Trini Lopez - the Rare Reprise Singles

Trinidad López III was born in Dallas, TX on May 15, 1937 and at the tender age of 15, he formed his first band, The Big Beats. Trini played guitar and his repertoire consisted of Mexican folk songs, rhythm and blues hits and rock ’n roll favorites. The Big Beats played the local clubs in Texas where he met Buddy Holly. Holly referred him to his producer Norman Petty and Petty helped The Big Beats and Trini get their first record deal with Columbia Records. Unfortunately, Petty wanted the band to be an instrumental outfit. Trini was not interested in that style of music and soon left the band. He then did some solo sides for Volk and King Records but by 1962 he was without a label and started playing clubs in Los Angeles.

Living and playing in Los Angeles, Trini developed quite a following. Soon, he established a residency at one club in particular, PJ’s, in West Hollywood. Record man Don Costa who worked for Frank Sinatra’s new label, Reprise Records, brought the boss to one of Trini’s shows one night and soon thereafter, Lopez was signed to Reprise and released his first album, Trini Lopez At PJ’s. The album went as high as #2 on the Billboard album charts and Trini’s live cover of Pete Seeger’s “If I Had A Hammer” soon went gold, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Trini’s career with Reprise was plentiful, releasing 20 albums from 1963–1969 and establishing himself as one of the first Latin crossover acts to the pop charts. But the long player wasn’t the only place one could hear new Trini Lopez music as he released several non-LP A- and B- sides throughout the years.

Omnivore Recordings is proud to announce the release of The Rare Reprise Singles, a 24-track compilation that puts together all of the non-LP tracks that Lopez would record for Reprise Records from 1962–1970. Hear many of these songs for the first time on CD, including the studio version of “A-Me-Ri-Ca,” “The Bramble Bush” (from the MGM Production The Dirty Dozen which Trini starred in) and a cover of Randy Newman’s “Love Story,” produced by Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons.

With liner notes from former Warner Bros. scribe Gene Sculatti, photos and ephemera from Trini’s career with Reprise, this is the ultimate Trini Lopez rarities collection!