Luis Alberto Spinetta (born January 23, 1950), is an Argentine musician. He is one of the most influential rock musicians of South America, and together with Charly García is considered the father of Argentine rock. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the residential neighbourhood of Belgrano. As a kid he listened to all kinds of music: folklore and tango, and a little bit later, rock. In 1967, in the midst of a repressive political climate, he formed a band called Almendra with school mates.

Contrasting with the backwards and authoritarian government of General Juan Carlos Onganía, Argentina and especially Buenos Aires was undergoing a cultural blossoming based on new art expressions; the new generation, the sons of the middle class, was immersed in an effervescence that would not reappear in Argentina until 1983. Spinetta was part and later an exponent of that blossoming and rebellious youth that would express itself both through the arms and the arts. Spinetta devoted fully to the latter path, although he briefly became involved with left-wing political movements.

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