Latin sax player Flores shouted ‘tequila!’ in song

Danny Flores, who played the saxophone and shouted the word “tequila!” in the 1950s hit song “Tequila!,” has died. He was 77.

Flores, who lived in Westminster, died Tuesday at Huntington Beach Hospital, said hospital spokeswoman Kathleen Curran. He died of complications from pneumonia, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.

In 1957, Flores was in a group that recorded some work with rockabilly singer Dave Burgess. One of the songs was based on a nameless riff Flores had written. He played the “dirty” saxophone part and repeatedly shouted out the single-word lyric: “tequila!”

“Tequila!” went to No. 1 on the Billboard chart and won a Grammy in 1959. Flores continued to play it for the next 40 years.

The song has been used in numerous commercials and TV shows, and it has long been a mainstay of the University of Washington band.

Joe Glazer, singer who rallied union workers

Joe Glazer, a singer-songwriter who rallied union loyalists and sympathizers, died Tuesday. He was 88.

Glazer died at his home in Chevy Chase from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, said his wife, Mildred.

Glazer wrote his best-known song, “The Mills Weren’t Made of Marble,” in 1947. It tells of a millworker’s dream of a happy heaven where “nobody ever got tired and nobody ever grew old.”

From Herald news services