge with two joints in his pocket, which sent him to the Louisiana State Penitentiary and, before such a time when that bust would have given him street cred, ended his career in the music business. The song was a regional hit, and to aid Imperial Records’ forthcoming national push, Fender shaved his sideburns in an effort to look less Mexican. The jangly ballad is driven by a more insistent rhythm than most tear-jerkers, the quicker tempo requiring more hip action even from couples slow dancing with leave-room-for-Jesus distance between them. The gringos took real notice in 1959 with Fender’s self-penned “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights,” a glorious mix of his Tejano rockabilly and the more R&B-inflected swamp pop billowing west of New Orleans. In 1958, he legally changed his name to Freddy Fender: Fender after the guitar, and Freddy because the alliteration sounded good and would “sell better to the gringos.” As El Bepop Kid, his Spanish language covers of songs like Elvis’ “Don’t Be Cruel” (“No Seas Cruel”) were the first rock ‘n’ roll songs to top the charts in Mexico and South America. A 10 year-old Baldemar made his radio debut singing a conjunto hit of the time, “Paloma Querida.” Even though his sensitive, darting vocal style was perfect for conjunto’s love ballads, by the time he was back from his shortened stint in the Marines, he was known as Eddie con los Shades and playing rockabilly in bars and honky tonks. Conjunto is the traditional music of Tejanos, a border amalgamation of ranchero music and Czech and German polkas. The small city is a 45 minute drive down the coast to Matamoros, Mexico and has a small museum marking its place as the birthplace of conjunto. He was born Baldemar Huerta in 1937 in the poor neighborhood of El Jardin in San Benito, TX. Fender sang the the first verse of the ballad in English and the second in Spanish, then some overdubs for the chorus, and that was it: “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,“ the Country Music Association's Song of the Year for 1975 and a bilingual #1 pop hit. Drinking his way out of the Marines, the two and a half years in Louisiana's Angola prison for marijuana possession, smoking three packs a day - his fluttering high tenor was untouched by it all. Fender was in his late 30s, working as a mechanic and playing weekend club gigs now that he was no longer barred from working at businesses that sold alcohol by the conditions of his parole. Meaux convinced him to sing over an instrumental cut by an anonymous Nashville band. He never liked country music, and it was only after a number of other ideas, including a Jamaican reggae song sung in Spanish, plainly didn’t work that producer Huey P. The session took just a few minutes, and Freddy Fender was glad when it was over. He took Fender from the guitar and amplifier, and Freddy because the alliteration sounded good to him and it would,”.sell better with Gringos!” He then headed for California.You try to be strong but the pain keeps holdin' on In 1958, the musician changed his name from Baldemar Huerta to Freddy Fender. He became known for his rockabilly music and his cool persona as Eddie Con Los Shades. In 1957, then known as El Bebop Kid, he released two songs to moderate success in Mexico and South America: Spanish-language versions of Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” and Harry Belafonte’s “Jamaica Farewell.” He also recorded his own Spanish version of Hank Williams’s “Cold Cold Heart” under the title “Tu Frio Corazon”. He returned to Texas and played nightclubs, bars and honky-tonks throughout the south, mostly to Latino audiences. However, he was court-martialed in August 1956 and was discharged with rank of Private. In January 1954, at the age of 16, Fender quit school and started a three-year hitch in the United States Marine Corps. He is best known for his 1975 hits “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and the subsequent remake of his own “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”.īy age 10, had his first radio appearance on Harlingen’s KGBS-AM radio station, where he sang a current hit “Paloma Querida”, on KGBT in Harlingen, Texas. Freddy Fender, born Baldemar Garza Huerta in San Benito, Texas, United States, was an American Tejano, country and rock and roll musician, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados.
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