The Royal Jesters

The story of this San Antonio, Texas group began in 1956 when [a3129366] and Mike Pedraza, both Sidney Lanier High School students formed The Young Ones with Enrique “Henry” Hernández Jr. In fact, Hernández dropped out of The Five Angels, a group composed of Our Lady of Guadalupe High School buddies to join The Young Ones. In the beginning, the Reno Bops and other bands would back up the vocal quintet made up of Hernández, Lawson, Pedraza, Bobby Cantú and Charlie Walker. By 1959, Louie Escalante, who also played guitar and Tony Arci had replaced Cantú and Walker. In addition, Hernández played trumpet and Lawson learned to play trombone. From this point on, the list of vocalists with the Royal Jesters reads like the Bible’s Book of “Numbers.” Dimas Garza replaced Pedraza in early 1962. When Lawson quit singing to become the group’s full-time manager, he was replaced by José “Joe Jama” Perales, who also played bass. During the 60s, their hits included “My Angel of Love,” “Your Dreamy Eyes” “Ask Me to Move a Mountain” and “Is That Good Enough for You” on the Harlem (3) and Cobra (12) record labels. They then started their own labels, Jester (3) and Clown Records (3), to record their music.