Lucho Gatica
Encyclopedia
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an bolero
Bolero
Bolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...
singer, film actor, and television host. It is estimated that Gatica has released more than 90 recordings. He has toured a vast portion of the world, having made concerts in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Father of the record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Humberto Gatica
Humberto Gatica
Humberto Gatica is a Chilean-born American record producer, music mixer, audio engineer anda long-time collaborator with producer David Foster....
.
Biography
Luis Gatica Silva was born in RancaguaRancagua
Rancagua is a city and commune in central Chile, part of the Rancagua conurbation. It is the capital of the Cachapoal Province and of the O'Higgins Region, located south of the national capital of Santiago. It had a 2002 population of 214,344...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
in 1928. He attended school at Instituto O'Higgins. He and his brother Arturo were struggling singers
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
before they released their first album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, in 1949, when Gatica was 21 years old.
Chileans generally experienced a change in their taste in music during the 1950s, when bolero music overtook tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
as Chileans' preferred music genre for some time. Singers like Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
's Olga Guillot
Olga Guillot
Olga Guillot was a Cuban singer who was known to be the "queen of bolero". She was a native of the Cuban city of Santiago.Guillot and her family moved to Havana, Cuba when she was a small child...
, and Argentinian Leo Marini and Mexican Elvira Rios, among others, were very popular during that time. So were Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...
and his orchestra, which included Puerto Rican
Puerto Rican people
A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...
Bobby Capo
Bobby Capó
Félix Manuel Rodríguez Capó , better known as Bobby Capó, was an internationally known singer and songwriter from Puerto Rico...
. These singers would influence Gatica.
Gatica's first record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
, 1951's Me Importas Tú (You Matter to Me) became a mega hit across Latin America, opening many doors for Gatica. He followed that with 1952's Contigo en la Distancia (With You in the Distance). Gatica recorded his version of Consuelo Velázquez's Bésame Mucho (Kiss Me a Lot) in 1953, a year in which he produced two more albums, Las Muchachas de la Plaza España (The Girls from the Spain Square) and Sinceridad (Sincerity). The following year his hit "Sinceridad" was released.
By 1957, Gatica moved to Mexico, a country that would be of great importance in his life. In Mexico, he released No me Platiques Más (Don't Talk to me Anymore), Tú me Acostumbraste (You Accustomed Me) and Voy a Apagar la Luz (I'm Turning the Lights Off), which was released in 1959.
In 1956, Gatica's songs were recorded in North America on LP albums for the first time by Capitol Records ('Capitol of the World' series). Three albums were released within 14 months by Capitol. The third one in that group with Capitol was "El Gran Gatica", which featured such songs as "Somos", "Sabrá Dios", and "Si Me Comprendieras". One of the three Lucho Gatica albums released in 1958 was a greatest hits compilation; the third was named Envenenados (Poisoned). He also recorded a song entitled "Encadenados" ("Chained (we are)").
Gatica had important changes in his personal life after arriving in Mexico for the first time. He decided to become a permanent resident of that North American country, and married Puerto Rican actress Mapita Cortés
Mapita Cortés
Mapita Cortés , was an actress of telenovelas and the cinema of Mexico. She is the mother of Mexican actor Luis Gatica, the wife of Lucho Gatica, the niece of Puerto Rican actress Mapy Cortés, and the niece in law of Mexican actor Fernando Cortés...
, who had been a celebrity in Mexico (and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
) for some years, and who also resided in Mexico. The couple had two sons named Luis
Luis Gatica
-Biography:Luis Gatica was born in Veracruz. He grew in a show business family. He is the son of Chilean singer Lucho Gatica and Puerto Rican actress Mapita Cortés; he is the nephew of Puerto Rican actress Mapy Cortés and second cousin of Puerto Rican actor, comedian and producer Paquito Cordero...
and Alfredo Gatica. Luis went on to become a telenovela
Telenovela
A telenovela is a limited-run serial dramatic programming popular in Latin American, Portuguese, and Spanish television programming. The word combines tele, short for televisión or televisão , and novela, a Spanish or Portuguese word for "novel"...
and rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
star during the 1980s and Alfredo (Alfie) became a music entrepreneur. Gatica remarried an American woman and had one daughter named Lily, as well. One of Gatica's last known releases was 1963's Recuerdos de Amor (Memories of Love).
In 2007 Luis signed a record deal with Aurafonic Records and will soon release a new album with his greatest hits and new material never recorded by the singer. He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
for Recording.