DELL VICKINGS

[Cch092775]

Since we are talking about mixed race groups.....I had the pleasure of seeing Frankie Lymon's Teenagers recently at NJPAC with original TEENAGER Ramon Santiago. They are STILL fantastic.

[foopedlo]

Until the late sixties there practically were no civil rights for anybody, except for the suzerainty of property owning white men. the '60s changed much of that: Jim Crow laws were dismantled and equal opportunity was guaranteed by enforceable laws for both men and women and racial minorities. Other minorities were encouraged and emboldened by these startling gains and began their own movements for equal rights. The government's spying apparatus was discredited and dismantled..."

[LaChAoSTB]

how did this go from music to racial shit!

[MrRJDB1969]

The Great Del-Vikings !!

[blackspace007]

I hate how things turn into RACE all the time. I love the fact that they are a mixed group too. But I knew that once i scrolled down and read some nice comments first there be some other posts that start to sound racist, or racially charged. It's so exhausting. I love music, and black and whites and all the other races have contributed and made it awesome. Music is my life

[Doowopdan]

Some trivia.... The original Mercury recording of this in mid-late 1957 featured (white) lead Gus Backus, who also sang lead on the flip side, "Cool Shake." Gus was in the group for less than a year, but appears in most of the famous photographs. By the time of this 1958 performance, he had been transferred by the Air Force to Germany, so Norman Wright (lead on Come Go with Me) stepped in. There voices were similar anyway.

[supermanchu]

Another group was Earl Lewis and The Channels Mr. Lewis is also Hispanic hes from Panama and we have held a few conversations in SPANISH , TheTeenchords 3 African Americans, a White guy, AND a Domincan Rossiglio Rocca lmao Harold Torres The Crests my Puerto Rican pride is swelling up lmao ooo ooo oooo Dino & The Diplomats We cant be stopped people hahahahaahahaha

[supermanchu]

Ive always loved the Del-Vikings and love the fact that they are a mixed group and as a proud PUERTO RICAN, I am also proud of the fact that TEENAGERS, my fave group had not 1 but 2 Puerto Ricans in their group The Eternals were all Puerto Rican, another mixed group was Bobby Rivera and the Hemlocks i can go on.... we made good music (still do) we helped create Rock and Roll so for all the Anti Puerto Rican comments on this page GET A LIFE rock n roll is an ethnic music form DONT FORGET THAT

[LuccaBB1]

craigmusic-Thank god you are in a rubber room.

[daddyrockinstrong]

great song, i agree with previous post - Porky Chedwick (WAMO radio) Pittsburgh's finest. Porky helped make alot of oldie songs/labels come into the spotlight. The Del-Vikings Come Go With Me, a favorite of mine.

[ThePurple572002]

YOU SPELLED THEIR NAME WRONG!!!

[THEMOJOMANsince1959]

MISS SPELLED IT'S "DEL-VIKINGS". No wonder ZeroBama got elected.

[catoohey]

@THEMOJOMANsince1959 The word is misspelled. -

I guess nobody gets it right all the time... ;-)

[THEMOJOMANsince1959]

@catoohey Yeah even the guy or gal that posted it.

[craigmusic1707]

@THEMOJOMANsince1959 What does a Presidential election have to do with this music or spelling?

[THEMOJOMANsince1959]

@craigmusic1707 Well when you misspell the name of a VERY FAMOUS OLDIES GROUP you must be DUMB. And only THE DUMB voted for that community organizer. He could've been the greatest president we ever had if he would've read my email that TOLD HIM how to create an economic boom. Have a tax payer only lottery give 10 million of them $1million with the stipulation that they BUILD A NEW HOME with all the furnishings,,BUY A NEW CAR,,,A NEW RV or BOAT,,,A VACATION at a top spot.==ECONOMIC BOOM.

[amenra54]

Any singer will tell you this is tight! The band is pushing them there is no room for error and they nailed it....damn that's good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!

[SACCopE7]

Looks like they are wearing their US Air Force uniforms, must have been done while they were still serving, awesome God Bless you guys!

[trackieben]

Del-Vikings please!!!!

[Building529]

Love those Dell-Vickings (spellcheck please).

[THEMOJOMANsince1959]

@Building529 You even spelled it wrong.

