What can you say about one of the greatest groups in history?? The Dells have been singing and performing for over five decades, have sold millions of records, and are considered the most enduring vocal group in the history of Rhythm and Blues. Affectionately known as The Mighty Dells by fans and leaders in the music industry, its members including Marvin Junior (lead baritone), John Carter (lead tenor),Charles Barksdale (bass), Michael McGill (baritone) and Verne Allison(second tenor) have continued to set the standard for top-to-bottom male harmony.Initially known as the El-Rays, The Dells started in 1952 in Harvey, Illinois, as five friends from high school. Eventually, the El-Rays cut their very first single, Darling I Know, for Chess Records. It went nowhere. Two years later, with a new record contract with Vee Jay Records as The Dells, they released their 3rd recording Oh What A Night. It became an immediate R&B hit, finishing third behind Elvis' Don't Be Cruel at number two and Fats Domino's Blueberry Hill on top. The rest was musical history. The film, "The Five Heartbeats" was their basic life story, as a fiction, and I must say, being able to film them for our project was a pleasure and a privilege, especially as Charles Barksdale stayed on and introduced the whole premier of "The Strange World Of Northern Soul" in front of 2000 people in Blackburn in July 1999. And now, coming in October 2008, a tremendously exciting project for Northern Soul fans everywhere. We've done a deal with Wienerworld, a major music DVD company, and the same company who originally released our classic documentary "The Strange World Of Northern Soul", and we are now doing the definitive DVD box set. A five disc set of 200 performances called "Northern Soul's Greatest 200 Floorfillers". This uses some songs from "The Strange World Of Northern Soul" which are completely re-edited, so they look fresh and sparkling new. All the previous video effects done in the 1990s are gone forever, consigned to history. Plus loads and loads of never before seen videos, many of which have sat in the can untouched for many many years. Plus some newly recorded tributes to the classics. If you ever went to Blackpool Mecca or Wigan Casino, this is the must-have purchase of the year. In putting together this box set, we have nearly all the biggest all time blockbusters, "Out On The Floor", "Night Owl', "I'm On My Way", "Time Will Pass You By", "Blowing My Mind To Pieces", "Do I Love You", all sung by the original singers. We believe this will go down in history as the greatest Northern Soul DVD collection of all time. Here, the mighty mighty Dells sing their legendary biggest Northern Soul floorfiller, "Run For Cover", and this was yet another legendary Northern Soul smash that we filmed for "The Strange World Of Northern Soul". This was first recorded in 1967 and then we recut it in 1999 when we were filming our marathon six disc, twenty four hour massive documentary about the entire history of the Northern Soul scene, which contained 131 specially recorded performances of all the classics, and is still available on a six disc box set from Wienerworld. The Dells were happy to be a part of our ground breaking Encyclopaedia Britannica of Northern Soul, and I am so glad that they agreed.
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