Sunny & the Sunglows (formed by songwriter Jimmie Lewing and Sunny Ozuna in

Palacios, Texas Palacios ( ) is a city in Matagorda County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,395 at the 2020 census. Etymology Popular local legend states that the area was named Tres Palacios ("Three Palaces") several centuries ago by shipwrecked Spani ...

) was an American

musical group Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

in started 1959, and later known as Sunny & the Sunliners in 1963 after moving to

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Career

The group's members were all

Chicano Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...

-born with the exception of Amos Johnson Jr., and their style was a blend of

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

tejano Tejanos (, ; singular: ''Tejano/a''; Spanish for "Texan", originally borrowed from the Caddo ''tayshas'') are the residents of the state of Texas who are culturally descended from the Mexican population of Tejas and Coahuila that lived in the ...

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 ...

, and

mariachi Mariachi (, , ) is a genre of regional Mexican music that dates back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, t ...

. They first recorded in 1962 for their own label, Sunglow.

Okeh Records Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

picked up their single "Golly Gee" for national distribution that year, and in 1963,

Huey P Meaux Huey Purvis Meaux (March 10, 1929 – April 23, 2011) was an American record producer and the owner of various record labels and recording studios including Crazy Cajun Records, Tribe Records, Tear Drop Records, Capri Records, and SugarHill R ...

, a producer from

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

and owner of

Tear Drop Records Tear Drop Records was a record label founded in Winnie, Texas, United States, in the early 1960s by recording pioneer and radio personality, Huey P Meaux. As a deejay A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays re ...

, had them record a remake of

Little Willie John William Edward "Little Willie" John (November 15, 1937 – May 26, 1968) was an American R&B singer who performed in the 1950s and early 1960s. He is best known for his successes on the record charts, with songs such as " All Around the World" (1 ...

's 1958 hit, " Talk to Me, Talk to Me". The single "Talk to Me" ( b/w "Every Week, Every Month, Every Year"), released on

, went to No. 4 on the

Adult Contemporary chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by sta ...

, No. 12 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' R&B

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

, and No. 11 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in October 1963.

Members

* Sunny Ozuna – lead vocals * Vincent Chente Montez – vocals (Bass) * Manuel Guerra – leader * Rudy Guerra – tenor sax * Gregg Ramirez – bass * Henry Nanez – guitar * Manuel Martinez – guitar * Tommy Luna – tenor sax * Andy Ortiz – piano (Sunglows era) * Arthur Gonzalez – electric piano * Martin Liñan – alto sax * Gilbert Fernandez – tenor sax * Amos Johnson Jr. – trumpet * Bobby Solis – drums * Joel Dilley – bass * Joe Cortez III – keyboards, vocals (1977–78) * Johnny Guerra – guitar, vocals * Carlos Hernandez – alto sax, vocals * Jimmy Solis – tenor sax, vocals * Bobby Gutierrez – tenor and bari sax * David Silva – trumpet * Roger Rivera – trombone * David DeLaGarza – keyboards * Frank Ardila – guitar * Arturo Alderete - bass (1973-75) * Charlie Sandoval - percussion

Discography

*''Talk to Me'' (

, LP2000 1964) *''All Night Worker'' (Tear Drop, LP2019 1964) *''Las Vegas Welcomes'' (Tear Drop, 1964) *''Adelante'' (Key-Loc, 1964) *''The Original Peanuts'' (Sunglow Records, LP103 1965) *''Smile Now Cry Later'' (Key-Loc 3001 1966) *''Live in Hollywood'' (Key-Loc 3003 1966) *''Little Brown Eyed Soul'' (Key-Loc, 1968) *''The Versatile'' (Key-Loc, 1969) *''Young, Gifted and Brown'' (Key-Loc, 1971) *''El Orgullo de Texas'' (Key-Loc, 1974) *''El Preferido'' (Key-Loc, 1974) *''Yesterday...& Sunny'' (Teardrop Records, 1976) *''Siempre'' (Key-Loc, 1976) *''Palabritas'' (Key-Loc, 1976) *''Andale Mi Amor'' (Key-Loc, 1977) *''This Is My Band'' (Key-Loc 3006 1977) *''Live in Las Vegas'' (Key-Loc, 1978) *''Yesterday and Sunny Vol. II'' (Key-Loc, 1978) *''Grande Grande Grande'' (Key-Loc, 1978) *''Vengo a Verte'' (Key-Loc, 1979) *''Cry'' (Key-Loc, 1980) *''El Amante'': Sunny & The Sunliners (Freddie Records – LP-026 1981)

References

External links

Musical groups from Texas Tear Drop Records artists Okeh Records artists Chicano rock musicians American musicians of Mexican descent {{US-R&B-band-stub