From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is KCRW's program of stories and original documentaries.

It's a part of KCRW's independent producer project.

If you're a music fan nowadays, pretty much any song you could ever think of is just a few clicks away.

But on this episode of the program, a story from a very different time,

when the music you listened to depended a lot on where you came from.

A performer could become a huge star in his own neighborhood but be virtually unknown

everywhere else.

From the late 1950s to the mid-1960s,

East Los Angeles was a place like that.

I'm gonna do a little song for you now.

That'll make you clap your hands, kick feet and as a matter of fact it'll tear you up

La la la la

La la, la, la. L. L. L. L. L. L. L. L.

was like the cruising capital of the world back then in the 60s.

You had Low Riders.

You had Woodier Boulevard, you had the Golden Gate Theater

on the corner of Woodier and Atlantic, and then the Burjane Chicano Rock and Roll scene.

It was a colorful place to be here.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, here we go, The Premier!

That's a record collector named Gene Aguilera,

and these are some of the songs you may have heard before, the songs that started in East LA, but made it big.

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