Background and career
José Montserrate Feliciano García (Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse feliˈsjano]; born September 10, 1945) is a Puerto Rican musician. He recorded many international hits, including his rendition of the Doors' "Light My Fire" and his self-penned Christmas song "Feliz Navidad". Music genres he explores consist of a fusion of many styles, such as Latin, blues, jazz, soul and rock music, created primarily with the help of his signature acoustic guitar sound. In the United States, Feliciano became popular in the 1960s, particularly after his 1968 album Feliciano! reached number 2 on the music charts. Since then in his career, he has released over 50 albums worldwide in both the English and Spanish languages
José Montserrate Feliciano García was born on September 10, 1945, in Lares, Puerto Rico, the fourth child of eleven sons. He was born blind as a result of congenital glaucoma. He was first exposed to music at the age of three, playing on a cracker tin can while accompanying his uncle who played the cuatro. When Feliciano was five, his family moved to Spanish Harlem, New York City, where he made his first public appearance at the Teatro Puerto Rico in The Bronx. Feliciano's knack for music became apparent when at age seven, he taught himself to play the accordion. About two years later, when he was nine years old, his father gave him his first guitar. He would play his guitar by himself in his room for up to 14 hours a day and would learn by listening to 1950s rock and roll, records of classical guitarists, and jazz players. Andrés Segovia and Wes Montgomery were among his favorites. As a teenager, Feliciano took classical guitar lessons with Harold Morris, a staff music teacher at The Light House School for the Blind in New York City. Morris himself had once been a student of Segovia. In a 1969 interview, Feliciano mentioned soul music in general, and Ray Charles and Sam Cooke in particular, as influences on his singing. At the age of 17, to help support his family, Feliciano left high school. He started frequenting the coffee houses of Greenwich Village, "passing the hat" as his "salary" in those clubs where he was invited to play. His first professional contracted performance was at The Retort, a coffee house in Detroit, Michigan.
In 1963, while gaining recognition in pubs, coffee houses and clubs throughout the US and Canada, especially in Greenwich Village, New York, and Vancouver, British Columbia, he was discovered while performing at Gerde's Folk City in the Village and immediately signed by Jack Somer, an executive at RCA Victor. Feliciano recounts the story of doing an impression of Bob Dylan, only to find that Dylan was in the audience. In 1964, he released his debut single, "Everybody Do the Click" (which became a hit in the Philippines, at No. 2, staying 14 weeks in the Top Ten Hit parade) and was invited to the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. In 1965 and 1966, he released his first albums: The Voice and Guitar of José Feliciano and A Bag Full of Soul, two folk-pop-soul albums that showcased his talent on radios across the US, where in July 1963 he had been described by New York Times columnist, Robert Shelton as a "10-fingered wizard". In 1966, Feliciano visited Mar del Plata, Argentina, to perform at the Festival de Mar del Plata. There, he so impressed the RCA Victor executives, that they wanted him to stay and record an album for them in Spanish. They were unsure how they wanted to record, so Feliciano suggested he record some of the bolero music of his parents where Feliciano then added his blues and folk influences from his experiences while playing in the Village. The result was two smash hits with the singles "Poquita Fe" ("Little Faith", also titled "Sin Fe", or "Without Faith"), and "Usted". This was the beginning of a series of successful singles, albums and gold records throughout Latin America and Hispanic communities in the United States where Feliciano revolutionized the sound of the bolero. Some of his most beloved interpretations include "La Copa Rota", "La Carcel de Sing Sing" and "Extraños en la Noche", which charted concurrently as the Spanish version of Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night". A year later, Feliciano was scheduled to perform in the United Kingdom but the authorities would not allow his guide dog, Trudy, into the country unless she was quarantined for six months. The stringent quarantine measures of those days were intended to prevent the spread of rabies. Devastated by their actions, Feliciano wrote a song about his experience entitled "No Dogs Allowed" (becoming a Netherlands Top 10 hit in 1969), which told the story of this first visit to London. During his British visit on July 16, 1967, Feliciano gave a live performance on the pirate radio stations Radio 227 and Radio 355, on board the MV Laissez Faire off the British coast less than a month before the stations were due to be closed by the UK's Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967. He also guested on a popular British television show with Dusty Springfield and recorded two singles for RCA with London based songwriter/producer Tom Springfield called "My Foolish Heart/Only Once" (which was played on Radio London and which he sang on Dusty Springfield’s show) and "Adiós Amor/At Days End”, a song also recorded by The Casuals. Neither were hits.
