All language subtitles for My.Name.Is.Lopez.2021.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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[NBC jingle]

- [Announcer] The
following program

is brought to you
in living color.

- The gentleman,
you're about to meet

is a north of the border talent

with a south of the border name.

Legend has it that he was
found singing under a sombrero

on a Mexican highway,

but the truth of
the matter is that

he was a well-established
star of Texas nightclubs

before he became a
top recording artist.

He's living proof

that what pleases Beaumont
also pleases Broadway

and what sells in San Antonio
also sells in San Francisco.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Trini Lopez.

[audience applauding]

♪ I like to be in America

♪ Okay by me in America

♪ Everything's free in America

♪ For a small fee in America

[instrumental music]

♪ I like to be in America

♪ Okay by me in America

♪ Everything's free in America

♪ For a small fee in America

[instrumental music]
[audience clapping in rhythm]

♪ Automobile in America

♪ Chromium steel in America

♪ Wire spoke wheel in America

♪ Very big deal in America

♪ I like the City of San Juan

♪ I know a boat that
you can get on ♪

♪ Everyone there
will give big cheer ♪

I put my own spin into that song

and it's one of my biggest
songs, in the world.

♪ I like to be in America

♪ Okay by me in America

♪ Everything's free in America

♪ For a small fee in America

I like to be in America.

Everything's free in America.

Ah, yeah, it's great.

[audience applauding]

- Please welcome to
the stage, Trini Lopez.

Legendary Trini Lopez.
[audience applauding]

[instrumental music]

[audience applauding
and cheering]

All right, Trini.

- [Audience] Trini!
Trini! Trini!

- [Announcer] Now
ladies and gentlemen,

the star of our show,

internationally famous,
Mister Trini Lopez.

[audience applauding]

- Trini Lopez.

- Trini Lopez.

- You're famous, right?

Trini Lopez.

[instrumental music]

- Trini Lopez.

- Trini Lopez.

- Trini Lopez.

- [Announcer] Ladies and
gentlemen, Trini Lopez.

[instrumental music]

♪ Never know how
much I love you ♪

♪ Never know how much I care

♪ When you put your
arms around me ♪

♪ I get a fever
that's hard to bear ♪

♪ You give me fever

- Trini's back.

- A lot of people
would say Trini.

[audience applauding]

- Hey, are you Trini
Lopez, the famous singer?

- Shh, not so loud.

- Great Trini Lopez.

- It's Trini like in Trinidad.

♪ In the morning, fever
all through the night ♪

♪ Fever, I'm on fire

♪ What a lovely way to burn

- I met Trini Lopez on a
show called "Hullabaloo,"

and became friends.

You know, that was
a period of time

when we were all
rooting for each other

and wanting you to win.

- [Announcer] And now this
week's host on "Hullabaloo,"

picking up where he
left off nine weeks ago,

Mister Trini Lopez.

[audience applauding]

[instrumental music]

- That Trini Lopez
guitar sounds good.

- You know, we're
both guitar players

and we started talking
about gear and hats

and you know, the old days.

So we thought, let's
just get him up here

amongst his friends, here in
Palm Springs where he lives.

Let's just do it
right in his backyard,

and rock it out and
see what happens.

[instrumental music]

- He has been singing
with us on and off now

for maybe four years.

I think Palm Springs
has a magic to it.

You can't explain it,

but when people come
here, they feel it.

- But a lot of
what's happening now

is also recalling what happened

in the heyday of
the 50s and 60s,

makes this perfect convergence,
this energy that's here.

- You know, we all grew
up on "Live at PJ's,"

so fast forward the years,

and we thought, well, you know,

we really need to show people
that Trini is still the man.

♪ Captain Smith and Pocahontas

♪ Had a very mad affair

- Trini is probably one
of the most exciting

young performers today.

- Oh, he was cute as a button.

Yeah, he was a handsome kid.

- Definitely, he
drives the girls wild,

everywhere he goes.

- I told him, you could not
stand in front of your God

and promise to be
true to any woman.

And he said, you're
probably right.

He liked women.

♪ And I light up

- [TV host] You're still
a bachelor, how come?

- [Man] He's not married.

[all laugh]

- I was Trini Lopez' personal
assistant, private secretary,

confidant, companion, and
soulmate for 25 years.

- Like a lot of people
from my generation,

I discovered him through
thrift store records.

You pull it out and you're like,

oh, you know, who's this,

the name sounds exotic.

Oh, look at all
these songs he does,

I know these songs.

Put on that record,

after a few minutes you're like,

I think I actually like this
version of this song, you know?

- Tony Orlando, the
singer, he came up to me

and I was at a big
organization called Nosotros

'cause I was getting
of this big, big honor.

He said, Mister Lopez, he says.

- I owe great thank
you to you Trini,

because you really
were the trailblazer

for this half Puerto Rican,

half Greek kid
from New York City.

- He says, if it wasn't for you,

none of us would
be here tonight.

And you know who was there?

All the biggest Latins, actors,
actresses, singers, dancers,

and I said, wow, you know.

[audience applauding]

- He was with every celebrity.

You can ask him
about any celebrity,

he's got stories, good and
bad, about all of them.

- Every time I did the
"Johnny Carson Show,"

in front of the camera,

he was, you know, he
was very, very pleasant.

He was very friendly.

At this particular time,

I brought him a jar of jalapenos

and he started turning red.

[audience laughing]
Blue.

Yellow.

And he couldn't talk.

[audience laughing]

- Ah!

- So ever since then,

I never did the "Johnny
Carson Show" anymore.

[audience laughing
and applauding]

- You're the best.

- The young Texas
star from Dallas,

Trini Lopez and his 15
man combo [indistinct].

[audience cheering
and applauding]

♪ Winds may blow
o'er the icy sea ♪

♪ But I'll take with
me, the warmth of thee ♪

♪ A taste of honey

♪ A taste much
sweeter than wine ♪

♪ I will return

♪ I'll return

Princess Grace in Monte
Carlo, she was my biggest fan.

She would invite me to parties.

Here's Prince Rainier.

And I was sitting there,

she always sat me next
to her all the time.

And I liked her so much because

not because she was so beautiful

and not because
she was so famous,

but because she was
so down to earth.

It'd be like talking
to just anyone.

Grace would go,
Trini let's dance,

and I was nervous as hell.

I said, Oh no, thank you.

She said, Trini, come on.

And she would take my hand

and drag me out to
the dance floor,

and the minute we
started dancing,

everybody would stop.

And just me and her dancing
in front of 100 people.

Hi everybody, I'm Trini Lopez,

and I'm here to tell you
about something really new,

different too.

- What I remember the most

was some of the TV shows that
he did like "Hootenanny."

- For the past three years,

Trini Lopez has become as
much of a Los Angeles landmark

as I guess the Hollywood Bowl.

- Ladies and gentlemen,
the Everly Brothers.

[audience cheering]

- All right, brother
Trini, lets go.

[guitar music]

♪ Wake up little Susie

♪ Wake up

- [TV Host] Miss Gilgallen.

- Do you also play a
musical instrument?

- Yes.

- [TV host] Trini
Lopez and Bill Shatner

meet Joe Campanella and Lorne
Greene on "Celebrity Tennis."

- [TV host] From Hollywood,
Trini Lopez and Sue Anne Langdon

meet Lee Ann Meriwether and Max
Baer on "Celebrity Bowling."

- I had one TV show, "The
Trini Lopez Show" for ABC.

♪ Trying to keep
the night on fire ♪

[audience clapping]

So why not get yours now.

Are we going to lose the boat

or do you really have the money?

- Yes and no.
[audience laughing]

- What do you mean?

- Yes, we're gonna lose the boat

because no, I don't
have the money.

[audience laughing]

You're from a different
part of the South.

[audience laughing]

- My name is Trinidad Lopez.

[audience cheering]

And everybody calls
me Trini for short,

isn't that exciting?

But in a way I was kind of lucky
to have been named Trinidad

because my father and mother
went on their honeymoon

to the island of Trinidad,
in the Caribbean.

[audience laughing]

So if you think my name
is a little strange,

you should meet the
rest of my family.

[audience laughing]

[Trini laughing]

I have a sister named
Long Island Lopez,

[audience laughing]

and I have a brother
named El Paso Lopez.

But in a way,

in a way I was kind of lucky
to have been named Trinidad

because my parents were thinking
of spending their honeymoon

on the Virgin Islands.

