The 1958 follow-up, 'Lover, Lover,' attracted scant attention, however, and the same fate befell 'Please Wait My Love.' After the Valiants' fifth Keen single, 'We Knew,' also failed to match their early success, the label terminated the group's contract. Featuring Spicer on lead, the single fell just shy of the R&B Top 40, additionally crossing over to the number 69 slot on the pop charts.

Only when 'This Is the Night' appeared on Keen in late 1957 did the Valiants receive proper attribution. (This lineup's first session with Blackwell further added to the confusion when the Aladdin label mistakenly credited their 1957 debut, 'Happenin' After School,' to the Gents.)

Commercial success again eluded the group, and with the addition of ex-Squires guitarist Chester Pipkin, the core trio of Spencer, Coefield, and Spicer formed yet another vehicle, the Valiants, borrowing the name from the popular comic strip Prince Valiant.

A studio session soon followed, and after Blackwell shopped the master tape to the Pasadena-based Vita label, the first Chavelles single hit stores in the spring of 1956. When the record flopped, the Sabers rechristened themselves the Chavelles, and with the intervention of Coefield's postman father met local jazz pianist Lloyd Glenn, who introduced the group to Specialty Records A&R chief 'Bumps' Blackwell. According to Marv Goldberg's profile on his R&B Notebooks website, the cousins added first tenor Billy Spicer and bass Walter Carter prior to issuing their Cal-West label debut single, 'Always, Forever,' in late 1955. The labyrinthine history of Los Angeles doo wop group the Valiants dates to early 1955, when second tenor Sheridan 'Rip' Spencer formed the Sabers with his cousin Brice Coefield, who assumed baritone duties.

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