Welcome to the captivating world of Jose Feliciano, where music becomes poetry and melodies weave tales of love, longing, and the human experience. As one of the most esteemed musicians of our time, Jose Feliciano has left an indelible mark on the landscape of music with his soul-stirring compositions and unmatched virtuosity. Born blind in Puerto Rico, Feliciano’s journey to musical greatness is a testament to the power of resilience, passion, and unwavering dedication to one’s craft.
Throughout his illustrious career spanning decades, Jose Feliciano has enchanted audiences worldwide with his distinctive fusion of Latin, jazz, and pop influences, creating a sound that transcends borders and resonates with people from all walks of life. From his iconic rendition of Feliz Navidad to timeless classics like Light My Fire and Rain, Feliciano’s music continues to evoke emotions and evoke nostalgia, proving that the language of music knows no bounds. Join us as we delve into the wisdom and inspiration behind the melodies, exploring the profound insights and reflections encapsulated in Jose Feliciano’s words. Discover the essence of his artistry, passion, and unwavering spirit as we present a collection of unforgettable Jose Feliciano quotes below.
I’ve been playing in Israel since 1971. Jose Feliciano
I was a teen idol in Latin America. Jose Feliciano
I contend that if it wasn’t for Jimi, the gadgets we use for electric guitars now wouldn’t have happened. He was an inventor, in a sense – as well as being great artist. Jose Feliciano
I think I am different from most blind people because my agility is not that of a blind person – I don’t shuffle my feet when I walk. In fact, I have no, as I call them, ‘blindisms.’ Jose Feliciano
I just happened to be Latino, and like any artist, I was trying to forge a career. If I opened doors for others, that’s great, but nobody starts out with those aspirations. Jose Feliciano
The only thing I can say to the people of Israel is that I love them and I am a strong ally. Jose Feliciano
I just do my thing, what I feel. Jose Feliciano
My parents did not want us to lose our culture and our language. And that was a good thing. Jose Feliciano
I’m a musician first and sight has never had anything to do with it. Jose Feliciano
I never knew whether I’d make it as a star but I always wanted to. Jose Feliciano
I truly enjoyed the ’60s. Jose Feliciano
I was the first artist to put the national anthem on the charts, and I’m thrilled. Jose Feliciano
I’m lucky that I can play all kinds of music, that it appeals to all of the generations. Jose Feliciano
My first memory of playing music was when I was 3 years old in Puerto Rico. I played percussion on a tin can behind my uncle, who played the cuatro. Jose Feliciano
When I did the national anthem, I did a soulful, kind of gospel-y version, but it was controversial with the war veterans, just the people who wanted to hear it the old, clinical, atmospheric way, and I didn’t want to sing it like that. Jose Feliciano
God gave me a good voice. I have perfect pitch. I don’t sing flat. Jose Feliciano
I have very heightened senses – not just my hearing but my sense of smell. Jose Feliciano
I’m a one-man band! Jose Feliciano
It’s a wonderful thing to play with symphony orchestras – I’ve played with many – but it’s really special in Israel because you have so many great musicians. Jose Feliciano
I don’t think Hank Greenberg thought of himself as the first Jewish baseball player – he was a baseball player who happened to be Jewish. I’m an artist who happens to be Latin. Jose Feliciano
Actually, being blind is not so bad. If you’re born this way, you never know anything else and you don’t wonder about it. Though I’d hate to have lost my sight after being able to see. Jose Feliciano
I take pride in the fact that I was the first Hispanic artist to really crack the English market. Jose Feliciano
Music. It has always showed me that I could do what the other kids couldn’t do. So I will keep playing and singing and entertaining, as long as the good Lord lets me. That is my life. Jose Feliciano
Very few guitarists play nylon-string. They don’t know how to get the sound out of them. That’s something I’ve spent a lot of time on. Jose Feliciano
To me, my guitar has always been my orchestra. Jose Feliciano
I’m not like other guitar players. In fact, I’m not even like most acoustic players because I use the nylon-string acoustic. I do play steel-string and the electric guitar, too, because I love rock ‘n’ roll and guitarists like Jimi Hendrix. But my bread and butter has always been the nylon-string. Jose Feliciano
I taught myself until I was about 16. And then I studied classical guitar with some teachers. Jose Feliciano
Now everybody has been doing the national anthem in their own style, but in 1968 I was the one that took the heat. It cut my career for quite a while. Jose Feliciano
I did whole Latin albums and it was like Beatlemania for me in the Latin world, the screaming girls, not being able to leave the hotel, at the airport met by screaming fans. That was something! Jose Feliciano
