The Dell-Vikings Don't Be A Fool 1957

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The Dell-Vikings (aka The Del-Vikings)

The Dell-Vikings were an American doo-wop musical group that recorded several hit singles in the 1950s and continued to record and tour with various lineups in later decades. The group is notable for the hit songs "Come Go with Me" and "Whispering Bells", and for having been a successful racially mixed musical group during a period of time when such groups were rare.

The band's name was created by Clarence Quick while talking to Clarence Ringo at the library on base. Some sources say that the band members had read about Vikings with the prefix "Del" being "added to give the group name an air of mystery." Another suggestion is that Clarence Quick had known of a basketball team in Brooklyn, New York, called the Vikings and had suggested the name.The name may also have originated from the popular Viking Press, publisher of paperbacks that group members liked to read.

Their first hit came in December 1956 with "Come Go with Me", released on Fee Bee Records as catalog number FB-205. In January 1957, Dot Records re-released "Come Go With Me" as Dot 45-15538.The song was written by Clarence Quick and featured Norman Wright on lead vocals.In 1957, the song became a hit, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.The song was later featured in the films American Graffiti (1973), Diner (1982), Stand by Me (1986), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), and Set It Up (2018). Rolling Stone listed "Come Go With Me" as no. 447 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Soon after, Jackson left the band and was replaced by Gus Backus, the group's second white member Split.

All of the group members, other than Kripp Johnson, were under 21 when they signed their recording contract with Fee Bee (a tiny Pittsburgh label, which was later distributed by Dot Records). Having signed the contract as minors, they had the right to be released from it. In 1957, under the direction of their manager, Alan Strauss, they left to record at Mercury Records.

Johnson, who was still bound to Fee Bee/Dot, stayed, thus creating two Del-Vikings groups. The original group replaced Johnson with Quick's friend William Blakely and recorded the Backus-led song "Cool Shake". Kripp Johnson constructed a new group with the returning Don Jackson, Chuck Jackson, Arthur Budd, and Ed Everette. This group recorded the Kripp Johnson-led "I'm Spinning", billing themselves as the Dell-Vikings.

The Dell-Vikings also released "Whispering Bells" in 1957, with Kripp Johnson singing lead vocals. (The Dot label referred to Johnson as "Krips Johnson".[citation needed]) "Whispering Bells" reached #5 on the U.S. R&B chart and #9 on the U.S. pop chart in 1957. "Whispering Bells" was featured in the 1986 film Stand by Me[16] and was included in the film's soundtrack.

Around this time, some old Fee Bee demo tracks had been sold to an up-and-coming record company, Luniverse, who overdubbed a backing track on these a capella songs, which included an early version of "Come Go with Me". The overdubbed demo was included as a track on an eight-song album subsequently released by Luniverse. Only one single was released from these Luniverse overdubs—"Somewhere Over The Rainbow"/ "Hey Senorita".
Johnson's Dot group had an extra advantage—he had been discharged from the USAF and his group could tour freely, while the original group needed to seek military leave in order to tour. Mercury sued, claiming it had sole rights to any spelling of the group's name, and the Dell-Vikings briefly became The Versatiles, with singles being billed to "Kripp Johnson and the Versatiles" or "Chuck Jackson and the Versatiles".

The group broke up, with Chuck Jackson going on to a successful solo career. Meanwhile, the original group had begun to fall apart. Gus Backus was re-stationed, leaving the group a quartet. They broke up soon after. Quick restructured the group with new talent from the Pittsburgh area—lead tenor, Billie Woodruff, Willie Green, Douglass White, and Ritzy Lee. By the end of 1957, with the breakup of the Dell-Vikings, Kripp Johnson returned to the original group, making them a sextet. They signed to ABC Records (ABC-Paramount). While the nucleus of the group was back, they weren't able to chart any more hits, and the group split up in 1965.