Chicano soul music was a rite of passage for multiple generations of Americans. In essence, a fusion sound that moves between vintage R&B and Mexican-American heritage, it became a badge of pride of Latino communities. A new wave of fans and musicians have embraced the sound in the 21st century, achieving emphatic success in the process.
Take Chicano Batman. New album ‘Notebook Fantasy’ is out on March 29th, and they melt together vintage tropes with some fresh sounds to make something unique. Produced by GRAMMY Award winner John Congleton, it’s the next step in a remarkable journey that has pushed this cherished sound back to prominence.
Hitting London’s Lafayette on September 3rd, the UK is next in line to fall for the Chicano soul sound. Here, Chicano Batman write for Clash, looking back on seven essential Chicano songs.
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Chicano soul is a multifaceted musical genre that is often overlooked in the history of American popular culture. Its beginnings are traced to jazz, rock n’ roll, and rhythm and blues from the 1950s and has evolved and changed through the decades and arguably finds itself represented today in a modern throwback incarnation called “souldies”.
The sounds of Chicano soul, like all American popular music, originated from Black musicians and inspired multiple generations of Mexican-American musicians primarily living in the Southwest United States to create their version of soul and rock n’ roll, that incorporated musical and cultural elements from their Latino communities and histories. History shows that you don’t have to be “Chicano” (Mexican-American) to make music that resonates and is appreciated within the Chicano soul community.
The following seven songs are ones that resonated with me as a Chicano/Salvadoran/American musician growing up in Southern California.
‘Sleepwalk’ by Santo & Johnny (1959)
This beautiful instrumental was immortilized in Luis Valdez’s 1987 biopic of Chicano rocker Ritchie Valens, La Bamba. The hauntingly vocal-like slide guitar melody gave me goosebumps and brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it as a young child during the ending of the film.
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‘Should I Take You Home’ by Sunny & The Sunliners (1969)
This tune by Texas soul stalwart Sunny Ozuna’s band uses funky horns to propel the crooning balladeer’s heartfelt lyrics to create a sound that is unequivocally Chicano soul.
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‘Samba Pa Ti’ by Santana (1970)
Maybe not an obvious song that comes to mind in discussions of the Chicano soul genre but for me it has always screamed pure soul power since I first heard the LP played on Sunday afternoons by my Chicana maternal grandmother when I was a child.
Carlos Santana’s vocal-like and weeping guitar notes seemed like they literally poured directly from the man’s heart and it deeply impacted my path towards becoming a guitar player.
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‘Viva Tirado’ by El Chicano (1970)
Funk and jazz mix in this overtly electric rendition of an original song by black jazz musician Gerald Wilson. This song follows a theme in the Chicano/Latin/brown-eyed soul musical community which is interpolation of past works by other artists into a new hybrid style reflective of their Southwestern identities.
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‘I’m Still Here’ by The Notations (1970)
This bona fide “oldies” tune by the Chicago-based group continues to resonate with soul fans of all backgrounds today.
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‘Make It With You’ by Ralfi Pagan (1971)
This beautiful re-interpretation of a song originally written and performed by the band Bread begins with a psychedelic guitar solo freakout before it slowly transitions into an epic love ballad sung by the Fania Records signed Bronx based singer of Puerto Rican and Cuban roots.
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‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’ by Smokey Robinson (1975)
This song by the Motown legend has him balancing the delight with misery of falling in love with another person whilst still in a relationship with someone else. This piece is a Sunday afternoon staple on LA radio station KDAY as well as on the bootleg vinyl and cassette series East Side Story.
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