Cannibal & the Headhunters
Band members Related acts
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line up 1 (1965) - Frankie Cannibal (aka Francisco Garcia) (RIP 1996) -- lead vocals - Joe "Yo Yo" Jaramillio (RIP 2000) -- backing vocals - Robert "Rabbit" Jarmillio -- backing vocals - Richard "Scar" Lopez (RIP 2010) -- backing vocals
line up 1 (1965-67) - Frankie Cannibal (aka Francisco Garcia) (RIP 1996) -- lead vocals - Joe "Yo Yo" Jaramillio (RIP 2000) -- backing vocals - Robert "Rabbit" Jarmillio (RIP 2010) -- backing vocals
line up 3 (1967-69) - Frankie Cannibal (aka Francisco Garcia) (RIP 1996) -- lead vocals NEW - George Ochoa -- backing vocals NEW - Eddie Serrano (RIP 1998) -- backing vocals
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- Frankie Cannibal Garcia (solo efforts) - The Enchantments (Eddie Serrano) - The Men From S.O.U.N.D (George Ochoa)
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Genre: garage Rating: *** stars Title: Land of the Thousand Dances Company: Date Catalog: TEM
3001 Country/State: East Los Angeles, California Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+ Comments: mono pressing Available: 1 Catalog ID: -- Price: $35.00
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The Cannibal & the Headhunters' cover of Chris Kenner's 'Land of 1000 Dances' stands as one of my first musical memories. I can clearly remember it playing on Armed Forces Network Europe radio while driving with my parents in their Volkswagen station wagon. To this day the opening chords remain instantly recognizable and transport me back to a certain time and place.
The song remains a mystery to me. Like me, how can millions of people recognize the track, but have no insight into Cannibal & the Headhunters? The band stand as a perfect example of the one-hit-wonder syndrome. Truly a sad outcome for such a talented outfit.
Attending East L.A.'s Lincoln High School, Bobby Jaramillo and Richard Lopez discovered a common love of music, started a group called Bobby & The Classics. They quickly added Jaramillo's younger brother Joe to the line-up. Frankie Garcia was already singing as a solo act and with local groups like The Royal Jesters and The Rhythm Playboys. Billy Cardenas spotted Garcia's talent and was responsible for pairing him with Bobby & the Classics. Taking on group management he also decided they needed a new name - coming up with Cannibal & The Headhunters. Cardenas brought the group to the attention of restaurateur-Rampart Records founder Eddie Davis. Davis quickly signed them to a recording contract, releasing a Chris Kenner cover as their debut single:
- 1965's 'Land of 1000 Dances' b/w 'I'll Show You How To Love Me' (Rampart catalog number 642) # 30 Billboard pop charts
With the single exploding internationally Rampart released a supporting album. Produced by Davis, "Land of 1000 Dances" (Rampart catalog number 3302 (mono) RM 3302 (stereo)) served as your standard rush job, running the trio through a series of popular pop and soul hits. The emphasis clearly wasn't on enhancing the trio's artistic vision, rather getting "product" to the marketplace as fast as possible. Forgoing the use of studio musicians, Davis brought in East L.A. bands like The Blendells, The Premiers and Thee Midniters to provide backing. They sounded pretty tight and the result were never less than professional. Decent background music. Nothing more. Best of the lot was a cover of Larry Tamblyn's 'Here Comes Love' which tapped as the "B" side on the group's non-LP second single 'Nau Ninny Nau':
- 1965's 'Nau Nanny Nau' b/w 'Here Comes Love' (Rampart catalog number 644)
The title track generated massive amounts of attention and saw the group inundate the airwaves and television appearances including the 9th Street West, Shindig and Hullabalo. That led to touring slots on The Murray The K Show, Dick Clark's Road Show, The Motown Revue Show and an opening slot on The Beatles' 1965 US tour. I'm not sure when or where it was recorded, but YouTube has a great black and white lip-synch performance of the song at: Cannibal & The Headhunters Land Of 1000 Dances Nice Motown-styled choreography too boot.
Later in the year Columbia's Date subsidiary acquired rights the group's recording contract, releasing another version of "Land of the Thousand Dances". Who knows what the marketing logic was, but the new release reflected seven of the tracks found on the Rampart release. Perhaps in an effort to attract "repeat" buyers, five tracks found on the original album were dropped ('Devil In Disguise', 'Strange World, 'Here Comes Love', 'Get Your Baby' and 'The Fat Man'), Those selections were replaced by four new songs ('La Bamba', 'Zulu King', 'Love Bird' and the Garcia penned 'Headhunters' Dance Party'). Sadly a couple of the "lost" selections were among the original set's better numbers. 'Strange World' was a strong old-school ballad with nice harmonies while 'The Fat Man' was an awesome frat rocker. The title track was probably worth the entrance fee; nothing else coming remotely close. Exemplified by James Brown's 'Out of Sight', 'La Bamba' and 'Shotgun' a couple of their covers were energetic, but none surpassed the originals. Elsewhere, it sounded a little old school, but their cover of Max Uballez's 'Don't Let Her Go' was catchy. Interesting to note that by the time the Date album was released, Richard Lopez had left the group, as shown on the Date album cover, the line-up down to Garcia and the Jaramillo brothers.
