Released May 1963 Label Moonglow Producer(s) Ray Maxwell | Recorded 1963 Writer(s) Bill Medley | |
Genre Pop, R&B, blue-eyed soul | ||
"Little Latin Lupe Lu" was written by Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers, who had a chart record with the song in 1963 reaching #47 on the Cashbox music chart and #49 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Contents
Original version
Reminiscing about the song, Medley stated that in high school he dated a Lupe Laguna. The Righteous Brothers original recording made it onto WLS charts for one week, May 31, 1963, at #32.
Cover versions
The south Minneapolis surf rock band The Chancellors recorded "Little Latin Lupe Lu" on October 13, 1964 at Kay Bank Studios in Minneapolis. The record was released under the Soma label in the United States and Apex Records in Canada. It was a regional hit for The Chancellors, arriving on the WDGY charts December 26, 1964 and reaching #1 in Minneapolis on January 23, 1965. The Chancellors remained at #1 for three weeks and in the Top 40 for 11 weeks. As "Little Latin Lupe Lu" faded from the Twin Cities’ charts, it appeared in Chicago on April 2, 1965. The Chancellors stayed in the WLS charts for seven weeks, peaking at #14.
The Kingsmen recorded a version of the song reaching #46 on the Billboard chart and #49 on the Cashbox chart in 1964. In 1966, Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels had the most success with their recording, hitting #16 on Cashbox and #17 on Billboard. A few years later, the pioneering all-woman garage band The Heart Beats released a version where Lupe Lu was a boy.
The song has been performed multiple times by Bruce Springsteen, most recently in 2009 on his Working on a Dream Tour at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts as a request by sign from a fan with the lyrics written on the back of the sign.