The Dells: "Love Is Blue"

My favorite vocal group after the Temptations.  There are many others—Delfonics, Stylistics, Dramatics, Futures, etc.—in the running for that position, but none that cut through to my soul quite like the Dells.  The group made a LOT of records, so it’s hard to pick just one, but when backed into a corner, “Love Is Blue” is the standout for me.  It encompasses everything from their radical re-interpretations of songs like “Dock Of The Bay” and “Whiter Shade Of Pale” to more classicist doo-wop numbers like a re-recording of their big hit “Oh What A Night” and the pleading “The Glory Of Love,” all, and once again, via Charles Stepney arrangements.  Anyone noticing the redundancy of the Stepney connection in this post is simply catching onto that same concept that I was blown away by when I first delved into this stuff a few years ago, that is, how enormously influential and omnipresent of an individual he really was.  The production by Bobby Miller on this LP is also notable, as he gets a live, visceral sound from the boards.  The Dells take all of this as an opportunity to showcase the very best of their sparkling harmonies and individual leads, making for their most exciting, and perhaps most lasting, LP.  One for the ages.