On the occasion of their 40th anniversary, the five husky men wearing sharp suits and broad smiles were toasted-and roasted.
In an oblong back room of the Eccentric restaurant Friday, the Dells, the silky-voiced quintet whose soulful balladry came alive in the 1950s and still warms many a heart today, withstood a flurry of comedic comments about their rough-and-tumble years and good-natured wisecracks like, ”The Dells sang at Abraham Lincoln`s victory party.”
But mostly the comments encouraged lead singer Marvin Junior, first tenor Johnny Carter, bass Chuck Barksdale, baritone Michael McGill and second tenor Vern Allison to ”go `head y`all, and kick big butt for the next 40 years,”
as Carter Russell, of Elektra Entertainment, put it.
Among the media and record industry people who stood to cheer the group`s staying power was actor Harry Lennix, one of the Five Heartbeats in the recent movie by that name, based loosely on the life of the Dells.
”I can`t see where the time went,” Junior said of the group, which got its start in suburban Harvey. ”It just doesn`t seem like it has been that long.”
Servers circulated chicken chunks and marinated shrimp, while the 70 or so guests sipped drinks and swapped stories: about the group`s glory days and its new CD, ”I Salute You”; about the first time they slipped a 45 r.p.m. record out of its dust jacket to hear a Dells song.
Almost invariably, the ”slow jam” was ”Stay in My Corner,” played with a sweetheart snuggled up close and with the shades pulled and the lights dimmed, much as they were at Friday`s party.
”Hey, baby, without a doubt, that `Stay` was a jam,” said cartoonist Buck Brown.
” `Oh, What a Night,` ” Bill Pinkney, the first African-American to circumnavigate the earth in a boat, recalled, squinting his eyes and shaking his head, as if, right then, he was snuggling with his honey. ”In the basement, in the dark, with one slight light. . . . I tell you those cats are and always will be baaad.”
