José Feliciano

JOSÉ FELICIANO was born blind to humble beginnings in Lares, Puerto Rico, one of eleven boys, and moved with his family to NYC at age five. He learned to play the concertina at age six by listening to records and performed at age nine at the Puerto Rican Theater in the Bronx. He taught himself to play guitar, again by listening to records, practicing for as many as fourteen hours a day. Listening to ‘50s rock-n-roll inspired him to sing, and at 17, he quit school to help support his family, playing in coffee houses in Greenwich Village. He played his first professional gig that year in Detroit. Shortly thereafter, a music critic writing of his performance at Gerde’s Folk City referred to him as a “10-fingered wizard who romps, runs, rolls, picks and reverberates his six strings in an incomparable fashion.” Feliciano’s major break was in the Spanish market when, after an amazing performance at the 1966 Mar del Plata Festival in Argentina, RCA executives in Buenos Aires asked him to stay and record an album of Spanish music. The first single, “Poquita Fe” was a smash hit, and “Usted” was even bigger. Infusing long-time standard boleros with his own guitar and vocal stylings, he became the teen idol of the day. Two more albums followed, and Feliciano became a star throughout South and Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. RCA executives in LA then brought him to producer Rick Jarrard, who recommended that Feliciano record a Doors’ song that Jarrard had heard him sing in concert – “Light My Fire.” By the time he was 23, José Feliciano had performed throughout most of the world and earned five GRAMMY nominations, winning two for his album Feliciano! in 1968. In 1970, he composed and recorded his everlasting Christmas song “Feliz Navidad”, which has been named one of the “25 Greatest Holiday Songs of the Century” by ASCAP.