LP #28 The Dells – There Is (1968)

Although Chicago R&B group the Dells had a million-seller in 1956 with “Oh What A Nite”, additional chart appearances proved elusive until this album came out 12 years later, kick-starting a run of commercial success that would last into the mid-1970s. In his liner notes for the CD version of There Is, Robert Pruter of Goldmine Magazine suggests that “had Chess Records been prescient enough they could have put out a single hit on every one of the 12 cuts”; that may have been a slight exaggeration, but each of the album’s four singles did reach the top 30 on Billboard’s R&B chart. More importantly, there’s really not a weak song in the bunch, with a fine mix of ballads (one of which ranks as my all-time favorite) and more up-tempo tracks.

 

Favorite Tracks:

 

Stay In My Corner

There Is

Please Don’t Change Me Now

Wear It On Our Face

Run For Cover

The Change You Go Thru (For Love)