Freddy Fender

American Latin and rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist

• Born: June 4, 1937
• Birthplace: San Benito, Texas
• Died: October 14, 2006
• Place of death: Corpus Christi, Texas

Combining elements of 1950’s rock, Tejano, Louisiana swamp pop, and country music in his exuberant style, Fender paved the way for Latin American performers in country and popular music.

Member of The Texas Tornados; Los Super Seven

The Life

Freddy Fender was born Baldemar Garza Huerta to migrant workers Serapio and Margarita Huerta in 1937. At ten, he entered and won a radio contest. At sixteen, he joined the U.S. Marines. By 1957, using the names El Bebop Kid and Eddie Con Los Shades, he had recorded Spanish versions of rock hits for distribution in the United States, Mexico, and South America. He married Evangelina “Vangie” Muniz in 1957, and they had four children. In 1959, after he signed a contract with Imperial Records, he became Freddy Fender (in honor of his guitar). Arrested in 1960 in Louisiana for possession of marijuana, he served three years in the Angolaprison system, and he was released by Louisiana Governor Jimmie Davis. While in Louisiana, Fender worked with swamp pop musicians, resulting in the Gulf Coast influence heard on his early hits. In 1969 he returned to Texas, working as a mechanic and attending junior-college classes. He had a string of country and pop hits in the 1970’s, and he tried acting in the 1980’s. After a decade of battling substance abuse, Fender joined the groups Texas Tornados and Los Super Seven. Surviving both a kidney and liver transplant, he succumbed to lung cancer on October 14, 2006, in Corpus Christi, and he was buried in his hometown.

The Music

Introduced to various musical influences as a child migrant worker among Latinos and African Americans (conjunto, Tejano, and blues) and later as an adult living in Texas and Louisiana (country, Cajun, zydeco, swamp pop), Fender was a bilingual crossover musician, with an appeal to Latino as well as to gringo audiences. His fingerpicking guitar style was accentuated by his distinctive voice: a gentle tenor with a signature tremolo that could switch keys with ease.

El Bebop Kid. As El Bebop Kid, Fender was the first American to reach number one in Mexico and South America, with Spanish versions of Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” and Harry Belafonte’s “Jamaica Farewell.” These and other Spanish remakes led to “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” and “Holy One,” two singles in English. After prison, Fender worked in New Orleans, where he was introduced to swamp pop musicians Joe Barry and Rod Bernard, as well as two of the Neville brothers, Art and Aaron. Fender returned to Texas, and, at fellow musician Doug Sahm’s suggestion, he visited Huey Meaux, owner of Crazy Cajun records, in Houston. Meaux persuaded the singer to release a remake of Charley Pride’s “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” in 1974.

“Before the Next Teardrop Falls.” A number-one country song that went as well to number one on the pop charts in 1975, the title song from Fender’s 1974 album won the Single of the Year Award, given by the Country Music Association (CMA); the song achieved gold certification. Fender won CMA’s Vocalist of the Year, and the album won Album of the Year. The album contained standards such as “Roses Are Red,” “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends,” and Fender’s second Billboard hot country number one, a revamping of “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights,” which crossed over to become a Billboard Top 10 rock hit.

Are You Ready for Freddy?Are You Ready for Freddy? was a collection of Cajun dance tunes, childhood favorites (“How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?”), and a number-one country hit, a bilingual remake of “Secret Love.” The song also became Fender’s third consecutive release to make it on the Billboard rock chart, peaking at number twenty.

Since I Met You Baby and Rock ’n’ Country.Since I Met You Baby and Rock ’n’ Country contained Fender’s next three country hit remakes: “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” (his fourth number one), “Vaya Con Dios,” and “Since I Met You Baby.” Fender met with only marginal success after the release of Rock ’n’ Country, never again reaching the top spot on the Billboard hot country chart. His life and music took a downward spiral as he struggled with drugs and alcohol.

Texas Tornados and Los Super Seven. In 1989 Fender joined the first Tejano Grammy Award-winning supergroup, working with Sahm, Flaco Jimenez, and Augie Myers. Texas Tornados was a band that fused conjunto (Mexican polka), Tejano, rhythm and blues, and country. Its music was well received in the United States, Australia, and the Netherlands, and the first album, Texas Tornados, did well on the Billboard charts, reaching number twenty-one in rock and number twenty-nine in Latin. The group released three studio albums and two live albums, and Zone of Our Own was a huge critical success.

Fender later helped create a second Grammy Award-winning group, Los Super Seven. This group included Fender, Jiminez, Joe Ely, Rick Trevino, Ruben Ramos, Joel José Guzman, and Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas.

La musica de Baldemar Huerta. This represents Fender’s return to his roots. He paid homage to the songs he heard while growing up in the Rio Grande Valley—boleros from the 1940’s and 1950’s—and he sings bolero versions of “Secret Love” and “Before the Next Teardrop Falls.” In a Texas Monthly interview in 2001, Fender called this recording a hybrid, which he termed mariachi country. The album earned Fender his last Grammy Award.

Musical Legacy

Fender performed for three presidents of the United States, and he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He reached the top spot on the Billboard country and pop charts, and he had nine Top 10 country hits. He was the first rock singer to receive airplay in both Mexico and Latin America. Along with his Grammy Awards and his CMA Awards, Fender received a Golden Eagle Award, given by an organization of Chicano entertainers. His success helped set the stage for Los Lobos, David Garza, and El Vez.

Principal Recordings

albums (solo): Before the Next Teardrop Falls, 1974; Are You Ready for Freddy?, 1975; Before the Next Teardrop Falls, 1975 (alternate tracks); Since I Met You Baby, 1975; If You’re Ever in Texas, 1976; Rock ’n’ Country, 1976; If You Don’t Love Me, 1977; Swamp Gold, 1978; Christmas Time in the Valley, 1991; Los Super Seven, 1998 (with Los Super Seven); Canto, 2001 (with Los Super Seven); New Orleans Sessions, 2001; La musica de Baldemar Huerta, 2002; Back to Back, 2003 (with Johnny Rodriguez); Eddie con los Shades: Rock ’n Roll, 2003 (with the Shades); Interpreta el rock, 2003; Heard It on the X, 2005 (with Los Super Seven).

albums (with the Texas Tornados): Texas Tornados, 1990; Zone of Our Own, 1991; Hangin’ on by a Thread, 1992; Four Aces, 1996.

Bibliography

Cocoran, Michael. All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. The chapter on Sahm chronicles Fender’s meeting with Meaux.

Fender, Freddy. “A Few Words with Freddy Fender.” Texas Monthly (December, 2001): 56. Transcription of an interview with Fender concerning La musica de Baldemar Huerta.

Marez, Curtis. “Brown: The Politics of Working-Class Chicano Style.” Social Text 48 (Autumn, 1996): 109-132. This article discusses Fender’s music in the film Rush (1991), and it describes his musical and personal assimilation—as an impoverished Chicano moving into an Anglo culture.

San Miguel, Guadalupe, Jr. Tejano Proud: Tex-Mex Music in the Twentieth Century. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2002. Provides context for Fender within the Tejano tradition.

Stambler, Irwin, and Grelun Landon. Country Music: The Encyclopedia. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997. Includes a detailed entry on Fender’s life and work.