German Vega, sang with Presley

The Puerto Rican musician performed on Girls! Girls! Girls!

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 14, 2007

TAMPA - German Vega, a Puerto Rican musician who recorded songs with Elvis Presley and was an original member of the trio Los Hispanos, has died, his family said. He was 75.

Patricia Vega said her father died in his Tampa apartment Monday. She said one of the highlights of his career was recording Fun in Acapulco with Presley in the early 1960s and playing gigs with his friends as far away as Japan.

Vega would have celebrated his 76th birthday next week.

"He was one of the best second voices of Puerto Rico, a great musician and a great person, he never spoke to offend, he was one of God's souls, " said Guito Vadis, who worked with Vega in a quartet known as the Four Amigos.

He said group also performed with Elvis on 1962's Girls! Girls! Girls!

The performers were popular in Las Vegas and other West Coast venues. "We appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, the show of Steve Allen in Las Vegas, in Hawaii, " Vadis said.

Vega, who was also known as "Salinas" in honor of his native town in southern Puerto Rico, also belonged to the trio Los Borincanos and Los Chicos de San Juan, said Orvil Miller, a musician and singer who wrote an article about the collaboration with Presley.

"These are the four gentlemen who taught Elvis how to sing in Spanish, " Miller said.

[Last modified June 14, 2007, 00:28:18]