José Feliciano

Perhaps one of the most prominent Latin-born performers from the pop period, vocalist/guitarist Jose Feliciano was created Sept 10, 1945, in Lares, Puerto Rico; the sufferer of congenital glaucoma, he was still left completely blind at delivery. Five years afterwards, he and his family members moved to NY City’s Spanish Harlem region; there Feliciano started learning the accordion, afterwards taking up your guitar and producing his first community appearance on the Bronx’s Un Teatro Puerto Rico at age nine. Whilst in senior high school he became a fixture from the Greenwich Community coffeehouse circuit, ultimately quitting college in 1962 to be able to acknowledge a long lasting gig in Detroit; a agreement with RCA implemented a functionality at New York’s Gerde’s Folk Town, and within 2 yrs he appeared on the Newport Jazz Celebration. After bowing using the 1964 novelty one “Everybody Perform the Click,” he released his flamenco-flavored debut LP The Tone of voice and Electric guitar of Jose Feliciano, trailed early another year by THE GREAT Feliciano. Unhappy using the path of his music following discharge of 1966’s A Handbag Full of Spirit, Feliciano came back to his root base, launching three consecutive Spanish-language LPs — Sombras…Una Voz, Una Guitarra, Mas Exitos de Jose Feliciano and Un Sentimiento, La Voz con La Guitarra de Jose Feliciano — on RCA International, credit scoring in the Latin pop graphs using the singles “La Copa Rota” and “Amor Gitana.” With 1968’s Feliciano!, he have scored a breakthrough strike using a soulful reading from the Doorways’ “Light My Fireplace” that released him in to the mainstream pop stratosphere; a smash cover of Tommy Tucker’s R&B chestnut “Hi High heel Trainers” solidified his achievement, and shortly Feliciano discovered himself executing the nationwide anthem through the 1968 Globe Series. His idiosyncratic Latin-jazz functionality from the tune proved highly questionable, and regardless of the outcry of traditionalists and nationalists, his position as an rising counterculture hero was guaranteed, with an individual of his rendition also learning to be a strike. In 1969 Feliciano documented three LPs — Souled, Alive Alive-O, and Feliciano 10 to 23 — and gained a Grammy for Greatest New Artist; nevertheless, he never once again equalled the achievement of “Light My Open fire,” in support of the theme music towards the sitcom Chico and the person subsequently achieved strike position, edging in to the Best 100 singles graph in 1974. Through the entire 1970s Feliciano continued to be a dynamic performer, nevertheless, touring yearly and issuing several LPs both in British and Spanish, including 1973’s Steve Cropper-produced Compartments; he also made an appearance within the Joni Mitchell strike “Free Guy in Paris,” and guested on several tv series including Kung Fu and McMillan and Wife. In 1980 Feliciano was the 1st performer authorized to the brand new Latin department of Motown, producing his label debut with an eponymous work the following yr; his recorded result tapered off during the 10 years, although he sometimes resurfaced with LPs including 1987’s Tu Immenso Amor and 1989’s I’m By no means Gonna Switch. A college in East Harlem was renamed the Jose Feliciano Performing Arts College in his honor; in 1996, he also made an appearance briefly within the strike film Fargo.