The Edsels tasted fleeting success after cutting the doo wop classic “Rama Lama Ding Dong.” Though first issued in 1958, the track only climbed the charts three years later once persistent collectors and radio announcers revived it.
Borrowing their name from Ford’s ill-fated car model, the quintet coalesced in the small Ohio steel town of Campbell during the closing years of the 1950s. George Jones, Jr. handled lead vocals alongside James Reynolds, Marshall Sewell, Harry Greene, and Larry Greene. After auditioning for an Ohio-based music publisher in 1958, they secured a contract with the modest Dub label; Jones’s own composition “Rama Lama Ding Dong” served as their debut release, though early pressings erroneously bore the title “Lama Rama Ding Dong.”
The single scored regional airplay yet failed to register nationally until 1961, when disc jockeys spun it anew for its resemblance to the Marcels’ contemporaneous hit “Blue Moon.” Months later, Twin Records reissued the track—this time under its proper title—and it rose to No. 21 on the pop charts. By then, however, the group had already disbanded.
