Sunny & the Sunglows (formed by songwriters Jimmie Lewing and Sunny Ozuna in

Palacios, Texas Palacios ( ) is a city in Matagorda County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,395 at the 2020 census. History The native inhabitants of the region were the Karankawa people, whose initial contact with Europeans came in the 16th centur ...

) was an American

musical group A musical ensemble, also known as a music group, musical group, or a band is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumen ...

started 1959, and later known as Sunny & the Sunliners in 1963 after moving to

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Career

The group's members were all

Chicano Chicano (masculine form) or Chicana (feminine form) is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans that emerged from the Chicano Movement. In the 1960s, ''Chicano'' was widely reclaimed among Hispanics in the building of a movement toward politic ...

-born with the exception of Amos Johnson Jr., and their style was a blend of

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

tejano Tejanos ( , ) are descendants of Texas Creoles and Mestizos who settled in Texas before its admission as an American state. The term is also sometimes applied to Texans of Mexican descent. Etymology The word ''Tejano'', with a ''J'' instead ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

, and

mariachi Mariachi (, , ) is a genre of regional Mexican music dating back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, two ...

. They first recorded in 1962 for their own label, Sunglow.

Okeh Records OKeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name originally was spelled "OkeH" from the init ...

picked up their single "Golly Gee" for national distribution that year, and in 1963,

Huey P Meaux Huey Purvis Meaux (March 10, 1929 – April 23, 2011) was an American record producer and the owner of various record labels and recording studios, including Crazy Cajun Records, Tribe Records, Tear Drop Records, Capri Records, and SugarHill ...

, a producer from

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

and owner of

Tear Drop Records Tear Drop Records was a record label founded in Winnie, Texas, United States, in the early 1960s by recording pioneer and radio personality, Huey P Meaux. As a deejay, Meaux was known as the "Crazy Cajun", a name that stuck with him throughout his ...

, had them record a remake of

Little Willie John William Edward "Little Willie" John (November 15, 1937 – May 26, 1968) was an American R&B singer who performed in the 1950s and early 1960s. He is best known for his successes on the record charts, with songs such as " All Around the World" ...

's 1958 hit, " Talk to Me, Talk to Me". The single "Talk to Me" ( b/w "Every Week, Every Month, Every Year"), released on

, went to No. 4 on the

Adult Contemporary chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by stati ...

, No. 12 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' R&B

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

, and No. 11 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in October 1963.

Members

* Sunny Ozuna – lead vocals * Vincent Chente Montez – vocals (Bass) * Manuel Guerra – leader * Rudy Guerra – tenor sax * Gregg Ramirez – bass * Henry Nanez – guitar * Manuel Martinez – guitar * Tommy Luna – tenor sax * Andy Ortiz – piano (Sunglows era) * Arthur Gonzalez – electric piano * Martin Liñan – alto sax * Gilbert Fernandez – tenor sax * Amos Johnson Jr. – trumpet * Bobby Solis – drums * Joel Dilley – bass * Joe Cortez III – keyboards, vocals (1977–78) * Johnny Guerra – guitar, vocals * Carlos Hernandez – alto sax, vocals * Jimmy Solis – tenor sax, vocals * Bobby Gutierrez – tenor and bari sax * David Silva – trumpet * Roger Rivera – trombone * David DeLaGarza – keyboards * Frank Ardila – guitar * Arturo Alderete - bass (1973–75) * Charlie Sandoval - percussion

Discography

*''Talk to Me'' (

, LP2000 1964) *''All Night Worker'' (Tear Drop, LP2019 1964) *''Las Vegas Welcomes'' (Tear Drop, 1964) *''Adelante'' (Key-Loc, 1964) *''The Original Peanuts'' (Sunglow Records, LP103 1965) *''Smile Now Cry Later'' (Key-Loc 3001 1966) *''Live in Hollywood'' (Key-Loc 3003 1966) *''Little Brown Eyed Soul'' (Key-Loc, 1968) *''The Versatile'' (Key-Loc, 1969) *''Young, Gifted and Brown'' (Key-Loc, 1971) *''El Orgullo de Texas'' (Key-Loc, 1974) *''El Preferido'' (Key-Loc, 1974) *''Yesterday...& Sunny'' (Teardrop Records, 1976) *''Siempre'' (Key-Loc, 1976) *''Palabritas'' (Key-Loc, 1976) *''Andale Mi Amor'' (Key-Loc, 1977) *''This Is My Band'' (Key-Loc 3006 1977) *''Live in Las Vegas'' (Key-Loc, 1978) *''Yesterday and Sunny Vol. II'' (Key-Loc, 1978) *''Grande Grande Grande'' (Key-Loc, 1978) *''Vengo a Verte'' (Key-Loc, 1979) *''Cry'' (Key-Loc, 1980) *''El Amante'': Sunny & The Sunliners (Freddie Records – LP-026 1981)

References

External links

Musical groups from Texas Tear Drop Records artists Okeh Records artists Chicano rock musicians American musicians of Mexican descent {{US-R&B-band-stub