The Headhunters returned to L.A. in August with the Fab Four to play two shows at the Hollywood Bowl<\/a> just weeks after the Watts riots. Jaramillo danced with such energy that his pants ripped while he and the others scooted across the stage on their behinds, drawing delighted shrieks from the hometown crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were the act, the act!\u201d Jaramillo told the Times in 2015<\/a>. \u201cDidn\u2019t make no difference what color you are. We\u2019re here, we\u2019d perform, and we\u2019d do our best to show \u2018em a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n When the Beatles run ended a few nights later, the Headhunters went back on the road through the fall with another popular British Invasion act, the Animals. <\/p>\n But Jaramillo and his friends never recorded another hit, and he left the group two years later.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wanted to keep going, but he needed to make money for his family,\u201d said his daughter, Julie Trujillo. \u201cHe always had regret about that.\u201d<\/p>\n Jaramillo died Aug. 8 of congestive heart failure in Pueblo, Colo. He was 78.<\/p>\n After leaving the band, he slunk into such musical obscurity that when Tom Waldman began to research what became his 1998 book \u201cLand of a Thousand Dances: Chicano Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll from Southern California<\/a>,\u201d the word was that the former Headhunter was already dead. Instead, Waldman found him in Pueblo, where Jaramillo had moved in the late 1970s to continue his post-Headhunters career as a railroad signal maintainer. <\/p>\n His still-strong tenor was reserved for belting gospel songs at the Pentecostal church he attended.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was serious and thoughtful about his career, not bitter but not exuberant either,\u201d said Waldman, who ended up writing a musical based on a fictionalized version of the Headhunters<\/a>. \u201cBut certainly, there was always a sense of pride of what they had done.\u201d<\/p>\n The book sparked renewed interest in the Eastside\u2019s 1960s Chicano rock scene, and Jaramillo reunited with bandmates<\/a> to perform for a few more years before adoring crowds. As the last surviving Headhunter, he appeared in documentaries and radio interviews for the rest of his life to recount that magical summer of 1965 when four Mexican Americans from L.A. proved to the world they could shine next to some of the biggest rock groups of all time.<\/p>\n Born in the Northern California city of Colusa to Mexican immigrants, Jaramillo and his family moved to Boyle Heights when he was young. He grew up in an era when young Mexican Americans on the Eastside were absorbing genres from across Los Angeles \u2014 doo-wop from South L.A., surf rock from the coast, the tight harmonies and lovelorn lyrics of Mexican trios \u2014 to create a distinct genre later on called Chicano rock or brown-eyed soul. While attending Lincoln High, Jaramillo, his brother Joe and their friend Richard Lopez started a group called Bobby and the Classics, practicing their moves inside what used to be a chicken coop in the Jaramillos\u2019 backyard.<\/p>\n With the addition of Frankie Garcia<\/a> as lead singer, Bobby and the Classics renamed themselves the Headhunters after a shrunken head that Jaramillo hung on the rearview mirror of his \u201949 Chevy. Their stage personas were based on their neighborhood nicknames: Cannibal for Garcia, Scar for Lopez, YoYo for Joe. Robert was Rabbit because of his large front teeth.<\/p>\n The teens quickly became local favorites, performing at church halls and auditoriums. A local producer recorded \u201cLand of 1,000 Dances\u201d with members of car clubs singing along and clapping in the studio to re-create the verve of an Eastside party. It topped out at No. 30 on the Billboard charts, which Jaramillo found out while picking peaches in Northern California with his brother and Lopez to help their family\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n