Some people wanted me deported – as if you can be deported to Puerto Rico. Jose Feliciano
RCA wanted me to change my name. They asked me around 1965, when they first signed me. They said, ‘Feliciano is too Latin.’ I said, ‘That’s who I am. I’m Jose Feliciano.’ They wanted me to change my name to Joe Phillips. Jose Feliciano
When I first heard Bob Dylan, I’ll be honest, I didn’t like him. But I was shallow of mind and didn’t understand the poetry. I just judged him on his singing and his guitar playing. Jose Feliciano
I was very, very fortunate that ‘Chico and the Man’ was on TV, that helped me quite a bit. Of course, having the No. 1 Christmas song in the Spanish market, ‘Feliz Navidad,’ doesn’t hurt either. Jose Feliciano
I’m Puerto Rican, but I represent everybody. Jose Feliciano
Everyone is my equal, and that is transferred to my music. Jose Feliciano
I have genuine respect for women and I want to win their respect. I don’t want them to look at me and say, ‘Oh, another man with the same attitudes as most men.’ Jose Feliciano
I’ve been a fan of Elvis since I was 11, so for me, it was a real thrill to make an album of all my favorite Elvis songs. Jose Feliciano
No one can pigeon-hole me because I play everything, and I did that on purpose. Jose Feliciano
The fact I’m blind has been a great help to my career. If I’d been sighted I’d have played baseball and got into trouble like all other kids on my block. Jose Feliciano
I liked the Doors and that kind of music. Jose Feliciano
New York is really where my career somewhat started. Jose Feliciano
I sang the National Anthem with soul. Jose Feliciano
Music made me feel like I was sexy. Music made me feel like I wasn’t just a blind guy. Jose Feliciano
I’m very proud being Puerto Rican. I’m American. That is what America is made of – people from different lands. Jose Feliciano
Pioneers will always get the stones, when everyone later gets the accolades. Jose Feliciano
From 1969 to 1973, I was never played on radio stations. Jose Feliciano
I never expected to have such a long career, it’s been 52 years. Jose Feliciano
I didn’t write Feliz Navidad to make a lot of money for me. Jose Feliciano
I never knew Mother Teresa, but I admired her, especially in this day and age when there aren’t many heroes. Jose Feliciano
I’m kind of iffy on the Latin Grammys because I think we fought so hard, for example, to get the American side of the Grammys to open categories for us… But I support the Latin Grammys in the sense I’m glad that we have them. Jose Feliciano
My dream was to be a celebrity, to be on TV like Bob Hope was. Jose Feliciano
As a Hispanic American, this country has done a lot for me, and I think that people have to be more grateful for what they have in this country. Jose Feliciano
I always tell my wife she’s married to the Puerto Rican Elvis. Jose Feliciano
I made history and nothing can besmirch that. Nothing can erase that. Jose Feliciano
I was growing up at a time when music was growing and changing so fast. I had learned all the big band sounds of the 1940s, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey. But then along came Chuck Berry, Les Paul, Fats Domino and I figured out how to make their music as well. Jose Feliciano
There were screaming girls, I had to learn as a blind person how to run to a limousine otherwise they’d take my clothes off and stuff. I thought to myself ‘how could this happen?’ I mean I could see it, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, but Jose Feliciano? It was a mystery to me. Jose Feliciano
People are really surprised by the fact that I keep in touch with the latest trends rather than retreating to the distant past. Jose Feliciano
I was drawn to the guitar, and still am, because it struck me as the most soulful instrument. Jose Feliciano
I thought I’d be spending my life making brooms, mops, chairs and things. That’s fine for some blind people, but I wanted something more out of life. Music seemed the best way. Jose Feliciano
In 1970, my label decided I should do a Christmas album and I put a bunch of tunes together. We couldn’t decide what to call it and so I said ‘Why not just say Merry Christmas in Spanish? Feliz Navidad.’ They said, ‘That’s cool, Jose, but we need a title song.’ So I just sat down and started to play. Jose Feliciano
I don’t think kneeling during the anthem is such a bad thing. Jose Feliciano
I know Ritchie Valens in 1959 had ‘La Bamba’ but to be totally Spanish – because, you know, Ritchie didn’t speak Spanish – but to be a total Latin artist like myself, to be out in a field where there weren’t any categories for Latinos… I felt good that I was maybe – I didn’t know it at the time – but I felt good that I opened the door. Jose Feliciano
I went through the immigration thing. But when I got to New York it wasn’t so tough for me. I went to school. I went to P.S. 57, then I went to the Lighthouse for the Blind on 59th St. I guess being blind is a great leveler. Jose Feliciano
It taught the English to speak Spanish and it taught the Spanish to speak English. If we had more songs such as that, it would solve the immigration problem in a hurry. But there can’t be another ‘Feliz Navidad.’ Jose Feliciano
