An American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles and 3-time Grammy Award winners. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country music, folk, R&B, blues and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as boleros and norteños.
They were formed as Los Lobos Del Este Los Angeles in 1973 by David Hidalgo, Conrad Lozano, Louie Pérez and Cesar Rosas - 4 friends from Garfield High School in east Los Angeles. Though they started out as a rock 'n' roll band, they soon chose a more traditional Mexican acoustic style. For years the quartet played wedding gigs as well as other traditional Mexican gatherings around east Los Angeles' Chicano community. In 1978, Los Lobos landed its first steady professional gig, playing at a Mexican restaurant but got fired as they gradually evolved back into a loud rock 'n' roll band, complete with an accordion. In time, the band adopted music from Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B and blues, as well as the traditional Mexican songs from their roots.
The band released an independent local LP in 1978. Hidalgo, who handles most of the lead vocals, teamed with Pérez to write the majority of Los Lobos' original songs, with Rosas providing vocals and songwriting on the rest. About this time, the LA music scene began exploding with a new generation of bands like the Blasters and X. The common ground with a lot of these bands, however, was a mutual respect for the roots of rock 'n' roll and creating new hybrids from the early years of rock.
They started playing gigs on the Hollywood circuit gaining the respect from fellow bands. They hung out with the Blasters and soon were invited to play with them at clubs such as the Whiskey in Hollywood. The Blasters' saxophone player, Steve Berlin, became close with Los Lobos and after some jam sessions with the band was made an honorary Chicano and added to the band's lineup.
The band's first noteworthy public appearance occurred in 1980 at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles when they were hired to open for Public Image Ltd.
During this time, Los Lobos were signed to Slash Records. With a small budget and a little time between gigs, Los Lobos recorded an EP, an eclectic mix of roots rock 'n' roll and Mexican Nortea music, in 1983.
After a year of heavy touring, the band released How Will the Wolf Survive? in 1984 and By the Light of the Moon (displaying distinct jazz, blues and country influences) in 1987. But their biggest commercial success to date was in 1987 when the band's remake of Ritchie Valens' La Bamba, from a biopic of the same name, topped the pop charts.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s the band toured extensively throughout the world, opening for such acts as Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.
Though future albums did not duplicate the commercial success of La Bamba, the band won Grammys for a 1988 Spanish-language album and for their contribution to the film Desperado. They also released a children's album in 1995. After two studio albums in the late 1990s underperformed, the band signed to Mammoth Records for 2002's Good Morning Aztlan and 2004's The Ride. Among those who contributed to the latter album were Ruben Blades, Elvis Costello, Little Willie G, Mavis Staples, Richard Thompson, Bobby Womack and Tom Waits.