[audience laughing]

My dad came from a
very, very poor family,

so did my mother.

My father was a singer, a
musician, an actor and a dancer.

And he was very popular
in Moroleon, Guanajuato.

That's the name of the
town that he was raised,

my mother too.

My father kept coming in
through the Rio Grande River,

from Mexico to Texas, to
make money to survive.

And of course, all of this
was illegal by the way,

all illegal.

After two or three
trips that he made,

he married my mother.

She was 16, my dad was 18,

and all of us, my siblings,

we were all born
and raised in Texas,

and because of my dad
wanting to better his life.

And that point is really
important right now.

- [Trump] We're gonna build
the wall, we have no choice.

[laughing]

- [Trini] In my family,
I have four sisters,

my brother and myself.

- So to name 'em,
I'll go in line.

So it was Grace, my
mom was the oldest,

next in line was my Aunt Lucy,

then there was my Aunt Elia,

next in line was Trini,

next in line was my Aunt Rosita,

and the last was his
brother, Jessie Lopez.

- A priest told my father

that he should bring
his family to Dallas

so we could survive, you know?

It was all about survival.

Bigger town, bigger city.

There wasn't much
to it believe me,

but it was a very rough
area, I remember that.

It was a black and
Mexican ghetto.

They called it Little
Mexico, uh-huh,

and it was a tough place.

I remember our house
was about 50 feet

from the corner of a cantina.

And I used to smell
the beer all the time

because the cantina
was real close.

And there was
Mexicans and blacks,

and they were always
fighting, killing each other,

and just to give you an example,

there was a man who was
known in the neighborhood

for being a wino.

And he was in the back
of my home in an alley,

and some of the guys that
I used to run around with,

they bashed his head in and
killed him for like $3, $4.

That's how tough this
neighborhood was.

My dad, he noticed that
I was running around

and getting in
trouble with the gang.

He said to me,

"I want you to be home when
I come home from work,"

and I didn't listen to him.

And on the third time,

he took his belt off

and gave me a real good
whipping, I mean really.

And he hurt me, but he
didn't hurt me physically.

He hurt me spiritually.

So the next day,

my father wanted to
make up for hitting me.

So he went to a pawn shop

and he bought a guitar,

a beat-up old guitar
that he couldn't afford.

And I heard later that it cost
him $12 to buy that guitar.

He said, "Son," he said,
"Look, what I got for you."

Guitar.

He said, yeah.

I said, "For me," he
said, "Yes for you.

"I want you to learn some songs

"like I used to when
I was your age."

I want you to learn something
constructive, I remember that.

He said, "I want you to learn
something constructive."

He taught me my first
like eight, 10 songs,

Mexican folk songs,

and he taught me a
little bit of the guitar.

These songs are all almost
standards in Mexico.

When my father was
young, Cielito Lindo,

[singing in Spanish]

El Rancho Grande,
songs like that.

[Tito performing Alla
en Rancho Grande]

[audience cheering]

And for sure, "La Bamba,"

he taught me that song

before anybody else ever
recorded it in America.

I used to sing that
song all the time.

I don't mind telling
you that years later,

I was listening to the radio

and I heard "La
Bamba" on the radio.

Who's that singing?

Who beat me to it,

'cause I wanted to
record that song one day,

and it was a guy
named Ritchie Valens.

La Bamba, but I made
it a worldwide hit

more than Ritchie Valens.

Mine, worldwide because
people liked my style I guess,

you know,

that's all I can say.

[singing in Spanish]

[upbeat music]
[singing in Spanish]

Let me hear you again.

[audience cheering]

And I fell in love with music

[fingers snapping]

like that.

[dramatic music]

[train engine roaring]

- [Announcer] This is
the morning prison train

out of Southern
California into Mexico.

It makes this run
every day about dawn.

It's cargo, Mexican wetbacks,

who have sneaked
across the border

and are being deported.

- In my day, growing up,
I must tell you this,

America was very prejudiced.

They were very prejudice about
black people and Latinos.

Very, very, we were treated
the same as a black person

when I was growing up.

We couldn't stay at a motel.

We had to sleep on the,

on the highway,
me and my parents.

Oh yeah, it was terrible.

We had to sit in the back
of the bus with the blacks.

Yeah.

[somber music]

We used to go up north, my
family to Indiana and to Ohio,

and sometimes part of Michigan,

to pick tomatoes,
potatoes, beets,

and we used to work
real hard, real hard.

And we used to go in
one of those trucks,

like in the movie,
"Grapes of Wrath."

My life story was similar
to that, with the family

in a canvas covered truck.

And it was pretty tough.

And so we used to work
like 16 hours a day,

and so in the evening

I would take my little
guitar that my dad bought me,

and I would go to the back
of a shack where we lived,

and I would climb a fence post,

and I started singing my songs.

And I was all by myself.

After dinner, like around six,

six, seven o'clock
before, in the summertime,

before it got dark.

And all of a sudden
a cow showed up,

[cow mooing]
one cow.

And so I just kept
on singing, you know?

Next thing you know,
about 10 minutes later,

another cow showed up,
and then another one,

and then another one.

And before I
finished my concert,

[Trini laughing]

I had about 20 cows
in front of me.

And I didn't understand,

but they were just like,

like they were
their big eyes here.

I had them mesmerized.

I said to myself, you know,

if I can get the
attention of cows,

maybe the people would like me.

And that's exactly
what happened,

but they were my
first audience, cows.

Everybody.

Huh, right here.

It's my first little combo.

It was called the
Copacabana Combo.

[Trini laughing]

We were all kids, you know?

Yes, I was a lead
guitarist, a singer,

and then I graduated
to high school.

- And he said it
was kind of rough

knowing my friends were maybe
two years ahead of me by then,

some of them three years

because he was held
back every year,

because they got back late
from working in the fields.

- I was enjoying high
school very much.

I was beginning to get
real popular in school.

I was voted most
likely to succeed,

'cause I was already
playing a lot in nightclubs

and I was singing in school.

I was a star of the assemblies

and my band played for all
the proms and all that.

So I was becoming
popular that way,

so there was also the
beginning of me thinking

maybe I have a
calling, you know?

[upbeat music]

- Now, if we're ready for
our rock and roll specialist,

we have Buddy Holly
and The Crickets.

- [Trini] Before the
accident, I met Buddy Holly.

He came to a little
town in Texas

where I was working
with my little group.

♪ If you knew Peggy Sue, then
you know why I feel blue ♪

- [Trini] And a friend
of mine was a disk jockey

in a little town called
Wichita Falls, Texas.

Buddy was promoting his,
one of his big songs.

He said, let's go
hear a friend of mine

who's appearing at
a little nightclub,

and Buddy really liked me.

He liked my music
and my singing.

- He's the first one that
looked him straight in the eye

and didn't look down
on him as a Mexican.

He looked at him
as an entertainer.

There was no prejudice,

and Trini really
wasn't used to that.

He got looked down
on all the time.

- And he said, I'd like for
you to meet my record producer.

He said, if you can get
to Clovis, New Mexico,

I'll introduce you to him

and maybe we can get
you a record deal.

And I said, oh God, you know,

and that's where
Buddy used to record,

in a little recording studio.

It wasn't a big deal.

That night, he had
a party for us.

He had a party the
night I arrived,

and I sang like
three, four songs.

♪ Well I saw a little girl

♪ Walking down the street

♪ I said that's a girl

♪ I would like to meet

♪ I walked over to her

♪ Looking my best

♪ Introduced myself

♪ She did the rest

♪ Rock on, yay yay yay

♪ Rock on

And that night before
the night was over,

his record producer, he says,

Maybe we can do
something with this guy.

Unfortunately, my guys, I
guess were prejudice too

because my guys in my band
were all Anglo musicians.

Anglo, meaning they
were not Latinos.

I was the only
Latino in the band.

- They wanted to take
him out of the light

'cause Trini Lopez
and his combo,

you don't want that,

take that Lopez name out.

And they were all Anglo,

and their boss was a Mexican

and they didn't like that.

The producer there
didn't like it,

they didn't like it,

and he encouraged
them to do this.

- And so the next morning,

they woke me up in my
little $2 a night motel

where I was staying

and they were around my bed,

and said, wake up,
wake up, wake up.

And I was half asleep
and I looked at them

and I said, "Did somebody die?"

He said, "No, no, no,
we gotta talk to you."

