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Donna (song)

"Donna"
Ritchie Valens Donna single.jpg
Single by Ritchie Valens
from the album Ritchie Valens
B-side "La Bamba"
Released 1958
Format 45 record
Recorded 1958
Genre Rock and roll
Length 2:20
Label Del-Fi 4110
Writer(s) Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens singles chronology
"Come On, Lets Go"/"Framed"
(1958)
"Donna"/"La Bamba"
(1958)
"Fast Freight"/"Big Baby Blues"
(1959)

"Donna" is a song sung by Ritchie Valens, featuring the 50s progression. The song was released in 1958 on Del-Fi Records. It reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the following year, becoming Valens' highest-charting single. It was written as a tribute to his high school sweetheart Donna Ludwig.

The song was recorded on December 16, 1958, at the Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles. Bob Keene is listed as having been the leader of the session, which included Earl Palmer on drums; Buddy Clark on bass; and Valens, Rene Hall, Irving Ashby, and Carole Kaye on guitars.

"Donna", the second Ritchie Valens single released, was the A side of the influential and more famous song "La Bamba". This single was only one of three, along with the previous single ("Come On, Let's Go"/"Framed" – Del-Fi 4106) and the follow-up ("Fast Freight"/"Big Baby Blues" – Del-Fi 4111) ever released in Valens' lifetime. Original Del-Fi pressings of "Donna"/"La Bamba" include black and sea green labels with circles, later replaced with solid sea green or solid dark green labels. Early 1960s pressings have black labels with sea green "sawtooth" outer edge.

Valens' version was positioned at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart when Valens died. Three weeks after Valens' death, the song peaked at No. 2.

Within days of the death of Valens, in February 1959 Brooklyn songwriters and record producers Bob Feldman and Jerry Goldstein recorded and released (as The Kittens) "A Letter to Donna" (Unart UR2010), that used Valens' tune but with new lyrics they wrote themselves with "John Ottowa" (a pseudonym of Jack Lewis), that sent a message to Valens' girlfriend, Donna Ludwig.


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