Guaracha", "Maquinolandera" and "La pollera colorá". Los Llopis also succeeded in Spain, where they established their residence for some years and introduced pachanga, a new Cuban rhythm with an influence from the Dominican merengue. In 1959 Luisito Bravo bursted into the Cuban musical scene with songs such as Neil Sedaka's "Oh Carol" and the Italian song "Tiernamente (Torna a Surriento)" (covered by Elvis Presley as "Surrender", reaching 500,000 record sales by 1961. Other solo artists followed Luisito Bravo, such as Rogelio Sanzarini and Jorge Bauer, as well as groups such as the Satélites of Antonio María Romeu and the Tony Taño band. The 1960s The development of Cuban rock was interrupted by the Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro banned rock music in 1961, for being a corrupt North American influence that didn't belong in the new communist Cuba; a position that ironically was in contradiction with the own liberal vision of Karl Marx with respect to the arts and culture; not to mention that the international rock groups had embraced in general a leftist ideology by then. Despite this, several rock artists emerged that year. Dany Puga, called the King of Twist, and bands such as Los Diablos Melódicos and Los Enfermos del Rock, as well as Los Halcones of IvanFariñas and Los Huracanes from Marianao. The vocal quartet Los Zafiros was another successful group from the beginning of the sixties. Founded in 1961, it was influenced by the doo-wop style of The Platters, The Diamonds and other American groups, and counted on a repertoire consisting of ballads, calypsos and bossanovas, as well as songs with slow rock and bolero rhythms. One of the most salient traits of the group was the treble voice of the counter-tenor Ignacio Elejalde, supported by Miguel Cancio, Leoncio Morúa and Eduardo Elio Hernández (El chino), as well as by the guitarist Manuel Galbán. The guitarist Franco Laganá, an Italian musician that had participated in the renowned group of Renato Carosone, was an early representative of the music with an American influence in Cuba, during the beginning of the sixties decade. At that time, the popular group Los Astros (not to be confused with René Álvarez' band), led by the singer and guitarist Raúl Gómez, was threatened by pressures exerted by the Fidel Castro regime over the rock groups, which were considered as a form of “ideological diversionism” and actively opposed in all its manifestations. Its