I said, "What about at eight
in the morning, you know?"

And they said, "Well,
we have decided,

"we have decided we're
all gonna go commune

"and share everything,
the money, everything.

"You're not gonna be
the manager anymore.

"You're not gonna
be the lead singer."

I was the lead singer
and I was their manager.

We started recording
the next day,

but they didn't let me sing.

- [Audience] No.

- And I was the, I was the,

they didn't know how to sing.

I knew that, you know?

They said, well, we're
all gonna sing, okay.

I didn't like it at
all, I was so upset.

So we recorded about three days.

All we did was instrumentals.

[audience laughing]

Instrumentals.

[instrumental music]

And during those three,
four days and nights,

I cried myself to sleep.

Oh yeah, it was terrible.

It was, it was
conspiracy, you know?

Yeah, and the last guy just,

I said goodbye to was a
bass player, that was Earl.

I said, Earl, I won't
be seeing you anymore

so good luck to you.

He says, what are
you talking about?

I said, well, I said, I gonna
have to get another band.

And they said, Trini,

we got a great deal
with Columbia Records.

He said, yeah, you guys do.

Not me.

- So I said goodbye to him

and I started another group.

My father had asked me,

would I mind not
finishing high school?

And I was getting ready to
go on to my senior year,

and I said, "Oh," I said,

"dad, you need for
me to help you?"

He says, "Yes,
yes, I really do."

I said, "Okay, sure."

So I quit after my junior year,

and I went to work full time.

I did, I used to do
all kinds of jobs.

I was a busboy, I
was a dish washer.

I had a paper route.

And I sang at
night in nightclubs

and anywhere I could sing
that I could make some money,

I did that to help my dad.

- The people today do not
realize what he went through

because he was a
Mexican and proud of it.

- With that in mind,

my first recording I experienced

was when I was about 19 and so,

I was doing a show someplace,

or an opening of a grocery store

and this man came up to me,

he said, "I'd like
to talk to you

about recording, you know."

My eyes were like this.

He said, "I have a record
company here in Dallas

and it's called Volk records."

V, V like in Victor, V-O-L-K.

He said, "I'd like to talk to
you about maybe recording you,

you're real good.

The only problem is we
need to change your name."

And I said, "Change my name?"

I said to what?

He said, well, he
said, "Trini's okay,

but Lopez has gotta go."

And see the prejudice.

And I realized it right
away what he was saying.

I said, oh sir.

I said, "no, I can't do that."

I said, "I can't do
that, I'm sorry."

And I stood up and I
said, I shook his hand,

I says, "thank you
anyway, thank you."

And I started to walk away,

and right before
I got to the door,

he said, "hey kid, hey kid,

come back here, come back
here, come back here.

Okay, okay, you can
keep your name."

I said.

[Trini laughs]

So we recorded my first song,

and I wrote it,
I wrote the song.

It was a song that I
called "The Right To Rock,"

and rock and roll was just
beginning to get started.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Executives of King Records

which was a pretty big
company in those days,

heard my song and
they called me.

They wanted to fly
me to Cincinnati,

which I did for two summers

when I was off from school

and they would fly me
to Cincinnati to record.

♪ The right to roll

♪ Right to rock and
the right to roll ♪

♪ Rock, rock, rock and roll

And let me tell you
who was in King Records

at that time,

these people were all
just getting started.

James Brown.

[Trini laughing]

Little Willy John who recorded
the first version of "Fever."

♪ You never know how
much I love you ♪

♪ Never know how much I care

And Bill Doggett, he was a
real popular instrumentalist,

played the piano, it was great.

He did a big record
called Honky Tonk

that was a big record, but
only in the black market.

They weren't played on
popular radio stations.

And they would back
me up, you know,

the Midnighters and
Clyde McPhatter.

These people were
just up and coming

in the black field of music.

So then I sang a song that
was a number one record.

My first record in Dallas

was a song called "Don't
Let Your Sweet Love Die."

And I heard it
for the first time

when I was in my station wagon,

and I pulled over to
the side of the street

and I just listened to it,

and I wanted to hear
my name on the radio.

♪ Don't take away the
smiles and leave the tears ♪

♪ Don't say goodbye, don't
let your sweet love die ♪

- [Radio Host] That's
lovely right there

and right here on K-box.

♪ K-B-O-X

♪ Wonderful in every
way in Dallas ♪

- And that was the beginning
of my first recordings

before Sinatra and everything.

So within three, four weeks,

unfortunately, my friend
Buddy Holly gets killed,

the three of them.

Everybody knows the story.

- [News Anchor] We
interrupt this program

for a special news bulletin.

Three young singers who soared

to the heights of show business

on the current
rock and roll craze

were killed today in the
crash of a light plane,

in an Iowa snow flurry.

The singers were identified
as Ritchie Valens, 17,

Buddy Holly, 22,
and JP Richardson,

known professionally
as The Big Bopper.

- I'm working at a
nightclub in Lubbock, Texas,

and that's where Buddy
was born and raised.

So the phone rang and it
was during an intermission

and it was my friend,
the disk jockey,

that introduced me to Buddy
Holly in the first place,

and he said, "Trini," he says,

"this is Tommy, Tommy Garrett."

He says, "I'm in
Hollywood with a group.

You're not gonna
believe who I'm with."

He said, "The Crickets,
Buddy Holly's Crickets.

We're gonna send you the money

and you fly out to meet us,

and they got a home in Hollywood

and we're gonna go on the road.

They want you to be
their lead singer."

And I couldn't believe it,

I said, "Tommy, send me
the money and I'll drive.

I'll drive to Hollywood."

[upbeat music]

♪ Hear you have a
plan to go to west ♪

♪ Do as I do, take the highway

♪ That's the best

♪ Get your kicks on route 66

- All of a sudden leaving
Dallas to go to California,

to Hollywood, to Los Angeles,

and I will never forget
as he was departing,

my mother and his sisters
and his father all crying,

crying, because all I
remember him saying was,

I've done everything here
in Dallas I possibly could.

I think that I've peaked,
it's time for me to move on

to the big city, to the
big state of California.

[upbeat music]

- I always wanted to go to
Hollywood since I was a kid.

Took me three days to get
to Hollywood from Dallas.

So I remember driving the
Sunset Strip in my little woody,

my little red station wagon,

name all in white, Trini
Lopez and his Combo,

on both sides of the woody.

I was driving through
to get to the house

where The Crickets were staying.

I had $200 in my pocket,

so I get there and Texan
musicians love to drink.

And I wasn't drinking
anything in those days.

So, but they invited
me, and said Trini,

we're gonna go see Elvis.

He's making his first
movie after the,

he came out of the
service, GI Blues.

♪ I've got those hup,
two, three, four ♪

♪ Occupation GI Blues

♪ From my GI hair to the
heels of my GI shoes ♪

- Wow, you know, so we
went to Paramount Studios,

we went to the set,

and he was wearing his GI outfit

and he was just great, oh great.

And then after that,

I got to know him.

After that, he got to
invite me to Las Vegas

to do, to see his
shows, you know,

he invited me to his home here.

Two doors from here.

[Trini laughing]

And The Crickets wanted me
to take over Buddy's place,

but it never materialized,

because we're partying
and having a great time

and the guys were
drinking like crazy.

They had women all
over the place.

I enjoyed that, that I enjoyed.

But I ran out of my money

and I was waiting
for them to rehearse

and to get on the road
'cause I promised my family,

as soon as I started working,

I was gonna send 'em
money every week.

But now, I'm broke,

and they had an agent,
a guy named Danny,

and I said, "Danny, I said, is
it possible for me to maybe,

maybe you can get
me a gig somewhere

so I can make some money.

I don't wanna borrow
money from the guys."

I was embarrassed.

And he was kind of a
Hollywood type guy,

you know?
[fingers snapping]

And I didn't think he
was gonna do anything.

Well, about two days later,

there's an audition
in Beverly Hills.

I'd never been to Beverly Hills

and man was I impressed.

Wow, you know, palm
trees all over the place.

It was great, mountains
and everything.

1960, this was February,
I'll never forget.

We went into this
beautiful little nightclub.

It was called the Ye,
the Ye Little Club.

How little was it?

Very little.
[audience laughing]

- Isn't that where Joan
Rivers started out?

- Uh-huh, oh yeah.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

This place was already
doing pretty good.

