b'Fender and his bass player, who were busted with two joints while on tour in Louisiana and were sent to the dreaded Angola State Prison. For a man whose life was an ongoing cycle of ups and downs, of bouncing back from setbacks to emerge stronger than before, three years in a Louisiana state prison would only create another opportunity for Freddy Fenders talent and determination to grow three sizes larger. After his re-lease, he spent five years in New Orleans learning the Blues and singing the Blues, expanding his musical experience by living in one of Americas cradles of ar-tistic expression. He performed with an up-and-com-ing Aaron Nevelle and with New Orleans Blues legend and Voodoo enthusiast, Dr. John.In 1969, Fender once again returned home to Texas, landinginCorpusChristiforthefirsttime.He worked as a full-time auto mechanic while attending Del Mar College and playing music on the weekends, seemingly resigned to an ordinary life. And then it happened, again.The legend-bound Freddy Fender reemerged in 1974 with his recording of Before the Next Teardrop Falls, a Country ballad written by Vivian Keith and Ben Pe-ters in 1967 that had been recorded over a dozen times by artists including Jerry Lee Lewis. Produced by the eventually-controversial Huey P. Meaux at HoustonsAbove/Left: El Bebop Kid was 20-year-old Baldemar Huertas first musical persona, recording Spanish versions of Elvis Presley and famedSugarHillRecordingStudio,asessionthatHank Williams hits; Above/Right: Playbill for Freddy Fenders first performance in Corpus Christi, in 1979; Below/Left: Fender per-took only a few minutes, according to Fender, informed for Marines in Okinawa in 1982, 27 years after he served there; Below/Right: Fender posing on the Corpus Christi seawall.which he spontaneously sang the first verse in Span-ish after singing it in English, Before the Next Tear Drop Falls made music history that has never been matched by reaching Billboards #1 spot on both the Pop and Country national music charts, and making it the most successful record in the history of Meauxs Crazy Cajun Records.From 1974 to 1976, Fender and Meaux released sev-enalbumsthatproducedthreemore#1Country singles, the remake of his 1960 hit that started it all, WastedDaysandWastedNights,SecretLove, andYoullLoseaGoodThing.Forthoseofus who remember what a jukebox was, in 1975 Freddy Fender was named Artist of the Year, and awarded for making the Record of the Year at the Jukebox Awards, as the most-played artist in the United States over the previous year. To top it off, he sang a nationally-tele-vised duet with Dolly Parton on her short-lived mu-sical variety show, aptly titled Dolly! At age 38, in the third life of his career as a singer, Freddy Fender had become Americas top Country Music star.Before the Next Tear Drop Falls made history as not only the first and only single to make it to #1 on Bill-boards Pop and Country charts, but it was also the 92THECOASTALBENDMAGAZINE TheCoastalBend.com'