The Showcases taught Bobby and the Classics how to harmonize, doo-wop and move.  One of the Showcases, Tommy Keys, had a falling-out with his band.  When Ernie Loya left Bobby and the Classics, Keys became the group's singer.  Bobby and the Classics hung out and harmonized at a hamburger joint called The Cup in El Sereno.  Soon people were telling Keys he was too good for the group.  He decided to move on, but before he left, he introduced the group to Frankie Garcia, who was with the Billy Cardenas - managed Rythm Playboys. Garcia had a rough childhood - he was a foster kid whose aunt and uncle eventually raised him.  Garcia's older brother was known as "Big Cannibal," so he became "Lil Cannibal."  Garcia attended Jackson High School, known as "The Prison" because of the large fence surrounding the school.  His outlet was  music and singing, and he played the piano and the saxophone.

"I remember the first time we went to go meet him.  He lived near Primera Flats {an Eastside neighborhood near First Street}.  When we got to his house, he came down and had orange hair.  We looked at eachother and said , 'What the fuck,'" says Rabbit.  But it was more apparent that he could sing, but he couldn't harmonize, so the group decided to make "Lil  Cannibal" Garcia (soon to be shortened to just Cannibal") the lead singer.  Bobby and the Classics now comprised Frankie "Cannibal" Garcia, Joe "Yo Yo" Jaramillo, Bobby "Rabbit" Jaramillo and Richard "Scar" Lopez.

Bobby and the Classics were doing gigs, but they wanted to go big time.  They ended up auditioning for Cardenas.  "We auditioned for him three times and weren't good enough," says Rabbit.  "He wanted bands to do two-hour sets for his show," says Scar.  The group ended up auditioning for Eddie Davis, with one mike and a little speaker, at Rabbit's house on Murchison, with his brothers and sisters running around.

"Frankie knew Eddie [Eddie Davis, owner of Rampart Records], so finally we auditioned for Eddie.  He liked what he saw, and had to get our parents approval to sign us 'cause we were underage" says Rabbit.  The group was now signed, but it needed a new name.

"I had a Chevy that we called the 'blob.'  I used to have a shrunken head I had hanging on the rearview mirror, instead of dice.  We went down to Billy's house to practice, and Billy saw it and named us Cannibal and the Headhunters, "says Rabbit.  During their shows, the group would throw fuzzy Headhunter dolls with an attached miniature photo of the group into the crowd.

One of the seminal moments in rock & roll began, like a lot of them, with a mistake.  Cannibal and the Headhunters were at the Rythm Room performing "Land of 1000 Dances," when Cannibal forgot the lyrics and started singing "naa na na na naa' on the hook.  We looked at each other like 'what's he doing?' But being that we were so tight, bam, we were on harmony.  Eddie jumps up and says, 'Thats a hit!'" says Rabbit.  Cannibal was doing the 'naa na na na naa' thing.  It was getting very popular, and it caught on so much that all the East L.A. bands were doing it.  Thee Midniters [another popular Eastside band] were doing it and Cannibal wanted to record it.  I (Eddie Davis) said I couldn't do it at the time because I didn't have the money.  Billy Cardenas and I were fighting, but I promised Cannibal that before anybody else records that song, we will go into the studio," Davis told Lee Joseph.

On the night of the recording session for 'Land of 1000 Dances' by Cannibal & the Headhunters, the word got out that we were going to record this song, and everybody showed up, including the girl car clubs who were the fan base for many of these groups," recalled recording engineer Bruse Morgan in a 1995 interview.  The studio was packed with people, and Frankie [Cannibal] kept running back and forth to the musicians giving them instructions on the arrangement.  As an engineer, it was hard for me because I couldn't get Frankie to stand still in front of the microphone for more than a few seconds...  So I put some microphones in front of the girls to capture the 'naa na na na naa's as background vocals.  I then put Frankie in a vocal booth, where I surrounded him with microphones so that no matter how much he moved around, he wouldn't sound off-mike... But we knew we had a hit record.  You could smell it and you could taste it."