After two more successful albums, Feliciano, now a household name throughout Latin America, moved to Los Angeles. He was introduced to RCA Victor producer, Rick Jarrard who, at the time, was also producing Harry Nilsson and Jefferson Airplane. They recorded the hit album Feliciano! together, including the Doors' song "Light My Fire". Feliciano's style was clearly defining itself by that time as that of an innovative crossover artist with soul, folk and rock influences, infused with a substantial Latin flair. RCA released "California Dreamin'" as the first single during the summer of 1968 with "Light My Fire" as the B-side. A DJ behind the mic at KJR-Radio in Seattle, Washington liked that song on the flip side, played it on the air, and it took off, reaching No. 3 on the US pop charts with over one million copies sold in the US market alone. The song became a No. 1 hit in many countries, including Canada, Brazil and the UK and was awarded a gold disc. Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger has complimented the cover. On the strength of this success, Feliciano won two Grammy Awards in 1968 for Best New Artist of the Year and Best Pop Male Performance, bringing him worldwide recognition as an avant-garde pop star because of his unique "crossover" style from Latino music to English-language pop/rock. He is widely recognized as the first virtuoso classical guitarist to bring the sound of a nylon-string guitar into the pop/rock scene.
Feliciano's "Star-Spangled Banner" On October 7, 1968, at the height of protests against the Vietnam War, Feliciano was invited by Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Tiger Stadium in Detroit during Game 5 pre-game ceremonies of the 1968 World Series between the Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. His personalized, slow, Latin jazz performance proved highly controversial and damaging to Feliciano's career in the months, even years, that followed. Some listeners thought he had "desecrated" and disrespected the national anthem but when asked about it, Feliciano explained that the reason he offered a non-traditional rendition of the anthem was to get people to pay attention to it. In a November 2017 NPR broadcast, he expressed pride at being the one to open the door for artists who could later interpret the nation's anthem. His World Series rendition, which features Feliciano accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar, was released as a single that charted for 5 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 50; the first time the United States' anthem appeared on the American music charts. That recording of the national anthem is now on permanent exhibit in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
In 1969, Feliciano recorded two more albums with Rick Jarrard, 10 to 23 and the London Palladium double-disc LP, Alive Alive-O!, both of which were awarded gold discs. Around this time RCA re-released "Adiós Amor/At Days End” in the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Europe. Written by Tom Springfield and Norman Newell and apparently, originally declined by the Australian folk/pop quartet The Seekers, it became Feliciano's biggest hit in Australia, reaching the Top 10 in 1969. He also worked with Quincy Jones on the Mackenna's Gold movie soundtrack, where he recorded the theme song "Old Turkey Buzzard" and appeared on numerous US television shows, performing duets with Johnny Cash, Bing Crosby, Glen Campbell, Andy Williams, and Diana Ross. Feliciano's many television appearances through the 1960s and into the 1970s included: The Ed Sullivan Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Merv Griffin Show, The Flip Wilson Show, Hee Haw, The Sonny and Cher Show, The Midnight Special, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. On April 27, 1969, the NBC television network aired a TV special titled: Feliciano! Very Special, starring Feliciano with guest artists Burt Bacharach, The Blossoms, Glen Campbell, Dionne Warwick, and Andy Williams.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