So I started singing a song,

and I looked at him and I
thought he didn't like me.

I didn't think he liked me.

He says, "okay, okay,
okay, you open tonight."

I said, "well, I said
I'm with a group."

He said, "no, no, I don't
want you with a group,

just you and your guitar
with a spotlight, you know."

[Trini singing in
foreign language]

By me getting a
very nice following

for a whole year
in Beverly Hills,

I had all these young stars
that really liked me a lot.

I started hearing about a
place in Hollywood called PJ's,

and man that's where the
higher echelon movie stars

and big name singers,

they were all going
to this place.

Sinatra, everybody, everybody
was going to this place.

Steve McQueen,

Paul Newman,

Natalie Wood,

Elizabeth Taylor,
all these people,

and I said to myself,
I gotta work there,

'cause I wanted to see
Frank Sinatra in person.

I just wanted to see
him in person one day

and I would've been happy
the rest of my life.

And so, you know,

I didn't have to
audition by that time

'cause I was getting a
pretty good following.

They said, we'll hire
you for three months.

My luck, when you
walked into PJ's,

the bar was long, one of
those long, long bars.

And then everybody sat
on the bar, of course,

and they had some booths,

and they had an Afro
jazz group, four pieces,

and they were in this room.

Me, they put me in
a room in the back

which seated, like
about 300 people,

with just me and my guitar.

I opened and it was great.

And I stayed a year and a
half, instead of three months.

And during that time I kept
seeing Frank Sinatra come in,

and he had a hat similar
to this one like this.

He would always come in

with like 10, 15
people, you know,

big table and all that.

And I would just look at him.

I never got any closer
than 15, 20 feet from him,

but I used to just stare at him

and look at his clothes
and his beautiful jacket.

That's all, but I was happy
that I saw him in person.

I've only had one idol in my
whole life, Frank Sinatra,

since I was a kid and I
had my dreams come true.

Frank Sinatra sent one of
his biggest record producers,

a guy named Don Costa.

He recorded and produced
Frank Sinatra's big hits.

[orchestral music]

Johnny Mathis and
Steve and Eydie Gorme

and all these big stars,
you know, these big singers.

So he came up to me

and he talked to me during
my intermission and he says,

"Trini, I'm here on behalf
of Reprise Records."

And I said, "Frank
Sinatra's label?"

He said, "yeah,
how do you know?"

Because at that
time, Frank Sinatra,

wasn't selling that many
records on his label.

Sammy Davis,
Junior, Dean Martin,

they weren't
selling any records,

but they were all
on Reprise Records.

I said, "Oh, I know the
label, you kidding."

He says, "I'm here
on behalf of Frank

and he would like to offer you

a six-year recording contract."

[Trini laughing]

"And by the way, we'd like
to record you here at PJ's."

"May I ask why?

Why aren't we going to
the recording studio

like everybody else?"

He said because he, this
was very interesting.

He said, "because
we want to record

everything on the excitement

that you are creating
in this nightclub,

we wanna put it on wax."

Okay, the whole thing?

[indistinct]

Okay, all of it?

- Live records are just the best

energy conduits for an artist.

If you think about the
great live albums, you know,

starting with Trini at PJ's.

[instrumental music]

When you think about
"The Allman Brothers

Live at the Fillmore,"

and you think about
Peter Frampton live,

there's just
something that happens

when you're in front
of a live audience.

There's no net, there's
no trampoline to catch you

and you just gotta go for it.

[Trini Lopez performing
What'd I Say at PJ's]

♪ Tell me what'd I say

♪ Tell me what'd I say

Within three months at the most,

not only was my record a
big, big hit in America,

but internationally because

Reprise was a pretty good
label because of Sinatra.

Before I knew it, I was
known all over the world.

♪ Tell me what'd I say

♪ Tell me what'd I say

♪ Hey mama, don't
you treat me wrong ♪

♪ Come and love me
all night long ♪

♪ Baby what'd I say

♪ Tell me what'd I say

♪ When you see me in misery

♪ Come on baby, sit on my knee

♪ Baby what'd I say

♪ Tell me what'd I say

♪ Baby what'd I say

♪ Tell me what'd I say

That happened because of my,

my first album that I
recorded in America,

which was at PJ's,
"Trini Lopez at PJ's."

And out of the album
came "If I Had a Hammer,"

which broke very fast in America

and then all over the world.

And that's why in
such a short time,

I have been traveling
so fast everywhere now.

[fans clapping and humming]

- At first he didn't wanna
sing "If I Had a Hammer,"

and I couldn't understand it

because he said that
he sung it to death.

So I thought about what
could we do to make it

so that he really would
love to sing it again?

And I was listening
to the words,

the words are so inspiring,

and I thought, this is
really a song with a message.

It's really a gospel song,

it could be a gospel song.

[organ music]

So sat down at my
1960 Hammond B3 organ,

[organ music]

I revved up the Leslie,

[organ music]

I said, listen to this,

and I played it.

And then I said, and then we
say one, two,, three, four,

we start launching into
it and you start singing.

And I just stopped
and looked at him

and he goes, I'll do it.

[organ music]

[audience applauding
and cheering]

[instrumental music]

♪ If I had a hammer

♪ I'd hammer in the morning

♪ I'd hammer in the evening

- The dynamic performer
of Mexican descent,

who's hit songs lyrically
spelled out a desire

for social and economic change,

ladies and gentlemen,
Trini Lopez.

[audience applauding]

- [Joan] Love between my
brothers and my sisters

all over this land.

You know, we still
haven't gotten there yet.

- Everybody!

Well, I connected it
with my life, yes.

I do that a lot in
some different songs,

"This Land is Your Land,"
you know, like that,

another big hit for me.

I can't help it, you know,

you just hear the songs

and you think of your life,

it helps, it enhances, missing
in a song, recording a song

because I feel that
it's part of my life.

Yes, to answer
your question, yes.

If I Had a Hammer is a
very, it has a message,

a very good message to
everyone in the world.

And that's one of the
main purposes for the song

being such a big hit, I think.

It's a great lyric.

- [Interviewer] Talking
about If I Had a Hammer,

did you wrote that song?

- No, I wish I had.

That song was written
by two people,

gentlemen named Hays
and Pete Seeger.

And I wish I had written it,
I would have much more money.

[Trini laughing]

♪ If I had a hammer

♪ I'd hammer in the morning

♪ I'd hammer in the evening

♪ All over this land

- I did know that those
songs were important,

I did know that in my heart.

- And now

a group of singers

who have come

to help express

in song

what this great
meeting is all about.

I give you now

Peter, Paul and Mary.

[crowd cheering]

♪ If I had a hammer

♪ I'd hammer in the morning

♪ I'd hammer in the evening

♪ All over this land

- At that time, folk
music was real in,

folk music, real popular.

And I just happened to
like "If I Had a Hammer,"

I just happened to
like "Lemon Tree,"

I just happened to like
"Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore,"

but when I started
hitting real big PJ's

because I took my Latin
feel, my Latin heritage,

and I put it into
the folk music.

And so I get credit for
starting Latin rock.

- It was originally,

♪ If I Had a Hammer

♪ I'd hammer in the morning

♪ I'd hammer in the evening

Trini,

[Tony imitating Trini's rhythm]

♪ If I had a hammer

Now, he added some rhythm,
Latin rhythm to it,

and a fusion happened.

[guitar music]

- People, a lot of
people have told me

that they like my beat,

because they can
also dance to it.

With Peter, Paula and Mary,

there was more or
less listening,

but with my version,
it's got a beat to it,

and they like to dance to it.

♪ If I had a hammer

♪ I'd hammer in the morning

♪ I'd hammer in the evening

♪ All over this land

♪ I'd hammer out danger

♪ I'd hammer out a warning

♪ I'd hammer out love between

♪ My brothers and
my sisters, ah-ah ♪

♪ All over this land

Everybody!

And then by the grace of
God, I put my own style,

my own version of that song.

And I made 'em bigger.

"If I Had a Hammer,"
for example,

was much, much bigger than
Peter, Paul and Mary worldwide.

- [Interviewer] How
many times in your life

you sang that song?

- Oh my God.

I think maybe millions,
millions of times.

Many, many times,
all over the world.

Would you like to sing it Vikki?

♪ Si si si senor

♪ Sing sing sing

♪ If I had a hammer

- What would you do?

♪ I'd hammer in the morning

- Huh?

