Jose Feliciano Biography

Fast Facts

• Won Billboard Magazine's lifetime achievement award in 1996
• Has been awarded more than 45 Gold and Platinum records during his career
• Was knighted by the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, a Papal Order of the Catholic Church
• Received an honorary doctorate from Sacred Heart University for his musical and humanitarian contributions
• Became interested in music during childhood, learning to play the accordion and the guitar, and later performed at The Puerto Rican Theater in the Bronx when he was only 9 years old
• Recorded his first album, a collection of Spanish boleros from his childhood that included "Poquita Fe" and "Usted," at the RCA studio in Buenos Aires after a performance at the Mar del Plata Festival in 1966
• Best known as a guitarist, composer and singer whose hit songs include a cover of The Doors' "Light My Fire" and the Christmas single "Feliz Navidad․"
• Recorded "The Sound of Vienna" in the mid-1980s at the request of his manager, Helmuth Schaerf, and the song has since become the Official Anthem of the City of Vienna
• Wrote several songs for Ray Bradbury's play "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit" in 1989