Bob Keane

Bob Keane, who founded the West Coast independent label Del-Fi Records in the 1950s and is best known for discovering and recording rock legend Ritchie Valens, has died. He was 87. Keane, who survived non- Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosed when he was 80, died of renal failure Saturday in an assisted living home in Hollywood, said his son, Tom Keane. "He was like the original independent record man in those days," said Tom Keane, a songwriter and record producer. "He was the guy going out and finding talent and developing it and getting it out to the masses."

Bob Keane, who founded the West Coast independent label Del-Fi Records in the 1950s and is best known for discovering and recording rock legend Ritchie Valens, has died. He was 87. Keane, who survived non- Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosed when he was 80, died of renal failure Saturday in an assisted living home in Hollywood, said his son, Tom Keane. "He was like the original independent record man in those days," said Tom Keane, a songwriter and record producer. "He was the guy going out and finding talent and developing it and getting it out to the masses."

I interviewed Ritchie Valens along with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper for my high school newspaper in St. Paul, Minn., at the Prom Ballroom during the last week of January, 1959. Valens was a natural talent who achieved success on record because of the production talents and direction of Bob Keane. Presley had Sam Phillips, Holly connected with Norman Petty and the Beatles' producer, George Martin, defined their sound. Without these men, our golden oldies would have never sounded the same.

A pink hearse will be tooling around Orange County during the next few days. Its mission is not to give some dearly departed an unusually colorful send-off, but to herald the resurrection of an historical body of Southern California rock 'n' roll. The man with the hearse is Bob Keane, president of Del-Fi Records, which has just reissued its 12-album catalogue of 1963-vintage instrumental surf rock music on compact disc.

I heartily endorse changing the name of Paxton Park to Ritchie Valens Park. More important than the fact that Ritchie Valenzuela was a rock star of international proportions is the reality that he was a positive role model, not only for his own generation of Latino youth but also today's generation. I know this personally. I was Ritchie's record producer, and together we worked on releasing his hit recordings including "La Bamba," "Come On Let's Go" and "Donna." He possessed, at age 15, the grit, determination and persistence to make it in the very competitive world of music and recording.

La Bamba or La Bomb -a? You had to wonder beforehand whether Saturday night's "Tribute to the Legend of Ritchie Valens" at Burbank's Starlight Amphitheatre was a legitimate salute to a local hero or a shameless ride on the coattails of a hit movie. After all, the print ads for the show featured the names of Lou Diamond Phillips, the actor who played Valens in the film, and Valens' original record producer Bob Keane in bigger type than that of Valens himself.

A pink hearse will be tooling around Orange County during the next few days. Its mission is not to give some dearly departed an unusually colorful send-off, but to herald the resurrection of an historical body of Southern California rock 'n' roll. The man with the hearse is Bob Keane, president of Del-Fi Records, which has just reissued its 12-album catalogue of 1963-vintage instrumental surf rock music on compact disc.

La Bambamania continues. Record producer Bob Keane--whose Del-Fi Records--first recorded Latino rocker Ritchie Valens is issuing a digital remix of the Valens' best know hit. "La Bamba '87," an extended dance version of the song, digitally sampled Valens' from Del-Fi's original master recordings voice from the original masters and added synthesizers, background instruments and vocals to produce the new record. "It's an entirely new concept," says Keane.

"La Bamba '87." Various Artists. Original Sound. Thanks to the film about East L.A. rock star Ritchie Valens and Los Lobos' hit version of Valens' 1958 hit, 1987 was the year of "La Bamba." But that's no excuse for a travesty like this, in which Bob Keane, who produced the original Valens single, has added horns, drums, singers and other new instrumental backing over the Valens record to create "his vision of how 'La Bamba' would have sounded had Ritchie Valens lived to record it today."

U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) has joined in an effort to nominate Ritchie Valens for the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. The congressman has sent a letter to the nominating committee in New York. Valens, a Pacoima native, was a popular entertainer in the late 1950s with such hit songs as "Donna" and "La Bamba," which was the basis of a 1987 movie of the same name starring Lou Diamond Phillips, with the title song rerecorded by Los Lobos.

I heartily endorse changing the name of Paxton Park to Ritchie Valens Park. More important than the fact that Ritchie Valenzuela was a rock star of international proportions is the reality that he was a positive role model, not only for his own generation of Latino youth but also today's generation. I know this personally. I was Ritchie's record producer, and together we worked on releasing his hit recordings including "La Bamba," "Come On Let's Go" and "Donna." He possessed, at age 15, the grit, determination and persistence to make it in the very competitive world of music and recording.

La Bamba or La Bomb -a? You had to wonder beforehand whether Saturday night's "Tribute to the Legend of Ritchie Valens" at Burbank's Starlight Amphitheatre was a legitimate salute to a local hero or a shameless ride on the coattails of a hit movie. After all, the print ads for the show featured the names of Lou Diamond Phillips, the actor who played Valens in the film, and Valens' original record producer Bob Keane in bigger type than that of Valens himself.

I interviewed Ritchie Valens along with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper for my high school newspaper in St. Paul, Minn., at the Prom Ballroom during the last week of January, 1959. Valens was a natural talent who achieved success on record because of the production talents and direction of Bob Keane. Presley had Sam Phillips, Holly connected with Norman Petty and the Beatles' producer, George Martin, defined their sound. Without these men, our golden oldies would have never sounded the same.

He was only a 17-year-old kid from Pacoima, but Richard Stephen Valenzuela--better known as Ritchie Valens--made a place for himself in American music history. In the last year of his life, Valens performed on "American Bandstand," crisscrossed the country touring and recorded three top 50 songs. In the late 1950s and early '60s, he was the first and most successful performer in a series of Latino rock 'n' roll stars, which included Eddie Quinteros and Cannibal and the Headhunters.