♪ I'd hammer in the evening

♪ All over this land

♪ I'd hammer out justice

♪ I'd hammer out warning

♪ I'd hammer out love between

♪ My brothers and
my sisters, ah-ah ♪

♪ All over this land

[instrumental music]

♪ If I had a song

♪ I'd sing it in the morning

♪ Make you know that I could
sing it in the evening ♪

♪ All over this land

♪ I'd sing out danger

♪ I'd sing out a warning

♪ I'd sing about
the love between ♪

♪ My brothers and
my sisters ah-ah ♪

♪ All over this land

Everybody!

[instrumental music]

♪ I've got a hammer

♪ Man, I've got that bell

♪ And I've got a song to sing

♪ All over this world

♪ It's the hammer of justice

♪ It's the bell of freedom

♪ It's the song about
the love between ♪

♪ My brothers and my sisters

♪ All over this land

♪ Everybody now

♪ I wanna hear you sing it

♪ Sing it

Thank you!

I'll be very honest with you,

I didn't think, I didn't
think that any of my songs

would be hits,
that's for starters.

That's where it started,
I have to be honest.

I was ecstatic, you know,

I couldn't believe it was
like a dream, you know?

And then thank God, thank God,

I kept recording hit
albums and hit singles,

and that helped a lot.

[audience applauding]

♪ I was just a lad of ten

♪ My father said to me

♪ Come here and take a lesson
from the lovely lemon tree ♪

♪ Don't put your faith
in love, my boy ♪

♪ My father said to me

♪ I fear you'll find
that love is like ♪

♪ The lovely lemon tree

♪ Lemon tree, very pretty and
the lemon flower is sweet ♪

♪ But the fruit of the poor
lemon is impossible to eat ♪

♪ Lemon tree, very pretty and
the lemon flower is sweet ♪

♪ But the fruit of the poor
lemon is impossible to eat ♪

♪ Beneath that lemon tree one
day my love and I did lie ♪

♪ A boy so sweet
that when he smiled ♪

♪ The stars rose in the sky

♪ One day he left
without a word ♪

♪ He took away the sun

♪ And in the dark
he left behind ♪

♪ I knew what he had done

- He was doing something
that was so different

than anything else that
was being done at the time.

So why are you gonna
put it in a box?

♪ Lemon tree, very pretty and
the lemon flower is sweet ♪

♪ But the fruit of the poor
lemon is impossible to eat ♪

♪ Lemon tree, very pretty and
the lemon flower is sweet ♪

♪ But the fruit of the poor
lemon is impossible to eat ♪

[audience applauding]

♪ Lemon pledge, very pretty

♪ Put the shine
down well and good ♪

♪ Lemon pledge, anti-dusting

♪ Brings new luster
to the wood ♪

- [Advertiser] New
from Johnson Wax.

- The moment Trini hit,
he hit with a power

that was not too unlike the
power of the Beatles, really.

[instrumental music]

- Now, did you perform
with the Beatles?

- We performed
almost like together.

One of the first places that I
got booked outside of America

was in Paris.

They had a beautiful,
beautiful theater

called the Olympia,
right on Champs-EÉlysées.

We were booked for four weeks.

Two shows a night, three
on Saturday, matinee.

Just me and my trio, and
they only had four people,

and we packed that theater man,

like four or 5,000
people per seating.

And all the young people, you
know, were coming to see us.

♪ If there's
anything I could do ♪

♪ Green Green

♪ I'm going away to where
the grass is greener still ♪

The newspapers, the
first three, four days,

on one of the biggest
papers in Paris,

big letters, headlines
on the front page,

Bravo Trini Lopez,
who are the Beatles?

[audience laughing]

I heard about a week
before we finished

that The Beatles were
gonna go to America

for the first time.

They weren't known in America,

but they started getting
going with Europe

and then they went to America.

I went from America
to Europe, you know.

- Elvis, Louie
Armstrong, Eartha Kitt,

Josephine Baker, Trini Lopez,

artists who frequently loved
leaving the United States

to go to any part of
Europe or Asia to perform,

because they were
truly accepted,

not only for their music,

but as people, as a human being.

- Well, they're going to
New York for the first time.

I think it's-

- [Interviewer] Tomorrow.

- Tomorrow, is it?

Yeah, right.

So they have, they have had
great success here in Europe,

and I hope they'll
have success in America

because they're very nice boys.

They're very, very nice
human beings, you know,

and they got great talent.

And the reason they
wanted to know my opinion

was because when I
worked with the Beatles

for a whole month,

they were getting
two encores a night.

I was getting seven.

And so they wanted my opinion.

Well, in my dressing room,
it's a historical theater,

so the walls were very thin,

but the wall was right here.

And I'm here with
all the photographers

and the cameras and all that.

And they said, do
you think the Beatles

will be a success when
they come to New York?

And I said, well, I
gotta tell you the truth,

I had to whisper
because they were right,

I could hear everything
they used to say

in their dressing room,

I'm sure they used to hear me.

I said, I don't think so.

[audience laughing]

They said really, really?

In America, there is a group

that I like much better than
them called The Beach Boys.

[audience applauding
and laughing]

- Yeah, Trini was
a big influence

on a lot of the other
groups of the day.

Marty Balin from the
Jefferson Airplane

was looking for a way
to take folk music

and go electric with it,

and he heard what
Trini was doing

and said that that's what gave
him the idea to go electric.

♪ Don't you need
somebody to love ♪

[instrumental music]

- Bob Dylan, he really liked
my albums that I did at PJ's.

Big magazine asked Bob Dylan,

by the way, who's
your favorite singer?

He said Trini Lopez.

And so he liked me so much
that he stole my drummer.

[Trini laughing]

He was with him for a long time.

I think because of me,

he started getting into
the electric guitar

with his music,
with his material,

and especially with my
drummer, you know, that helped.

- Who were you listening
to back in the day?

Who were some of
your influences?

- That's very easy because

I used to listen to Frank
Sinatra all the time.

I loved his, not only his voice,

but I liked his style and
his phrasing, oh, it's great.

And of course, all the songs
he picked were unbelievable.

And so he was my first idol.

- [Hostess] Wow.

- Listening to him on the radio

and buying records
whenever I had the money,

little did I know
that three years later

he was going to discover me

at a nightclub in
Hollywood called PJ's.

I've always been very timid

and very bashful
about life and so on.

He really intimidated
me, you know.

When you have an idol, since
you were a kid, you know,

it's kind of different.

And after the album came out
and it was a big success,

this guy comes up to me and
he says, I wanna manage you.

Durgom Bullets, Durgom.

I said, Bullets, I
couldn't believe the name.

So now we sign up

and he woke me up
one morning, he says,

"you gotta get ready, I wanna
take you to meet Frank."

And I said, "Frank who?"

He said, "Frank Sinatra."

He says, "He's making a movie

and he would like to
meet you after lunch."

And I met him for the first
time about six months ago

while he was doing a movie
called "4 For Texas."

And now Reprise is connected
with Warner Brothers,

which he is also connected
with, Warner Brothers Pictures.

And now we're getting
closer to the set,

and I'm seeing horses

and I'm seeing stage
coaches and all this stuff.

There were about 30 people

around with these cameras
and the whole bit,

and about 20 of 'em
are around one guy.

Oh, right away, I looked
and it was Frank Sinatra

in the middle of
all these people.

All of a sudden Frank
Sinatra did a double take

and he saw one of his best
friends, Bullets Durgom,

and me walking
closer to the group,

and he left everybody.

He left everybody talking

and he came over with his
hand extended like this

and he shook my hand.

He said, "Trini Lopez,
you're a great talent."

That's the first thing he
said, I'll never forget.

And boy, he got me a chair
and he says sit down,

whatever you want,
you want a drink.

And I am very happy because
I admire him so much

and I am also happy because
I am working for him now.

He became one of
my best friends.

He used to cook for
me in Palm Springs.

His mother used to cook
for me, big parties.

He was like my dad.

- Palm Springs, by the way,

how long have you been
living in Palm Springs?

- 1932.

[audience laughing]

Can you believe that?

My manager, Bullets Durgom, had
a house in Vista Las Palmas.

He says, "You have
a weekend off,

would you like to come
and spend the weekend

with me and my wife?"

And then Sinatra invited us

to a big party at his
house in Rancho Mirage.

And that was the beginning

of my coming to
Palm Springs, 1964.

