The genesis for La Bamba came in 1973 when the film’s producer, Taylor Hackford, then a documentary filmmaker, and associate producer, Daniel Valdez, then an aspiring singer and actor, were working at KCET, the Los Angeles, CA public television station, and began discussing doing a project about the life and music of Ritchie Valens. The Sep 1987 Optic Music magazine said the pair originally wanted to do a stage play about the singer, but as Valdez researched his life, they decided a feature film would be more appropriate. Promotional materials in AMPAS files indicate researching his life proved difficult as little information could be found and Ritchie’s family could not be tracked down. Eventually, Valdez found the family living in the Pacoima section of the San Fernando Valley, but they were reluctant to cooperate. It was only after Valdez showed them a copy of Ritchie singing “Come On, Let’s Go,” his only performance that was preserved on film, that the family warmed to the idea of doing a project on his life.
       In 1984, once the family was on board, Daniel Valdez turned to his brother, playwright Luis Valdez, to write the script. Luis Valdez spent considerable time with the family to understand their dynamics and issues. The 20 Jul 1987 HR noted that while the family was consulted extensively, they were not given script approval.
       The first draft of Luis Valdez’s screenplay, which he completed in just three months was solid enough that Hackford hired him to be the director. Luis Valdez had previously written and directed the play Zoot Suit, which went to Broadway, and the subsequent film of the same name (1981, see entry).
       Luis Valdez’s script was also strong enough to get Columbia Pictures interested. However, Columbia did not put up any money to finance the film. Instead the studio did a “negative pickup” which is an agreement to distribute the film for a fixed price after it is finished. Hackford, via his New Horizons Productions company, agreed to complete the film for $6.5 million.
       The 20 Mar 1985 HR announced that director John Frankenheimer was contemplating doing a movie about Ritchie Valens, but two days later, the 22 Mar 1985 HR ran a correction stating that Columbia Pictures had the rights to the Valens bio-picture and that Frankenheimer would not be involved.
       Securing the rights to Valens’s music also proved problematic. A 3 Feb 1980 LAT feature noted that ownership of the rights was unclear as they had been sold several times since Valens's death in 1959. However, those rights were scheduled to revert to his estate in 1985 at the time of copyright renewal.
       A nationwide talent search got underway for the right actor to play “Ritchie.” Promotional materials in AMPAS files show that in the 1970s, Hackford had envisioned Daniel Valdez in the role, but by the time production got underway, Valdez was too old to play a teenager. After producers were unable to find a suitable actor from casting calls in Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY, and Miami, FL, casting director Junie Lowry held auditions in Texas, where she found twenty-four-year-old Lou Diamond Phillips, a Dallas, TX-based acting teacher. The 23 Jul 1987 LAHExam reported that when Phillips flew to Los Angeles to audition for Hackford and Luis Valdez, he read for the part of “Bob Morales,” Valens’s older half-brother. Seeing the qualities Phillips brought to the role, producers later asked him to read for the part of “Ritchie.” The twenty-three-year-old Esai Morales, who eventually got the part of “Bob Morales,” originally read for “Ritchie.”
       In the initial report of his casting, the 6 Jun 1986 DV said the actor’s name was “Lou Diamond Phillips,” but reports later that summer, in both the 29 Aug 1986 LA Weekly and the 19 Sep 1986 HR, gave the actor’s name as “Lou Diamond.” These articles stated the film’s name was La Bamba – The Ritchie Valens Story.
       Principal photography began on 16 Jun 1986, according to the 25 Jul 1986 DV production chart. To keep within the $6.5 million budget, director Luis Valdez maintained a strict three takes per scene policy and used a single Arriflex camera for most scenes. The first six days of filming were done in rural areas near Hollister, CA, to depict scenes of Ritchie’s family as migrant workers on an apricot farm. After that, production moved for three weeks to the small town Fillmore, CA, in Ventura County, which substituted for 1950s Pacoima, CA. The next five weeks of shooting were done in the Los Angeles area, on sound stages, in area clubs and at the KFWB radio studios. The Alan Freed concert featuring Ritchie, "Eddie Cochran" and "Jackie Wilson" was filmed at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, while the Clear Lake Airport scenes were shot at Whiteman Field in Pacoima. The scenes where Bob and Ritchie go to Tijuana, Mexico, were filmed in Calexico, CA.
       Members of Valens’s family, including his mother, were on set throughout filming and several appear as background extras in scenes. After nine weeks of shooting, the film wrapped in late Aug 1986, with producer Hackford throwing a wrap party for cast and crew on 22 Aug 1986, the 27 Aug 1986 HR said.
