John Mackie Remembers Ritchie Valens

Vancouver Sun writer and heritage expert John Mackie just wrote about Ritchie Valens‘ Vancouver appearance in November 1958. Vancouver’s Fabulous Stripes would open the shows and Ritchie would hit the stage for his set. He was a delightful young man who was just 17. Ritchie also appeared in Cloverdale, Bellingham and Seattle. We arranged to have Ritchie appear on Ray Briem‘s teenage TV show Seattle Bandstand.

In retrospect it was a shooting star experience. Ritchie’s first hit Come On Let’s Go was a number one hit in Vancouver.

He followed that with Donna, a ballad he wrote for his girlfriend in California.

When Ritchie opened with the flip side, La Bamba, the crowd got into the mood immediately and danced their socks off.>/p>

John wrote about the O’Bray family, definitely the backbone of the Stripes and wonderful musicians. Ritchie stayed with them as John indicated in his column. In recent years a professor in Washington state contacted me asking if I knew if Ritchie had ever been to Vancouver because she was writing a book on the singer. She explained that after talking to Donna and to Ritchie’s mother they could not recall him ever flying up to Vancouver. I sent her photos of his visit and the story to go with it. It is not uncommon for friends and relatives to be uninformed about an artist’s career schedule.

Ritchie Valens was only a star for 5 months… but he left a lasting legacy.