Cannibal & the Headhunters

Cannibal & the Headhunters
Cannibal & the Headhunters in 1966
Background information
Origin	East Los Angeles, United States
Members	Robert Zapata - drums Charlie Munoz - lead vocal Dean Roubieck - guitar Ron Reyes - lead guitar Karl Carrasco - keyboard Dave Goldstein - keyboard Art Sanchez - bass

Cannibal & the Headhunters are an American band from East Los Angeles. They were one of the first Mexican-American groups to have a national hit record, "Land of a Thousand Dances", recorded on the Rampart label. They were the opening act on The Beatles' second American tour, backed up by the King Curtis band. They played at the historic Shea Stadium concert on August 15, 1965 headlined by The Beatles.

They were discovered by Rampart Records label owner and founder Eddie Davis—and were among the 1960s Mexican-American musicians and singers who pioneered the "East Side Sound" of Los Angeles, a musical phenomenon that attracted international attention.

Richard "Scar" Lopez and Robert "Rabbit" Jaramillo founded the group in 1964; the other group members were Frankie "Cannibal" Garcia and Joe "Yo Yo" Jaramillo. The band was originally called 'Bobby and the Classics'. Barely out of high school, they came from Ramona Gardens and Estrada Courts Housing Projects of East Los Angeles, and were inspired by the African American doo wop groups in their neighborhoods. Garcia attended Andrew Jackson high, in East LA. He frequently sang spontaneously while walking around campus. He had a very strong voice. This group toured recorded and performed together for only eighteen months, before they broke up due to personal conflicts.

Their version of "Land of a Thousand Dances" was a cover version of the original Chris Kenner tune, arranged and produced by Max Uballez with Garcia, and engineered by Bruce Morgan. The record reached #30 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1965. The "na, na, na, na..." lyric roll was a mistake performed by Garcia during a performance in which he forgot the lyrics in mid-song and simply improvised. Wilson Pickett recorded the song into a national hit for himself in 1967, also using the "na, na, na, na" lyric.