Throughout R&B history few vocal ensembles have rivaled the Dells in both excellence and sheer endurance, a feat made all the more striking by the fact that the lineup stayed virtually intact for decades. One of the rare doo-wop acts able to evolve convincingly, they carved their most profitable niche in the late sixties and seventies as a sleek, smooth-soul harmony unit. Although their chart performance rose and fell, the quintet remained active well into the nineties, by which point they had long been revered within the broader R&B community.
The group first assembled in 1953 in the southern Chicago suburb of Harvey, Illinois, where its members had attended high school. The original six-piece roster consisted of lead baritone Marvin Junior, lead tenor Johnny Funches, tenors Verne Allison and Lucius McGill, second baritone Mickey McGill, and bass Chuck Barksdale. Recording initially as the El-Rays, they cut the single “Darling I Know” for Chess subsidiary Checker that same year, yet the release went nowhere. Lucius McGill soon exited without a replacement, leaving a five-man configuration. Rebranded the Dells, they landed at Vee-Jay in 1955 and scored a modest R&B success with the ballad “Dreams of Contentment,” followed the next year by the doo-wop staple “Oh What a Nite,” which featured Funches on lead and reached the R&B top five. With that breakthrough they began touring, though further hits proved elusive. Disaster nearly derailed them in 1958 when their station wagon broke down en route to a Philadelphia engagement; the resulting crash damaged Junior’s larynx, subtly changing his voice, and left McGill in danger of losing the use of a leg. The Dells paused to recuperate, during which time Barksdale served briefly with the Moonglows alongside Marvin Gaye.
Reuniting in 1960, the group auditioned successfully to open for and back Dinah Washington on the road. Funches, weary of constant travel, chose to remain at home with his family—an exit that proved to be the last personnel change for decades. Former Flamingoes member Johnny Carter, a lead and falsetto tenor, took his place. Under vocal coach Kirk Stewart the Dells mastered intricate jazz harmony. After two years with Washington they signed to Chess’s Argo subsidiary and issued four jazz-inflected singles, none of which charted. Returning to Vee-Jay in 1964, they resumed straightforward R&B recording while maintaining a jazz-oriented nightclub repertoire; 1965 brought a top-thirty R&B hit with “Stay in My Corner,” their strongest showing since “Oh What a Nite.” Vee-Jay’s bankruptcy in 1966 sent them back to Chess, this time on the Cadet imprint, where the initial singles “Thinking About You” and “Run for Cover” became local favorites. Also in 1966 the Dells served as Ray Charles’s touring vocal support, gaining exposure in larger venues than before.
Cadet marked the true takeoff point. In 1967 producers Bobby Miller and arranger Charles Stepney began emphasizing the striking contrast between Junior’s gritty baritone and Carter’s bright falsetto, surrounding the voices with opulent strings and horn arrangements. The resulting album There Is yielded four hit singles, among them a lengthened remake of “Stay in My Corner” that topped the R&B chart and reached the pop top ten. Follow-up Always Together, issued in 1968, generated another four singles. Love Is Blue, released the following year, delivered a second R&B number one and pop top-ten entry with a refreshed version of “Oh What a Nite.” Miller departed in early 1970; Stepney remained to helm Freedom Means the next year, which included the ballad “The Love We Had (Stays on My Mind).” A 1972 tribute album devoted to Dionne Warwick repertory preceded the arrival of producer Don Davis, whose first collaboration with the group produced the million-selling single “Give Your Baby a Standing Ovation” in 1973. After additional Davis-produced hits the Dells moved to Mercury in 1975.
Although their sound adapted to include disco elements, the Mercury years yielded diminishing returns, prompting a 1978 shift to ABC for a pair of albums. Momentum appeared stalled until the 1980 release I Touched a Dream on 20th Century, produced by the Chi-Lites’ Eugene Record and warmly received by critics. The follow-up Whatever Turns You On proved less successful, and the group spent several years without new recordings before issuing the old-style soul set The Second Time in 1988. Prospects brightened when filmmaker Robert Townsend enlisted them as consultants for his fictional-group drama The Five Heartbeats; the soundtrack contribution “The Heart Is a House for Love” became an unexpected R&B-chart single in 1991. That success led to the 1992 Zoo album I Salute You, an attempt to blend the Dells’ classic approach with urban contemporary and new-jack-swing production, yet it failed to register commercially and the quintet resumed live work. Former lead singer Johnny Funches succumbed to pneumonia in January 1998. Verne Allison underwent triple-bypass surgery in 2000, the same year the group returned with the Volt album Reminiscing, its first collection of new material in eight years. Johnny Carter died of cancer in August 2009, and Marvin Junior passed away in May 2013 after battling heart and kidney ailments.
