From their arrival on the scene during the 1980s, the norteño group Los Terribles del Norte cultivated and spread a singular approach within Mexican regional music. Although every track they performed stayed rooted in longstanding forms, their deployment of electric bass as a lead foil to musical director Benny Méndez’s accordion distinguished the band immediately. These choices produced measurable commercial results—two gold and six platinum albums—along with multiple award nominations, a Grammy for the 2002 release Cómo Cansa Ser Pobre, and a Latin Grammy for the 2003 album Tercera Es la Vencida, all achieved without radio airplay.
Méndez established the quartet in 1983 in San Ciro de Acosta, San Luis Potosí, Mexico, remaining its sole founding member. After performing at weddings and picnics while rehearsing extensively to master the regional repertoire, the musicians delivered their first show outside Mexico at a Texas beer hall that same year. They refined their style across venues in northern Mexico and west Texas before signing with Freddie Records in late 1990. Recording commenced in 1991 after lead vocalist Juan Acuna joined as the fifth member. Bolstered by the label’s promotion and the band’s relentless touring, the 1992 album Ya Me Voy a California entered the Mexican Regional Albums chart and reached number 14; the next year, Carrera de Muerte climbed one position higher. Issued in 1995, El Bronco earned the group’s first gold certification and later achieved platinum status. Throughout the remainder of the decade the band released several successful compilations and watched singles written by leading composers dominate jukeboxes in cantinas and bars stretching from Juárez and El Paso to Baja California, Nogales, and San Diego. Acuna departed at the start of the new century to form his own group, initiating repeated and near-total personnel shifts. In 2002 the album 20 Corridazos peaked at number 12. Los Terribles del Norte continued emphasizing realistic narcocorridos, valse Mexicanas, polkas, cumbias, and románticos, collecting four additional Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations before claiming the Grammy for Cómo Cansa Ser Pobre and the Latin Grammy for the platinum-certified La Tercera Es la Vencida in 2002 and 2003. Their releases kept charting, yet radio outlets stayed away because the prominent bass lent even the most traditional material a contemporary edge.
The 2007 collection 30 Corridos: Historias Nortenas reached number 26 on the Top Latin Albums chart, followed in 2008 by the platinum-certified La Mejor... Coleccion de Cumbia, which landed at number 24. Two further themed projects, 2010’s Corridos Bien Terribles and 2011’s singles compilation Super #1’s, both entered the Latin Albums Top 40 and the Mexican Regional Top 20. After extensive tours through Mexico, South America, and the southwestern United States, the group entered a prolonged hiatus. They reemerged refreshed in 2016, adding Martínez’s son Benny Jr. on second accordion and lead vocals for the live recording En Vivo Desde Houston, which failed to chart, and the studio album Meros Jefes de Los Corridos, which peaked inside the Mexican Regional Albums Top Ten. The following year’s Live album climbed to number seven. Following further intensive roadwork, Los Terribles del Norte returned to the studio in late 2018 and released Engaño in February 2019 before resuming touring.
