Forever Gold

Freddy Fender

A beloved figure in the annals of musical Americana and one of the first Mexican-Americans to crack the country charts, Freddy Fender scored a huge hit in 1959 with the classic "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights." Legal troubles sidelined Fender until the early 1970s when he reemerged as a chart force offering a smooth blend of American roots music that incorporated country, blues, Cajun music, and Mexican border sounds. In the early 1990s Fender, along with Lone Star music legends Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers, and Flaco Jimenez, formed the Tex-Mex supergroup the Texas Tornados. The group released several albums together, and Fender continued to perform solo until his death in 2006.