The Jaguars

"The Way You Look Tonight"

Although the Jaguars are primarily known for a superlative rendition of "The Way You Look Tonight," they had several other fine records and were highly regarded by other vocal groups on the West Coast. Like several other West Coast groups, the Jaguars came from the halls of Fremont High in Los Angeles. In fact, they had started, in 1954, singing in the Fremont High Mixed Chorus originally known as the Shadows; the members were Herman "Sonny" Chaney, Valerio "Val" Poliuto, Manuel Chavez and Charles Middleton. The Shadows were thus a true mixed group, being Black, White, and Hispanic. However, as time went on the guys became dissatisfied with the name "Shadows" and changed it to the Miracles in 1955. It was under this name that they made their first recordings.

In the spring of 1955, the Miracles recorded for entrepreneur John Dolphin  the sides of the record were "A Gal Named Jo" and "You're An Angel," which was released in April 1955 on Dolphin's Cash label, but in such extremely small quantities that the record is one of the rarest today. No surprise that it wasn't sent out for review.  Less than a month later, the Miracles hooked up with Bob Ross' Aardell label and their recording career began in earnest. However, Ross didn't like the name "Miracles" and they sat around trying to think up a new one. It came to them courtesy of comic Stan Freberg, who was at Ross' office that day and suggested the name  Jaguars and the  their first release was  "I Wanted You" and "Rock It,  Davy, Rock It"  was issued shortly thereafter. "I Wanted You" started doing well locally (DJ Zeke Manners ended up playing it multiple times in a row). Because of its success, the Jaguars appeared on the very first Hunter Hancock "Rhythm & Bluesville" TV show.

Ross released their second Aardell record "Be My Sweetie" and "You Don't Believe Me" in November 1955, there was only minor success for both sides, but immortality was waiting in the wings. In the fall of 1956, Aardell now re-named "R-Dell" released the Jaguars' version of the Jerome Kern standard "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Moonlight And You". In October, "The Way You Look Tonight" was re-issued, with "Baby, Baby, Baby". While not making the national charts, "The Way You Look Tonight" was their biggest hit. As Sonny said: "At least I think it was our biggest hit but we never saw a dime from it". Then all was quiet for a year and   the Jaguars didn’t appear anywhere in spite of their smash local hit.  Finally, in early 1957, R-Dell released "I Love You Baby" backed by "The City Zoo" (a re-titling of "Baby, Baby, Baby") but for some strange reason it never was sent out for release. The Jaguars did a single session in late 1957 for Lee Rupe's the ex-wife of Specialty Records owner, Art Rupe. She used the money she received in the divorce to set up Ebb record label "Hold Me Tonight" and "Piccadilly". While at Ebb, the Jaguars became part of the backup on the Ralph Mathis and the Ambers session that produced "Never Let You Go" and "I'll Make A Bet." The Ambers were a group from San Francisco's George Washington High School.

In April 1959, the Jaguars recorded some sides for the Sabrina label as "Frankie & Johnny," "My First Love" and "Do You Love Me."  In 1960, there were two more tunes, this time on the Spry label "Be My Love" and "Piccadilly Rose. Sometime in mid-year, Art Laboe released his first "Oldies But Goodies" album and "The Way You Look Tonight" was a part of it. Probably not by coincidence, the Jaguars' next recording stop was Laboe's Original Sound label, where they recorded "Thinking Of You" and "Look Into My Eyes," released in September 1959. Manny Chavez did not show up for some reason, and Laboe added top tenor Tony Allan and Richard Berry to the session. On the strength of the reaction to "The Way You Look Tonight" on the "Oldies But Goodies" album, Bob Ross dug into his unreleased R-Dell masters and came up with "Don't Go Home" and "Girl Of My Dreams." Which he released in July 1960 with Manny Chavez once again absent, Sonny, Charles, and Val recorded a session for Chess, in January 1961, as the "T-Birds", "Green Stamps" and "Come On Dance With Me" was released that month, with "Taco Harry" and "Hog Wild" remaining
un issued.

In August 1961, the Jaguars had their last session for a long, long while this produced "Fine Fine Fine" and "It Finally Happened," which were released on Rendezvous later that year (and re-released in June of 1963). The Jaguars seemed to have chucked it in at that point, and in late 1961, Manny Chavez recorded with the Seville’s, who had several releases on the JC and Galaxy labels. In 1989 and 1990, there were a few Jaguars releases on Classic Artists. All four original members were still around then, and were probably on these recordings, however, we can't say that for a fact but even today, "The Way You Look Tonight" displays a group with a reservoir of talent and the ability to do a clean but fresh reading of an old classic; it remains one of my favorite songs. Unfortunately, this winning combination did not result in the rewards, which Jaguars certainly deserved.  

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