Chicago Was a Key R&B and Blues
By Harry Weinger h e g r e a te st h a r m o n y g r o u p o p ment,” “Pain in My Heart” and original all time, the Dells thrilled au versions of “Oh W hat a Nile” and “Stay diences with their amazing in My Comer.” After the Dells survived vocal interplay, between the a nasty car accident in 1958, their perse gruff, exp lore voice of Mar verance became a trademark. During vin Junior and the keening their early down periods, they carried on high tenor of Johnny Carter, thatwith sweet- innumerable gigs that connected T the dots of postwar black American- homeChicago blend mediated by Mickey McGill and Veme Allison, and music history: schooling from Harvey the talking bass voice from Chuck Fuqua, studio direction from Willie Barksdale. Their style formed the tem Dixon and Quincy Jones, singing back plate for every singing group that came grounds for Dinah Washington and Bar after them. They’ve been recording and bara Lewis (“Hello Stranger”) and tours touring together for more than fifty with Ray Charles. years, with merely one lineup change: A faithful Phil Chess helped the Dells Carter, formerly ©f the Flamingos reinvigorate their career in 1967. By the (t ool Hall of Fame inductees), replaced end of the sixties, they had enough clas Johnny Funches in i960. sics on Cadet/Chess - including “There Patience and camaraderie helped the Is,” “Always Together,” “I Can Sing a Dills stay the course. Starting out in the Rainbow/Love Is Blue” and brilliant Chicago suburb of Harvey, Illinois, in remakes of “Stay in My Comer” and “Oh, 1953, recording for Chess subsidiaries What a Night” (with a slight variation in Checker and Cadet and then Vee-Jay, the its title) - to make them R&B chart leg Dells had attained Hall of Fame merit by ends.
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