Vicky Tafoya, a key player in the SoCal revival of rockabilly, doo-wop, swing has died

Vicky Tafoya was not born when rockabilly and doo-wop had their original heyday in the '50s and '60s. But she was part of the '90s revival in SoCal and remained central as it later morphed into a more niche scene, performing across the U.S. and overseas for hugely passionate fans.

More recently, Tafoya enjoyed some commercial success when she signed with Penrose Records, part of the funk and soul label Daptone Records in 2019.

Singer and songwriter Vicky Tafoya died Aug. 24 in Riverside.

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Courtesy Penrose Records

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“She is queen of the car show and probably one of the best rockabilly, R&B, contemporary voices there is,” said Karen Mamont, a music promoter who booked Tafoya and her band for large rockabilly shows in recent years.

Tafoya, who was 57 years old, died of colon cancer Aug. 24 at Riverside Community Hospital, according to Matt Beld, her longtime guitarist and collaborator.

“Everyone is mourning Vicki Tafoya,” said Mamont. “We are calling each other. We're crying. We're telling each other stories.”

Swing dancing, rockabilly

Tafoya told musician Big Sandy on his podcast that the early era was very much alive to her through her older siblings and her mother.

“I'm one of 12. I'm the baby. … My mom always encouraged me to listen to music. She would take me to the thrift stores,” she said.

And there she was, a kid who lived in Santa Ana, fascinated by the decades-old songs, including, she said, “'[My] Boyfriend's Back,' Frankie Lymon, Dion, The Belmonts. And I thought … this is good stuff.”

After high school, she found out she wasn't the only one inspired by that music.

“Vicky belonged to something called the Doo-Wop Society of Southern California," Beld said.

The society was a vanguard in the the swing-dancing and rockabilly revival, fueled by new Southern California bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, which formed in Ventura in 1989, and Royal Crown Review, which started in L.A. around the same time.

Some of the musicians who’d popularized the music decades before still were around and performed in smaller venues such as the Petroleum Club in Long Beach and The Hop in Lakewood.

“Vicky was like the young kid on the scene that would show up and open the show and sing Frankie Lymon songs,” Beld said.

The youthful energy of the scene Tafoya was a part of showed up in movies (Swingers, 1996) and advertising (Gap ad 1998). Pop culture tastes moved on, but Tafoya kept singing and writing songs because there continued to be an audience for the music.

Music and performing often fell short of a living wage for her, Beld said, but Tafoya kept juggling singing and performing with day jobs.

Over the years, Tafoya’s music projects included Vicky and the Vengents, a garage rock band, a doo-wop band called The Redondos, and Vicky Tafoya and the Big Beat founded in 2001, which became the biggest, but not only, outlet for her singing and songwriting.

Making a living off performing, finally

For most of her career, Vicky Tafoya recorded and released her music on her own. That changed six years ago when she joined Daptone Records.

“That is definitely the height of her reach because she was able to really walk amongst all of these different scenes in Southern California,” Beld said, “whether it was more of a car show thing, more of an oldies thing, [or] the roots kind of rockabilly scene.”

Her videos under Penrose had high production values and gave Tafoya and her music the visual gloss that her singing gave her performances.

Then tragedy struck. Tafoya’s guitarist and husband, Vincent Maldonado, died.

“They were married for 20 years, and he passed away tragically [in] 2021,” Beld said.

The video of the song “Forever” has a dedication to him at the end.

Tafoya’s funeral and celebration of life will be private, Beld said, but a tribute from friends and musicians who knew Tafoya will be organized in the near future.