Daniel Flores (July 11, 1929 – September 19, 2006), also known by his stage name Chuck Rio, was an American
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
saxophonist. He is best remembered for his self-penned song "
Tequila", which he recorded with
The Champs, and which reached number one on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100.
Biography
Flores was born in
Santa Paula, California
Santa Paula (Spanish for " St. Paula") is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. Situated amid the orchards of the Santa Clara River Valley, the city advertises itself to tourists as the "Citrus Capital of the World". Santa Pau ...
and grew up in Long Beach. He was interested in the
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
from an early age, first performing at church and family gatherings. At 14, however, Flores switched to the
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...
, forming his first band, the 3-D Ranch Boys. Emulating the rasping sounds of tenor saxophonist
Vido Musso
Vido William Musso (January 16, 1913 – January 9, 1982) was an American jazz saxophonist.
Biography
Musso moved with his family from Sicily to the U.S. in July 1920, having arrived at the Port of New York on the Italian steamship ''Patria''. T ...
, Flores played a variety of music genres -
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
,
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
,
pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' (G ...
, and
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
- to cater to his hard-going
blue-collar clientele. Much to Flores's amusement, he has remarked, during this early stage of his career, he was commonly called the "Mexican Hillbilly". In the early 1950s, Flores recorded
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
for small Pasadena-based
record labels, before signing to
Modern Records
Modern Records (Modern Music Records before 1947) was an American record company and label formed in 1945 in Los Angeles by the Bihari brothers. Modern's artists included Etta James, Joe Houston, Little Richard, Ike & Tina Turner and John Lee ...
/
RPM Records, and releasing his earliest
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
material.
In 1957
, Flores met aspiring
songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...
and guitarist
Dave Burgess. After briefly performing as Danny and Dave, the duo recruited former members of Flores's group,
drummer
A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...
Gene Alden and guitarist Buddy Bruce, along with
bassist
A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...
Cliff Hills and Vocalist Huelyn Duvall, who were
session musicians, to form
the Champs.
[ On December 23, 1957, the group recorded three songs for Challenge Records, including Flores' instrumental '' Tequila''. The song is highlighted by Flores's "dirty sax" arrangements and hollering of "Tequila". However, because of this one spoken phrase by Flores, he was credited as Chuck Rio to avoid conflicts with his other record label, where he was signed as a vocalist.][ "Tequila" was released as the ]B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...
to the Champs' debut single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
, but after listeners requested the song over its A-side "Train to Nowhere", "Tequila" propelled to number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in January 1958.
Conflicts between Flores and Burgess over leadership and the band's musical direction led to Flores' departure. He signed his rights away to ''Tequila'', and ultimately did not receive any royalties
A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...
from the tune, despite its success. In the intervening years, he formed other groups called the Originals, and the Persuaders (the latter recording for Saturn Records
El Saturn Records is an American record label founded in 1957 by Alton Abraham. Among the earliest African American-owned record labels, in the late 1950s and 1960s it was one of the most active artist-owned record labels in the United States. The ...
in 1963). Flores continued to perform across California for the rest of his life. It was not until the early 2000s that he finally received royalties — albeit only for sales in Europe — for ''Tequila''.
Flores died on September 19, 2006 as a consequence of complications of pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flores, Danny
1929 births
2006 deaths
Chicano rock musicians
American male singer-songwriters
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
American musicians of Mexican descent
American male saxophonists
Burials in Orange County, California
Deaths from pneumonia in California
Hispanic and Latino American musicians
Musicians from Greater Los Angeles
People from Santa Paula, California
Rock en Español musicians
RPM Records (United States) artists
Kent Records artists
Challenge Records artists
Apex Records artists
20th-century American singers
20th-century American saxophonists
Singer-songwriters from California
20th-century American male singers