Donna (Ritchie Valens song)

Last updated
"Donna"
Ritchie Valens Donna single.jpg
Single by Ritchie Valens
from the album Ritchie Valens
B-side "La Bamba"
ReleasedSeptember 1958
RecordedSeptember 16, 1958, Gold Star Studios, Los Angeles
Genre Rock and roll, doo wop
Length2:20
Label Del-Fi 4110
Songwriter(s) Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens singles chronology
"Come On, Let's Go" / "Framed"
(1958)
"Donna" / "La Bamba"
(1958)
"Fast Freight" / "Big Baby Blues"
(1959)

"Donna" is a song written by Ritchie Valens, [1] featuring the '50s progression. [2] The song was released in 1958 on Del-Fi Records. [3] Written as a tribute to his high school sweetheart Donna Ludwig, it was Valens' highest-charting single, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the following year. ("Stagger Lee" by Lloyd Price was at number one.) [4]

Contents

Valens' version

The song was recorded on September 16, 1958, at the Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles. Bob Keene is listed [5] 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 Carol Kaye on guitars.

"Donna", the second Ritchie Valens single released, was the A side of the influential song "La Bamba". This single was only one of four, 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) and ("That's My Little Suzie"/"In a Turkish Town – Del-Fi 4114) 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 in October 1958. Three weeks before Valens' death, the song peaked at No. 2. On the Hot R&B Sides chart, "Donna" went to No. 11. [6]

Chart performance

All-time charts

Chart (1958-2018)Position
US Billboard Hot 100 [7] 457

Other versions

Answer song

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 [18] ) "A Letter to Donna" (Unart UR2010), [19] that used Valens' tune but with new lyrics they wrote themselves with "John Ottowa" (a pseudonym of Jack Lewis [20] ), that sent a message to Valens' girlfriend, Donna Ludwig. [21]

Samples and other uses

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