And then I bought
this house in 1966.

And I've been here ever since.

- Like Trini said,
in my own yard,

if they didn't know who I was,

they wouldn't even speak to me

'cause I would be the gardener.

We all know this
country is prejudiced.

They try, some of 'em try not
to be, but they have to try.

- Bob Hope, I went to
his house many times.

Kim Novak lived about two
blocks from my house here.

Kirk Douglas, he lives
about four blocks from here.

Jack Benny, Elvis,
Peter Lawford.

He lived down the street for me.

Oh, this one here,

this is interesting picture

because we were asked
to take some pictures

because Dean had
sold over a million

albums, one of his albums,

and I had sold over a million

on one of my albums,

Sinatra was not
selling that much.

And look at his face.

[Trini laughing]

He didn't like it too much.

But I did of course do things
with Sinatra in the Rat Pack.

I was part of the Rat Pack.

Yeah.

[upbeat jazz music]

We did a big show
with the Rat Pack.

Everybody, Ella
Fitzgerald, everybody.

- I'd like to thank the NAACP
for this wonderful trophy.

- Put me down!

[audience laughing]

- Delightful young man
and a fine performer,

would you welcome please,
Mister Trini Lopez.

[audience applauding]

- We got an amigo friend
of mine coming up,

and I love his work,

and he thinks I'm all right too,

but he's a beauty.

He's made a tremendous hit in
the past two or three years,

drums and guitars,
sings beautifully,

Mister Trini Lopez.

[audience applauding]

[instrumental music]

- He became friends
with the Rat Pack

and who loved him,

it was Sinatra, Sammy, Dean,

he became one of them.

- Mister Sinatra, he always
had me call him Mister Sinatra.

I never called him Frank, never.

I knew him for 36 years,

he never said Trini,
call me Frank, will you?

He demanded respect like
you wouldn't believe.

- Yeah, welcome gentlemen.

- Say, is there any
soup in the menu?

- Yeah, but we wiped it off.

[audience laughing]

- I kind of took over Sammy's
place with Frank Sinatra

in his Rat Pack because
Sammy was his number one boy,

and a little later after I
did two or three more shows,

then everybody was saying
that I was Sinatra's boy.

And that's a big compliment.

- Hey, you can't do
that to my leader.

- Here's your leader.

- Sinatra was very,
very particular.

Very much so.

And I was so lucky,

I was so lucky that he liked me,

that he liked my
talent and so on.

So Sammy was a little jealous.

They say that there
was a falling out.

They say that he,

I don't know what the
falling out was about,

but I do know that there
was something that happened

because Sinatra wasn't too,

he wasn't too, what's the word,

sympathetic when Sammy died.

- [Interviewer] You
are only 25, 25?

- 26.

- [Interviewer] 26.
[Trini laughing]

- [Interviewer] And you have a-

- I wish it was 25.

- [Interviewer] And you have a
great future in front of you.

Which are your musical
and other plans?

- Well, I would like to
continue recording of course

and nightclubs, and I would
like someday make a movie.

- [Interviewer] Make a movie?
- Yes.

- [Interviewer]
With Frank Sinatra.

- Of course. [laughing]

Frank Sinatra put me in my
first movie at Warner Brothers

with Frank Sinatra,
Deborah Kerr, Dean Martin,

'Marriage On The Rocks,"

and he wanted me to do a cameo.

It was great, it was
a great experience.

And I sang a song that I wrote.

One, two, one, two, three, four.

[instrumental music]
[audience clapping]

♪ There was a sinner man,
who laughed and ran away ♪

♪ He had a different girl,
for every single day ♪

I had to be there at
six in the morning.

I was half asleep.

Sinatra got me a dressing room
right next to Deborah Kerr,

and Frank Sinatra
and Dean Martin.

Can you believe it?

I was real nervous
and I was half asleep

getting makeup on and all that,

and there was a
knock on the door,

I opened the door
and I looked down

and was this beautiful
lady, gorgeous blonde

in a cocktail dress 'cause we
were doing a nightclub scene

and I looked at her and I
recognized her right away.

And I said, hello?

She said, hello, Mister Lopez,

like this real nice.

And she said, "I'm
Deborah Kerr."

I said, "I know, I
know who you are."

And she said, "I just
came over to tell you

how proud all of
us are to have you

on the set with us today."

Wow.

You know.

She had already done
"The King and I,"

and all these big movies.

It was great.

Let me hear everybody now.

Here we go.

Everybody.

[audience applauding
and cheering]

- He became the guy who
had the big hit records,

crossover hit records,

that opened the doors
for guys like me.

Not only was he number
one on the charts,

but he crossed over to Vegas.

Ah, that was a whole
other opening door.

But in that time, you
didn't see a lot of Lopez.

You didn't see a lot of
Garcias on stages in Las Vegas.

For you to break Las Vegas,

you had to be a
special entertainer.

You couldn't walk into this town

just because you
had a hit record.

That's a whole other
acceptance now.

That means you're accepted
as an entertainer.

[instrumental music]

- He has that amazing
talent where he can walk on

and just electrify an audience

in a matter of
couple of minutes.

[instrumental music]

♪ You gotta know how to
pony like Bony Maroni ♪

♪ Put your hands on your hips,
let your back-bone slip ♪

♪ Do the Jerk, watch me work

♪ Or the Watusi,
like my sister Lucy ♪

Would you repeat it
to me, everybody.

I wanna hear everybody now.

One more time everybody.

One more time everybody.

- When Trini first started,

Bullets Durgom was booking
him all over Europe

to sell out audiences.

The booking agents in this
country didn't believe him.

They said, there's no way
a Mexican can do that.

And so Bullets and Frank
Sinatra talked the Flamingo

to book Trini Lopez
and Bill Cosby.

And oh my, agents
and everybody said,

can you believe they're booking
a black man and a Mexican?

Who's gonna go see them?

Well, after one night
it was sold out,

and never again was
that a question.

♪ Hey, Little girl,
I tell you true ♪

♪ I'm as mean as a cobra
through and through ♪

♪ Don't care to be
called what I ain't ♪

♪ I confess I'm a
sinner, not a saint ♪

♪ Hey, hey, hey, little girl

♪ Don't you mess
around with me ♪

♪ Cause I'm just a
sinner, not a saint ♪

- By the way, Hugh,

I would like to tell
you how happy I am

and how grateful I am that
you had your beautiful plane

pick me at the
airport in Las Vegas,

and your beautiful bunnies and
everything it's just great.

- He kept his Latin side
upfront and personal.

- [Trini] I am also in the
restaurant business, you know.

- No kidding?

- Yeah, and I'm very
proud of this venture

because my restaurants
are so authentic,

you can't even drink
the water there.

[audience laughing]

Yeah, you know.

- He was able to be
self-deprecating in his humor,

which opened the door for
my buddy Freddy Prinze.

- Right, I got light
skin, straight hair,

that's from my father.

From my Puerto Rican mother,

I got my nose and my mustache.

[audience laughing]

- Because that comedy
came after Trini Lopez.

- Listening to the show
earlier when Linda said that

you have to watch everything
you eat, you know?

- [Linda] Yeah.

- Well, it's a little different
with me because you know,

with the kind of hot
Mexican food that I eat,

it's always eat and run.

[audience laughing]

No, it's true.

Also, we feature things
like tacos and enchiladas,

tamales, and so on.

- Good American meals.

- We're doing so great, my
manager wants to franchise me.

- Trini Lopez, franchise.

I think that'd be
a little difficult

because there's
really only one Trini.

[instrumental music]

- [TV Host] You better explain
to the audience that beard,

because you look a little poor.

[Trini laughing]

It's for a "Dirty
Dozen," isn't it?

- It's for "The
Dirty Dozen" and we-

- [TV Host] Your first movie?

- My first picture.

- [TV Host] Wow.

- And we have to grow a beard

to sort of look dirty, you know?

- [TV Host] Yeah.

- And so I started growing
up for about five days.

- [TV Host] Which number
are you, if there's 12?

- I don't know what number I am.

- [TV Host] You're
dirty five, dirty six?

- Nobody's ever asked me that.

- [TV Host] Yeah.

- I'm just one of 'em,
that's all I know.

- [TV Host] What's it about?

[lion roaring]

- [Announcer] "The Dirty Dozen."

[guns firing]

[explosion]

[dramatic orchestral music]

- All the guys were great.

