Image Via Wikipedia
Former Location –
Bobby Fuller recorded “I Fought the Law
” here in 1966. Del-Fi is probably most famous for recording Ritchie Valens first single, “Come On Let’s Go
“. Valens’ next single, “Donna/La Bamba
“, was a huge hit. The Del-Fi label closed its doors in 1967 and this location later became home to Mystic Sound.
Other notables that recorded on Del-Fi are Frank Zappa, the Addrisi Brothers, Little Caesar and the Romans, The Surfaris, The Beau Brummels and Johnny Crawford who was also a television star having appeared in many TV shows in the 1950’s. Crawford was nominated for an Emmy Award as Best Supporting Actor at age 13, for his role as Mark McCain, the son of Lucas McCain in the “Rifleman“. He was also known for being one of the original 24 Disney Mouseketeers, in 1955.
Del-Fi was briefly revived in 1987 for 7″ and 12″ releases of “La Bamba ’87
” featuring new remixes of the classic, capitalizing on the success of the film, “La Bamba
.”
Del-Fi Records
6277 Selma Ave.
Los Angeles CA 90028
Hello. My name is Brent Davidson and I am a PhD student at University of Memphis doing preliminary research into a possible dissertation on Mr Ritchie Valens. I know that Mr. Valens was once under contract with Del-Fi and I am wanting to know if there are any master tapes available that have not been been made public or previously released, or any possible film showing Me. Valens or recordings of him playing at any venue? I am not asking this for personal gain but from a musicological, historical initiative. If anyone has any information or is in possession of any material, audio or video pertaining to Ritchie Valens please contact me. Once again, I represent the University of Memphis, TN as a doctoral student trying to locate any recordings I can find. Thank you.
Most likely a lot of that stuff has been destroyed. I worked at Mystic Sound, which took over the 6277 Selma Ave. building after Mustang/Del-Fi closed. Doug Moody told me that there were a lot of tapes and other stuff there when he moved in, but he got rid of everything that Bob Keane had left behind.
Bob Keane recorded my band The Argons in 1965, a song entitled “Over You” During the time that we interacted with Bob, we got to sit in on an overdub session for the lead guitar line in “I Fought The Law”, we got free tickets to Bobby Fuller with Herman’s Hermits, The Turtles, The Guillotines, The Byrds, and The Lovin’ Spoonful. Rick Shoemaker and I went to the office one day to find that Bobby Fuller had been found dead. My band was deemed too young to support a record release, so nothing ever happened to it. I contacted Bob in the late 1990’s and he didn’t have a copy of our recording.
I had a girlfriend named Mary Sawrey during the years I worked at Mystic Sound, which occupied the former Del-Fi studio space. She told me she made a record for Mustang Records when she was 12 years old, produced by Bob Keane, and that the session was done the same day that Bobby Fuller was killed. She had several promo copies of her record, but I’ve never been able to determine if it was actually released. It’s featured on a CD compilation. I told the producers of that compilation about the record but we were unable to find any copies, except some acetate dubs.