I have no regrets, though I was the first artist to stylize the national anthem, and I got a lot of protests for it. I have no regrets. America has been good to me. I’m glad that I’m here. Jose Feliciano
I like Maroon 5, Swedish House Mafia and others. Jose Feliciano
God did not want me to be a blind beggar on the street, alone and bitter. He gave me music, first to be my companion and then to be my salvation. Jose Feliciano
I didn’t have romances when I was in school. Girls didn’t want to go out with me because I was blind. Jose Feliciano
I always wanted to be the first true Latino to break the American barrier, to be on the American charts. Jose Feliciano
If I’ve influenced people, so be it, but I don’t dwell on those kinds of things. I just put out my music. If I influence someone without knowing it, I’m happy about it. I try not to think about those things because it’s not about me. Jose Feliciano
One thing about computers and iPhones is they’re making people mentally lazy. Jose Feliciano
Feliz Navidad’ has interfaced the English and Spanish cultures to come together and after all, we’re living in a multi-cultural world. Jose Feliciano
I’m in a museum. I’m a relic. Jose Feliciano
When I came on in ’68, I was really the lone wolf. Jose Feliciano
When I was 15, I became an avid fan of Andres Segovia. He brought so much respectability to the guitar. Jose Feliciano
The day I stop learning and I don’t try to make myself better on the guitar, that’s the day I hang it up and say, ‘Goodbye.’ Jose Feliciano
I felt bad about the controversy because they stopped playing my songs on American radio stations. But there was nothing wrong with what I did. Now everybody sings the national anthem the way they want. Jose Feliciano
New York will always be a part of me no matter where I go. Jose Feliciano
I didn’t mean for it to cause such a furor, but I was the first guy to ever do the national anthem with a guitar. Everyone else had the big brass band. Nowadays it’s tracks that they sing to, but in my day, we had no tracks. And I was the only orchestra that I knew that was the best orchestra and that was me and my guitar. Jose Feliciano
When people don’t hear you on the radio they think ‘maybe he retired.’ Jose Feliciano
I don’t know if it’s a legacy, but I love it. In my mind and other people’s minds, they know I was the first to stylize the national anthem. Jose Feliciano
I write with my brain. I don’t need a computer. Jose Feliciano
It is always good to make new friends. Jose Feliciano
I got so big in the Latin market, it was a bit like being Elvis Presley. The limousines, the screaming girls – stuff I wasn’t used to. Jose Feliciano
I became a teen idol. At the time, it embarrassed me. Jose Feliciano
When my career took off it surprised me, I was only 22. To have that much success so fast, I just wasn’t prepared. Jose Feliciano
When I was a kid, I could make music out of anything, whether it be a rubber band, a tin can. Whatever it was I made music out of it and so that was my knack. Jose Feliciano
I mean, it wasnt like I had said to myself beforehand, ‘OK, I’m gonna go out there and sing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ in the weirdest way possible and cause a commotion.’ I just sang it the way I felt it I sang it the only way I could. Jose Feliciano
I didnt go to the high school prom. Couldn’t get a date. Jose Feliciano
Playing guitar was a calling, but I never realized that it was going to be a career. It was just something I did out of love. Jose Feliciano
The accordion was the first instrument I played, when I was 7 years old. Jose Feliciano
One day I heard Ray Charles on the radio and I found out he was blind. I thought, ‘You know what, if there’s room for Ray, there might be room for Jose.’ Jose Feliciano
When I did the anthem, I did it with the understanding in my heart and mind that I did it because I’m a patriot. I was trying to be a grateful patriot. I was expressing my feelings for America when I did the anthem my way instead of just singing it with an orchestra. Jose Feliciano
I got tired of seeing people rush through the national anthem so they could have their popcorn and get to the game. Nobody ever sang the anthem with soul. It was always done clinically and they always stuck to the original. I put feeling into it. I sang it in a soulful manner. Jose Feliciano
If I were to travel with all my instruments, I would need a truck. Jose Feliciano
When you’ve had a chance to live some experiences then you can really write, and not having lived that much when I was young I didn’t have much to write about. Now having seen life, the songs seem to come easier. Jose Feliciano
I loved John Lennon, by the way. Jose Feliciano
You can’t write much quality, original music on a concertina. Jose Feliciano
In 1966 I recorded my first bolero album. I was about 18 years old then and I recorded it because I wanted my parents to know that I hadn’t lost my identity of being Latino. Jose Feliciano
I think sighted people let their eyes cheat them out of certain things. People who can see don’t have a great sense of smell because they don’t use it. Jose Feliciano