The Dells The Original Chess Masters (LP)

(MCA) 11 tracks - Original 'Chess' recordings from 1967 to 1974

One of the longest summers of my life was spent unloading refrigerators in a Sea warehouse. Not only was the work tedious and the weather steamy hot, but I while my girlfriend lived in New York City. Fortunately, an AM radio, companion at work, and one song in particular seemed to keep me from vaving in completely. Several times a day the Dells' Open Up My Heart, a ballad that moved like a freight train up a hill, would hit the airwaves, and I would feel a jolt of new resolve as lead singer Marvin Junior resisted the temptation to oversing and the song built naturally to a taut climax. You could often count on the disc jockey to chime in over the instrumental break with some appropriately poignant prose and perhaps a dedication to a young couple in Germantown. Sometimes a couple of us would even try to sing the song in a boxcar (for proper echo, of course).

 I survived the summer, in no small way due to Open Up My Heart, and to the Dells' I'll always be grateful. Open Up My Heart came near the end of the Dells' second.  Their first was on Vee-Jay in the '50s and early '60s as a moderately successful)-wop group. They were rejuvenated in the late '60s by a move to Chess Records, where producer Bobby  Miller and arranger Charles Stepney, with their brassier, updated arrangements and a new emphasis on baritone singer Marvin Junior brought the Dells their unprecedented success. A string of hits ('Stay In My Corner', 'Always Together', 'Love Is Blue') filled the gap left by Motown groups like the Four Tops and psychedelicized Temptations, while Detroit producer Don Davis provided a '70s rejuvenation with 'Give Your Baby A Standing Ovation', 'I Wish It Was Me You Loved' and 'My Pretending Days Are Over'.

The Dells recently celebrated their 34th anniversary, a staggering feat made all the more impressive by the consistency of personnel: only one change in three decades - Johnny Carter replaced Johnny Funches as featured tenor (before the group moved to Chess). That the group has maintained itself so well for so long is a wonder, but there's little to wonder about the songs on this album. It proves one and for all, the Dells stand alone.