Lee Marvin, Telly
Savalas, Charles Bronson.

[guns firing]

John Cassavetes, yeah.

I used to play football
with him between takes.

Jim Brown, he was my roommate.

- I knew his music,

I knew he was a pretty
popular artist at the time.

♪ As sure as you are born

♪ The bramble bush will stick
you with it's prickly thorn ♪

♪ And the pretty girl
is like a bramble bush ♪

♪ Yes, a pretty girl will
thrill you very much ♪

- Trini was like more
popular than any of us.

That's why I knew
he was important

because he was a singer that
was known all over the world.

And the people responded to
him more than Lee Marvin.

He was a star in a certain way

that none of us could approach.

- The director, Robert Aldrich,

I was doing the only big scene,

in my appearance in
"The Dirty Dozen,"

I had to climb this rope.

I looked down and I didn't
see a safety thing, you know?

No couches, no
mattresses, no nothing.

And it was a pretty high.

- Jimenez, you come
back down that rope,

you're going straight
back to prison.

- I can't, I can't.

Really, I can't.

- Sergeant gimme that weapon.

- But Robert Aldrich was
a tough guy, you know.

He says, "come on,
you can do it."

I said, "all right."

My adrenaline was up, you know,

and so thank God I
held onto that rope.

If I had let go.

[gun firing]

- Whoa, look at him go now.

- Gracias a dios.

- So you couldn't make it, huh?

- I think I could have
maybe broken my neck.

[Trini laughing]

My contract was
for three months.

So now I'm in England and we're
shooting all over England,

and now it's seven months later,

and the movie is not
even half completed

because of the bloody
weather in England.

So Sinatra at that
time, married Mia Farrow

and then the next day
they flew to London,

and that night he
invited me to dinner.

Just me and him and
my manager and Mia.

He says, "By the way,

I understand your movie is
running really late, my movie."

And I said, yeah.

I said, "how did you know?"

He said, "I know."

He knew everything.

Sinatra knew everything.

[Trini laughing]

And he said, well, he said,

"I think you should
leave the movie."

And I said, "excuse me."

He said, "I think you
should leave the movie."

And I said, "may I ask you why?"

He said, because, he
said it just like this,

"Because your career right now,

you're as hot as a firecracker.

And if you don't go back to
your fans and back to touring,

they'll forget about you."

And I said, "oh, okay."

There was a parachute
jump for all of us

to parachute towards
the German enemy lines.

As I was coming down
in the parachute,

I broke my neck on a lemon tree.

[Trini laughing]

I'm kidding.

[Trini laughing]

- I remember the lines
almost said, where's Jimenez?

I think Lee Marvin and
someone said, where's Jimenez?

He's back there,
they broke his neck

or something to that effect.

- Where the hell have you
been, we're six minutes late.

- We've been
looking for Jimenez.

- And?

- We found him hung
up in an apple tree.

- His neck's broken.

- So they got rid of
him by killing him,

and then he could leave.

- He got three attorneys
to get me off the movie.

- [Soldier 1] You
mean he's dead?

- [Soldier 2] That's
exactly what I mean.

- [Trini] Charles Bronson,
he came up to me and he said,

Trini, man, is this, you
ought to think about this.

This is gonna be a
big movie, Trini.

- Trini came to the
screening that night,

even though he was done.

And he looked at the picture

and he said, oh shit,

Mister Aldrich, I
would like to come back

and play this and
finish the role.

And Bob Aldrich said, you're
hanging in a tree, Trini,

you're outta here.

- And so I had a big part
at the end of the movie,

a hero's part,

but I didn't get a
chance to complete it,

but that's okay.

- Trini was recording
usually four albums a year.

Sinatra was losing money.

That's why he wanted him off.

- Yeah, I enjoyed it.

I had a good time.

Now the movie comes
out, it's a big hit.

[rock and roll guitar music]

And I'm in Beverly Hills
getting into my car.

Jack Palance was
waiting for his car,

and he came up to me.

I never met him before.

Big, tall guy, he says,

"You shouldn't have
done The Dirty Dozen,"

with a big voice.

And I looked at him,
I said, "why is that?"

He said, because I
was supposed to have

the part of Telly Savalas

but I didn't like
being prejudiced

against Jim Brown
'cause he was black.

Yeah.

- Sir.

Do we have to eat
with [beeping]?

- He said, I turned
that movie down

'cause I didn't wanna
do that to Jim Brown.

I said, well, I can
understand that, you know.

Yeah.

And I had a big,
Dirty Dozen party

at my penthouse
in Beverly Hills.

I used to invite five,
six hundred people.

Lee Marvin was there,

and so the toughest
guy in The Dirty Dozen,

Charles Branson and
his wife, Jill Ireland,

and he looked at me
one particular time
during the party,

he said, "Trini, why haven't
you done any more acting?"

I said, "Oh Charles,
I said, oh God."

I said, "I wish, I
wish I could have."

He said, "Well, why didn't you?"

- Trini idolized Sinatra and
Sinatra told him to do that,

he did it.

But I think if he had stayed,

he could have been
in more movies.

- You know, when you're making
a movie, you don't leave.

[Jim laughing]

That's one of the laws
of being an actor,

and so I retired on the
set of "The Dirty Dozen."

Called a press conference
and announced my retirement.

- "I know that everybody
wants to be in the movies."

I said that to
Charles, and it's true,

everybody wants to
be in the movies.

And I said, it's tough.

It's tough for me to, because
I'm a singer and so on.

I was at a real popular
nightclub in Hollywood

called The Factory.

Bullets and I went,

and Bullets was about three,
four feet from me and he went.

And this guy turns around
and it was Steve McQueen.

And he was already the hottest
thing in the world, you know.

I said, "Steve,
how you doing man?"

He didn't say hello.

He said, "Trini saw
you in The Dirty Dozen,

and you were great."

And I said, "Steve, I
didn't do anything."

He said, "Yeah, but
what you did was great."

BB King was doing a show
at the Caesars Palace.

I used to listen to his music
when I was a kid like crazy.

So we got a real nice booth,

and then he stopped in the
middle of his performance.

He said, "Everybody, I like
for you to please join me

in a big round of applause
for a very great actor."

And I went like this,
I said, "I wonder who."

"Join me in a big
round of applause for
Mister Trini Lopez."

[audience applauding]

- [TV Host] So are you planning
any straight dramatic roles?

- Yes, I am.

I have three particular
pictures they want me for,

and I'm hoping that they will be

the kind of picture
that I wanna do.

I have been turning down a
lot of different scripts,

you know, the
bikini beach things,

which I don't like at all.

- [TV Host] Is that
hard to find, you know,

pretty good scripts
in films today?

- [Trini] That's the
secret of the whole thing.

It's like finding a good,
the material for a good song.

- He turned down
Warner Brothers,

he turned down United,

he turned out Universal Studios,

and he got out of
The Dirty Dozen.

I think that was
part of the reason

he didn't get offered
a lot of movies,

because he, you
know, bottom line,

they couldn't depend on him.

- People don't realize that he
was selected in those movies.

- Buenos dias, Major.

- Not just by chance.

- This here's your weapon.

And we begin with fingering,
your basic D seven chord.

- Go back to charisma,
which is a God given thing.

- What's the beef
this time father?

- Who knows?

Today with all the frustrations,

it takes very little to set
some of our young Chicanos off.

- That charisma
transcended on film.

- You know what's
wrong with you, man?

You're chicken!

- Those directors knew that
there was something about him.

There was something about
his mannerisms that worked.

- We found out everything.

[instrumental music]

- Do you mind?

- Oh, go ahead.

There are police all
throughout the show, okay.

[audience applauding]

- Thank you.

[audience applauding]

I did another movie later,

the movie was called "Antonio,"

and I was Antonio in the movie

and my co-star was Larry Hagman.

We went to Chile for
two and a half months,

and Larry was really,
really something.

His routine was every morning,
first thing in the morning,

beer, and then wine,

and then after lunch,

smoking, and then
marijuana, and then cocaine.

Every day, man, every day.

- Mister Hunter, please,
don't do this to me, please!

- I already did.

[Trini singing in Spanish]

- We finished the movie,

and so now I'm
watching TV one night

in my penthouse in LA

[Trini laughing]

and Larry Hagman,

- Help your friends find
something better to do

with these two fingers
than hold a cigarette.

After a whole day without
one, they can do this.

