****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : COMPACT DISCS

“La Bamba ’87.” Various Artists. Original Sound. Thanks to the film about East L.A. rock star Ritchie Valens and Los Lobos’ hit version of Valens’ 1958 hit, 1987 was the year of “La Bamba.” But that’s no excuse for a travesty like this, in which Bob Keane, who produced the original Valens single, has added horns, drums, singers and other new instrumental backing over the Valens record to create “his vision of how ‘La Bamba’ would have sounded had Ritchie Valens lived to record it today.” None of the four remixes here--giving us a total of 20 minutes of “La Bamba”--has the raw power of the original. The 12-track, 37-minute CD also includes three other Valens songs, in their original versions, and an odd assortment of early rock hits readily available elsewhere. * 1/2