Los Bravos

During 1966 the five-member Spanish ensemble Los Bravos secured one of the rare international breakthroughs by a rock band from a non-English-speaking nation when their single “Black Is Black” rose to number four on U.S. charts and number two in Britain. Lead singer Mike Kogel’s tense, tightly pinched delivery bore such a close resemblance to Gene Pitney that countless listeners initially credited the hit to the American performer, and that likeness continued to shape both the vocals and the instrumental settings throughout the group’s recordings. Their bright, horn-driven pop-rock material and studio sound occupied a midpoint between mid-’60s New York pop-soul and the polished style of Jay & the Americans, giving Los Bravos the overall character of a mainstream U.S. act rather than a Spanish or British one. The majority of their tracks were performed in English; although they never returned to the American top twenty, they remained considerably more successful on the European continent and scored a second British top-twenty single, “I Don’t Care,” toward the end of 1966. Bassist Miguel Vicens Danus died on February 12, 2022, at the age of 78.