[Larry laughing]

- Like he was an
anti-smoker, get it?

And then I did a Movie of
the Week for Aaron Spelling.

- You better not give
range coordinates,

just tell 'em to fire
forward on the hill,

and you're correct.

- Right.

- And I played a GI, yeah.

And that was it for me.

- [Hostess] Beginning
of your career,

when did you know when you
picked up a guitar, this was it.

- Oh, from the very beginning,

after my father bought
me a $12 guitar.

And just by coincidence it
happened to be a Gibson guitar,

and a Gibson guitar is like

the Rolls Royce of an
automobile, you know?

So I, never did I
dream that one day

I would be endorsing and
designing two Gibson guitars.

[audience applauding]

- In 1964, Gibson came
to Trini and said,

we want you to design
two guitars for us,

'cause he was such a big star.

So he started out with the
Barney Kessel style body,

he was playing a Barney
Kessel at the time,

and that's a thick body guitar.

And so he did some of his
own design work to that.

He put the diamond
shaped D holes on it,

which had never
been done before.

That's a total
invention of Trini's

being the style
meister that he was.

At the time,

all head stocks on Gibson
guitars looked like this.

This is what we call
three on a side,

one, two, three,
one, two, three.

And he came up with a jazzy idea

to put all the
tuners on one side,

to make it look more

like the popular fender
guitars of the day.

At the time surf music
was getting popular

and this is a Gibson Firebird.

They were trying to
appeal to a rock audience.

So they thought by turning
that headstock over,

they would attract
the rock players.

Of course, that
didn't really work.

What did work was
when they said to him,

we want you to design a
guitar for the rock guys,

and that's the Trini standard.

And this is what we
call a thin line guitar.

Much thinner than the
jazz thickness that we saw

on that Barney Kessel guitar.

Well, one of the things
that he masterminded

was playing the guitar down low.

Up to that point,

everybody played their
guitars up here, even Elvis.

And he came up with the idea,

put that guitar down
here, where it counts.

- This guitar, I've made

every single Foo Fighter's
record with, this one.

This is a fucking
beautiful guitar.

I saw this in a guitar
shop in Bethesda, Maryland.

I think it was 1992 or '93
or something like that.

I think I was still in
Nirvana when I bought it.

I thought it was unusual.

It looks like a Gibson ES-335,

except it has
diamond-shaped F holes

and it has this different
headstock on it.

And I didn't really
know anything

about Trini Lopez, the
artist when I bought it,

but this fucking thing,

this is the sound of the
Foo Fighters, this guitar.

On every record, I
might use other guitars

every now and then,

for the most part,
it's just this.

- He loves my guitar.

There was a picture not too
long ago in a guitar magazine

and it's a full page
of him with my guitar

and he's kissing the guitar.

[audience laughing]

So he really likes it.

And a lot of rock
and roll groups.

A bunch of them.

- Yeah, well I'm playing a
Trini Lopez most of the time,

the red one is a Trini Lopez,

which actually Noel
Gallagher borrowed

for a couple of Oasis tours.

And on an 18-month world tour

followed us all the
way around the world.

- And people are like Paul
McCartney's guitar player,

I hear that he
plays my guitar too.

Bono's guitar player,
Bono, the singer,

and Sting's guitar player.

Uh-huh.

And all kinds of other people

that I can't even
think of right now.

- Trini we need to
give you a guitar.

- All right, all right.

[audience applauding
and cheering]

- This is the only white
Trini Lopez in existence

[audience applauding
and cheering]

for the only Trini Lopez
that we'll ever have.

- I hope so.

- Please give it up once again

for the legendary Trini Lopez.

[instrumental music]

[audience applauding
and cheering]

- All right everybody,
let's go to Kansas City.

- You know, we
were focusing a bit

on the Trini Lopez guitar.

I've been playing one for years.

So I said, hey Donnie, bring
your Trini Lopez guitar,

we'll just put it up on stage,
maybe something will happen.

And so the Reverend Billy
F. Gibbons from ZZ Top

showed up and he got up and
did a couple numbers with us.

♪ I'm going to Kansas City

♪ Here I come

♪ I'm going to Kansas
City, I'm on my way ♪

♪ Got lots of crazy
little women there ♪

♪ And I'm gonna get me one

- Listen, if we could
find a Trini Gibson,

we'd play it all night
long, all day and all night.

♪ Standing on the corner
of 12th Street and Vine ♪

♪ With my Kansas City
baby and my bottle ♪

♪ Of Kansas City wine

♪ Well, I might take a
train, I might take a plane ♪

♪ But if I have to walk

♪ I'm gonna fly
there just the same ♪

[instrumental music]

- Well, it was a
very special thing.

Gibson was not implying to do

too many personalized
instruments.

They had a very select group
of professional players,

great stars that made the
guitar really what it was.

And of course, when Trini
came out with his instrument,

it shot to the top.

Way to go, Trini.

♪ They've got some crazy
little women there ♪

♪ And I'm gonna get me one

Do it, do it.

[instrumental music]

Play it.

One more time.

[instrumental music]

Can I hear you join in?

[instrumental music]

♪ Standing on the
corner, with my wine ♪

♪ Standing on the corner,
12th Street and Vine ♪

♪ They got some crazy
little women there ♪

♪ And I'm gonna get me one

All right everybody.

I need you!

I want you to help me.

Help sing this song.

You're a great audience
and I know you can sing.

So get ready.

[instrumental music]

♪ Crazy little women there

♪ And I'm gonna get me one

[instrumental music]

[audience applauding
and cheering]

- [Audience] Trini! Trini!
Trini! Trini! Trini! Trini!

- I will say when he
hit it really big,

the first thing he did

and he always said
he was gonna do this,

he bought his parents a home,

bought his parents a new car,

this big, beautiful
Cadillac Fleetwood.

And I was like, oh my God,

what an uncle to do
this for his parents.

He did what he wanted to do.

He did what he said.

- Even though they
were very poor,

they were very rich

because they were just
very special people.

They were very special.

They had the gift
that God gave them,

which was to be
thoughtful, to be kind.

So my parents are really,
really nice, nice people.

My favorite saying
that I have to,

I have to say it right
now 'cause I feel it.

My favorite saying
in the whole world is

it's nice to be important,

but it's more
important to be nice.

- A week before he became ill,

I had written
everything and I said,

honey, is there anything
you wanna say personally?

And he said, you know,
I have completed,

I have achieved all my wishes,

all my desires,

all my goals.

I've done it all.

I think it must be time
to start new goals.

[somber music]

Personally, I think God said,

no, Trini, it's
time to come home.

♪ Michael, row the boat ashore

♪ Hallelujah

♪ Michael, row the boat ashore

♪ Hallelujah

- He was my whole world.

He was my life.

[guitar music]

[The Right To Rock by
Trini Lopez playing]

♪ Read the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights ♪

♪ It's all down there
in black and white ♪

♪ It ain't wrong to rock,
you've a right to roll ♪

♪ Let's bop baby, let's
rock baby, go, go, go ♪

♪ 'Cause we've got a right

♪ The right to roll

♪ Right to rock, right to roll

♪ Rock, rock, rock and roll

♪ Read the Constitution
and the Golden Rule ♪

♪ I'm a real gone Willie
and I'm nobody's fool ♪

♪ It ain't wrong to rock
we've got a right to roll ♪

♪ Bop bop baby, rock
rock baby, make it cool ♪

♪ We've got a right

♪ Yeah yeah yeah
the right to roll ♪

♪ Right to rock and
a right to roll ♪

♪ Rock rock rock and roll

♪ Read the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights ♪

♪ I need your honey
loving, I need it tonight ♪

♪ It ain't wrong to rock,
we've got a right to roll ♪

♪ Have a ball, that's not
all, hey it's star night ♪

♪ We've got a right

♪ The right to roll

♪ The right to rock,
the right to roll ♪

♪ Rock rock rock and roll

♪ Read the Constitution
and the Golden Rule ♪

♪ I'm a real gone Willie
and nobody's fool ♪

♪ It ain't wrong to rock,
we've got a right to roll ♪

♪ Bop bop baby, rock
rock baby, make it cool ♪

♪ We've got a right

♪ To rock and roll

♪ Right to rock,
and a right roll ♪

♪ Rock rock rock and roll

♪ Rock rock rock and roll

♪ Rock rock rock and roll

♪ Rock rock rock and roll