The Cisco Kid – War | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning
Chart Performance: Pop (#2) & R&B (#5); 1973
Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne
From 1962 on, the band-that-would-become-War moved through players and genres of music before becoming Nightshift, the backing band for the LA Rams’ Deacon Jones.
Jones and Nightshift were doing their thing at the Rag Doll Club in North Hollywood where they were spotted by ex-Animals singer Eric Burdon, he of The House Of The Rising Sun (#1; 1964).
Burdon moved Nightshift onto his payroll, renamed them War, and soon had them high on the charts with Spill The Wine (#3; 1970). By the time Burden went his own way, War had already released their first solo album.
It stiffed, yet, War’s sophomore effort sold very well and yielded the hits All Day Music and Slippin’ Into Darkness. The third album slammed all the way to #1, propelled in large part by War’s ode to the 1950’s dashing Latino TV cowboy, the Cisco Kid, played by Duncan Renaldo. The Cisco Kid did well by War, and War did well by Cisco; presenting Renaldo with a gold record.
This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.
Produced by:
- Jerry Goldstein
Lyrics Written by:
- Thomas Allen
- Harold Brown
- Morris “BB” Dickerson
- Charles Miller
- Howard Scott
- Lee Oskar
- Lonnie Jordan
Ed Osborne
Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).