       Since the film is about a Chicano teenager who achieves stardom, reaching Hispanic/Latino film-going audiences was important for the success of La Bamba. Consequently, Columbia Pictures planned to release it in both English and Spanish language versions on the same date. The 4 Nov 1986 HR noted this would be the first time two different language versions had been released simultaneously. Previously, Spanish-language versions came out months after the English-language versions. The Aug 1987 GQ magazine reported the Spanish-language version would open in seventy-five of the nation’s 600 Spanish-language theaters. The original cast looped their parts into Spanish at a cost of $50,000. The 16 Jul 1987 LAHExam reported that seventy-seven Spanish-language prints were to be in circulation on the film’s opening day: sixty-four with looped dialogue and thirteen subtitled. Some twenty-seven of those seventy-seven prints were earmarked for the Los Angeles area since the region had the nation’s largest Hispanic population. A Columbia Pictures executive said the company was spending more than $250,000 nationally to market the film to Hispanics.
       To further reach that Spanish audience, producers screened the film for a group of Hispanic journalists. The 30 Apr 1987 Hollywood Drama-Logue announced that 1,200 journalists attending the Fifth Annual National Hispanic Media Conference & Expo had attended a free screening the week before. The 3 Aug 1987 Los Angeles Business Journal reported producers also screened the film at a high school newspaper writers’ conference in Portland, OR, in Mar 1987, and for numerous Hispanic youth groups, high schools and colleges in the months prior to release.
       Masters of Ritchie Valens’s recordings were deemed not good enough to use in the film, so producers hired Los Lobos, a popular Hispanic rock band based in East Los Angeles, to perform his songs, with lead singer David Hidalgo doing Ritchie’s voice. Since Lou Diamond Phillips did not sing or play guitar, he had two weeks to learn the words to lip sync to Hidalgo’s vocals as well as learn the guitar chords. Phillips told the 28 Jul 1987 Daily Texan that six people were on set to monitor his musical performances, some to watch his lip syncing, others to watch his hand movements on the guitar. Even with that many pairs of eyes watching Phillips, supervising music editor Curt Sobel was called upon to sync the film performance precisely to the music in several places.
       La Bamba also features the music of Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Jackie Wilson, so producers sought the talents of modern-day musicians to perform their music and also play their parts in the film. The 10 Jul 1986 DV noted that singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw would play Holly, while Brian Setzer, the frontman of the rockabilly group Stray Cats, would play Cochran, and Howard Huntsberry, the lead singer of rhythm and blues group Klique, would play Wilson.
       Bob Keane, owner of Del-Fi Records who signed Valens to the label and also gave him the stage name of “Ritchie Valens,” was on hand during filming as a consultant. However, Keane told the 25 Aug 1987 LAT that the film got several points wrong, including downplaying Valens’s fiery personality and overplaying his relationship with Donna Ludwig, the girl who inspired his song “Donna,” saying she was more of a casual acquaintance than the love of his life. Keane also noted that the masters of Valens recordings were in fine shape and could have been used in the film.
       Prior to its nationwide opening on approximately 1,200 screens on 24 Jul 1987, producers held nationwide sneak previews to create interest. The 20 Jul 1987 HR reported the film played on 547 screens on 10 Jul 1987 and 707 screens on 18 Jul 1987.
       In addition to strong word of mouth from the sneak previews, there was much buzz about the movie thanks to constant radio play of Los Lobos’s version of ��La Bamba” starting in late Jun 1987 when the soundtrack album was released. The 1 Aug 1987 Billboard reported the “La Bamba” single was No. 24 on the Billboard singles chart, just two weeks after being released. Additionally, Bob Keane released “La Bamba ‘87” on his Del-Fi label using Valens’s original vocals with contemporary backgrounds added. Keane felt it was a mistake to have Los Lobos cover the song for the film, saying people wanted to hear “the real Ritchie Valens.”
       After twelve days of release, La Bamba had earned $14.4 million, according to the 4 Aug 1987 DV box-office report. Six weeks after release, the film had grossed $37.6 million, according to the 1 Sep 1987 DV box-office report. The 31 Aug 1987 HR reported that $2.1 million of that total came from the Spanish-language prints, noting that admission prices at Spanish-language theaters tended to be $2-4 while admission at English-language theaters was often $6.
       In 1988, the Hispanic Academy for Media Arts & Sciences recognized La Bamba with awards for achievement in film and improving public perceptions of Hispanics, the 17 Mar 1988 DV reported.
       End credits include the following statement: “We gratefully acknowledge the help and support of the Valenzuela family.”
       End credits also include “special thanks” to: “Bob Keane; Fulton Picetti; Sylvia Sensiper; Sharon Sheeley; Darrell Hein; Jim Pewter; Fender Guitars; Ted Quillin; Gil Rocha; Stan Ross; Life Magazine; Janet Roberts; Miller Beer; Alan Rice; Tim Wienckowski; KFWB; Sindee Levin-Small; Kinan Valdez; Marsha Gleeman; Beverly Mendheim; Dick Clark Productions Inc.; The San Jose Film Commission; The California State Film Commission; The Chamber of Commerce of the City of Filmore, California; The Chamber of Commerce of the City of Calexico, California; Spanish Adaption Intersound, Inc, Los Angeles.”