"Land of
the Thousand Dances" track listing: 1.) Land Of 1000 Dances (Chris Kenner - Antoine Domino) - 2:30 rating: **** stars Chris Kenner's 'Land of 1000 Dances' was an apt description for a song that served as a catalog of then-popular dances. The lyrics referred to sixteen then popular dances; the Pony, the Chicken, the Mashed Potato, the Alligator, the Watusi, the Twist, the Fly, the Jerk, the Tango, the Yo-Yo, the Sweet Pea, the Hand Jive, the Slop, the Bop, the Fish, and the Popeye. Even though Kenner wrote the song, he agreed to split the writing credits and royalties with Antonie "Fats" Domino if he would agree to record a version of the song. The irony is both men recorded the song and ultimately Kenner's version proved the bigger seller.
The Cannibal & the Headhunters cover deleted the opening Gospel-flavored a capella introduction where the song title was actually mentioned ("Children, go where I send you / (Where will you send me?) / I'm gon' send you to that land / the land of a thousand dances ..."). The tempo was accelerated and the mid-song melody was modified, but the biggest difference came when Garcia forgot some of the song titles and ab-dibbed a series of "na na na na nas" in there place. Rather record another take, it was decided to leave the song as was. The result was a classic slice of '60s garage rock. Yeah, it did not sell as well as Wilson Pickett's subsequent version and Kenner's original is pretty good, but if you're gonna pick a favorite, it's had not to give the nod to The Cannibal and the Headhunters version. Date also re-issued the title track as a single (for some reason the Date grammar police decided to spelled out the number "Thousand" in the song title):
- 1965's 'Land of a Thousand Dances' b/w 'Love Bird' (Date catalog number 2-1525)
2.) Boy From New York City (George Davis - John Taylor) - 3:17 rating: ** stars Setting the pattern for the rest of the album, their cover of The Ad Libs' 'Boy From New York City' was fine. It really didn't differ all that much from the original, though you could hear Garcia straining to stay in tune. 3.) My Girl (Ronald White - William Robinson) - 2:55 rating: ** stars Why anyone would want to cover one of The Temptations biggest hits is a mystery to me. Great song and the backing track sound very close to the original. Well, other than Garcia's vocal replacing David Ruffin, their cover sounded very close to the original. Again, why bother? Just pull out The Temptations original. 4.) Don't Let Her Go (Max Uballez) - 2:21 rating: **** stars Well at least it wasn't another haphazard cover. Written by album arranger Max Uballez (of Max Uballez & The Romancers), 'Don't Let Her Go' was an upbeat, soul-tinged effort. The song sounded a little old fashioned, but had a great refrain, reminding me of a mash-up of Buddy Holly and East L.A. soul. Love the stomping percussion sounds. It was filmed from the audience so neither the video, or sound quality are very good, but recorded at a 1982 date at Hollywood's Club Lingerie, YouTube has an energetic, if slightly sloppy performance of the song: Cannibal And The Headhunters Featuring Frankie "Cannibal" Garcia-Don't Let Her Go-Club Lingerie 1982 5.) Searchin' (Jerry Leiber - Mike Stoller) - 2:42 rating: ** stars The second Leiber-Stoller composition, their cover of The Coaster's 'Searchin' was a nice nod to their doowop roots. Again, just pull out The Coasters original. 6.) Out Of Sight (Ted Wright) - 2:05 rating: *** stars My humble opinion - 'Out of Sight' was one of the best songs James Brown ever wrote (under the alias Ted Wright). Yeah, there was no way three young Latinos from East L.A. were going to surpass the original, but kudos to them for giving it their best shot. The track reappeared as the "B" side to their 1966 'Please Baby Please' 45.
(side
2) Hey they were Latino so let's have the record the classic Ritchie Valens tune ... Lot of logic there. Once again their performance was surprisingly good with a tasty fuzz guitar showing up midway through . This was another one that showed up as a "B" side - this time the flip to their 1966 'Zulu King' 45 on Date. 2.) Zulu King (Chick Carlton) - rating: *** stars Certainly the album's oddest track, I'd never heard 'Zulu King' before. A breezy ballad, the lyrics were certainly odd, but Garcia's delivery was nice with some tasty horn charts kicking it along. Date tapped the track as a single:
- 1966's 'Zulu King' b/w 'La Bamba' (Date catalog number 2-1516)
3.) Shotgun (Autry DeWalt) - rating: ** stars Hey, time for another Motown cover. At least it was upbeat and a song I love, though their cover was nowhere near the Junior Walker original. The in-studio goofing around and sound effects were at least mildly entertaining. YouTube has another clip fro their 1982 Club Lingerie show: Cannibal And The Headhunters Featuring Frankie "Cannibal" Garcia-Outasight-Club Lingerie 1982 4.) Love Bird (Richard Gottehrer - Seymour Stein) - 2:35 rating: ** stars Not sure, why, but 'Love Bird' was essentially a retitled version of Charles and Inez Foxx's classic 'Mockingbird'. Maybe they retitled it because the performance wasn't very good? The song appeared as the "B" side to Date's reissue of 'Land of 1000 Dances'. 5.) Headhunters' Dance Party (Frankie Garcia) -
Three of the four principals have died. - Only 49, Garcia died in 1996. - Joe Jaramillo passed on from cirrhosis of the liver in 2000 - Suffering form lung cancer, Richard Lopez died in 2010
For anyone interested, there's an amazing website dedicated to The Eastside Sound: You Found That Eastside Sound: EASTSIDE BANDS - CANNIBAL & THE HEADHUNTERS
© Scott R. Blackerby November, 2024
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