Los Hang Ten's was a Peruvian rock band formed in 1964, originally from the San Isidro District in the country's capital Lima, from which the first so-called rock "supergroup" in that country's music history, drew a few of its original members and, through them and the participation of four other members of two additional bands, "Los Mad's" and "Los Drags" resulted in the final idea regarding the creation of the aforementioned super group, Traffic Sound.
Beginnings
In the early months of 1964, a number of the more rock music-inclined members of the Christian Brothers' "Santa María School" student body, specifically a few of those amongst them attending the 9th grade, decided to create a rock band in order to entertain their friends and schoolmates, primarily at school events and parties. The name of the band, "Los Hang Ten's" – a direct derivative of Hang Ten, a complex surfing manoeuver, but keeping the article "Los", in Spanish, (as opposed to the English "The") –, was chosen by consensus by the original group members, most of whom were surf, as well as music aficionados in their remaining free time.
Initially, the group had the brothers José (b. Lima, 1950-), and Freddy (b. Lima, 1952-) Rizo-Patrón Buckley playing lead and rhythm guitar, respectively (their mother a US national from Boston), with the then future Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs of Perú – as well as President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights –, Diego García Sayán Larrabure (born August 2, 1950, in New York, NY), on drums. Diego was the youngest son of Enrique García Sayán, Foreign Minister of Peru from 1946 to 1948 and the co-author, with Pres. Jose Luis Bustamante y Rivero, (1894-1989, later President of the International Court of Justice), of the so called " 200 Mile Territorial Sea Limit Doctrine". The line-up was completed with schoolmates Ramón de Orbegoso Elejalde, who played 2nd rhythm guitar (b. Lima, 1952-), himself the great.grand son of Peruvian President Luis José de Orbegoso, and finally by Felipe Larrabure Aramburú (b. Lima, 1950-), who was García Sayán's first cousin, on lead vocals.
A few weeks after, another schoolmate, future music impresario Arturo Rodrigo Santistevan (b. Lima, 1949-d.Lima, 2019), joined the group by playing the tambourine, as well as, on the occasion, did another school friend, the future front man for Traffic Sound,then DJ and businessman, Manuel Sanguinetti (b. Lima, 1950), who sang several songs with Larrabure, by providing back-up vocals to each other, in alternance.
Influences
The group was influenced by the arrival of the so-called "British Invasion", which had taken over the United States by storm, the latter a country most of their members had visited on either school-sponsored, family, or personal vacation trips, the two previous summers.
Most notably, it was the sound of the UK group The Kinks, led by the Davies brothers, Dave and Ray, that impressed them the most, which led them into performing covers of almost their entire set of hits, ranging from rockers like "You really got me", "Till the end of the day" and "All day and all of the night", to the blues infested "Com'on now", or power ballads like "Baby, where have all the good times gone" and "Tired of waiting for you".
In the next two years, classics from the Beach Boys, The Young Rascals, Donovan and the Rolling Stones became a part of repertoire, including the latter group's first two big US and UK hits, "Get off my cloud" and "Time is on my side" and starting in the summer of 1965, "Satisfaction". The Beatles, by then the world's most successful artists, were also influential, although it was mostly covers they had done themselves of early US rockers, like Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll Music", which ended up becoming part of "Los Hang Ten's" play list.
In their manner of dress, at least in its early formative stage, the group wore what was then, and still remains, a quite unique attire consisting of a turtleneck, usually in light blue and white horizontal stripes, under dark suits.
Recording
After developing a fan base consisting of the families and friends of their schoolmates, and of teens who did not attend "Santa Maria" School but who had become their followers and, soon after playing live in several important festivals, executives at "Odeon", then one of the major Peruvian record labels, suggested that they record a single, which soon materialized with their recording of "Till the end of the day", their favorite Kinks composition, as the "A" side, and a blistering, unusual version of Nancy Sinatra's then massive worldwide hit, "These boots are made for walking", on the flip side.