[missmatched1]

Thanks for the post

[jsemancik1]

good stuff

[jnmklo9]

Great sound fore runner for Dion?

[Haifishtrio]

it was the first mixed doowoop group

2 black & 2 white singer

one of the dell vikings the singer guss backus be GI in germany

and was a star there

sings in german

[cmastrogiovanni]

@Haifishtrio Do you if Gus Backus is still alive?

[gingerbread1231]

What a great jam! Thx 4 the posting.

[tigerframps]

Great!!! It`s been a long time since I heard this

[doc11355]

1957 - Cool shake / Jitterbug Mary（Mercury 71132

[paloma990]

great live performance

[n0gar]

What is a "Del?" This has been a mystery for me all of my life as early groups/performers had del in their names.

[joeluis98]

It means "of" or "from"

[n0gar]

So "of" Vikings? "Of" Shannon? "The Ofs?" It makes no sense, but at least someone gave me something to go on. Maybe your were thinkingLatin related languages? I suspect that Del in the 60's was some type of slang...

[joeluis98]

Del Shannon took his from Coupe De Ville, The Vikings used Del as The, And the group split up and then there were two. So the 2nd group used the name Dell Vikings. As far as the Dells, I cant help you there. Del also means valley. I know its not much, but back in them days, they got their names out of anything.

[n0gar]

No, it IS a great deal! Thanks. I have finally come closer to knowing what in the hell the term "del" is all about. I also remeber in the movie "The Wanderers," there was a gang called the "Dell Bombers." Names with "Del" in them just added to the mystery as I do not recall that term being used after the 60's... Thanks for the input.

[THEMOJOMANsince1959]

@n0gar I've wondered the same thing. I've also wondered where Elvis' parents came up with THAT NAME although I was never a BIG Elvis Fan..

[9duryea9]

Under the bridges, Central Park. NYC. Just wonderful to hear again!

[paintballchampion15]

no ur wrong this is infact the del vikings

[emb1st]

these are the Mercury Del Vikings....

i have all their recordings (I think) but i like

Kripp and the Dell Vikings the best...

[BobWhitlock]

Good Lawd! That's Del Vikings, NOT Del "Vickings!"

Peace,

OldHippieDude

[dovermoreno]

People sure were tall and skinny back in the 50's, don't you think?

Anytime I find myself tapping my foot and smiling...I know it's a great song!

5 Starz !!

[tumsabai]

The Dell Vikings were all Air Force

troops stationed at Pittsburgh Air Force

Base. (Hence the military style uniforms)

[FRANKIESIXTOES]

The Del Vikings were one of the very best of the Doo Wop groups. I was not familar with this song, its great. The lead singer and background harmony create a magic sound. Wish we had music now that could create an atmosphere like that.

[Arbed225]

Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers were also a mixed race group.

[thebigfist]

Yes, Puerto Rican and African American.

[boomerbev1]

Wrong!!! Puerto Rican is not a race...it is a nationality!!! Puerto Rican people are a mixture of various ethnicities, including Indian (Caribe, Tiano) for example, African and Caucasian (European).

[THEMOJOMANsince1959]

@boomerbev1 And they're THE VERY WORST of all the guys in jail.

[craigmusic1707]

@THEMOJOMANsince1959 With all this bitterness and racial hate, why are you posting on this upload? Lonely in your cave, are you?

[THEMOJOMANsince1959]

@craigmusic1707 You tell the truth AND they call you a racial hater ??? My brother in law was a prison guard in upstate NY at DANNEMORA for 32 years and I once ask him WHO WAS THE WORST and he told me NEW YORK CITY Puerto Ricans. NOT THE BIKERS,,NOT THE BLACKS,,NOT THE REDNECKS.

[THEMOJOMANsince1959]

@craigmusic1707 I'm WHITE and I don't have time to figure out who the good White people are let alone the rest. There's so many ass-hole white people that's why I don't have any time.

[supermanchu]

@THEMOJOMANsince1959 

[rickysbestgirl]

This is a great song! Are these the original Del-vikings?

[rbx937385]

I have this org, on 45 Mercury label but it's damaged, Flip side, Cool Shake.

Always loved this song! Bravo! Thanks alot!

[thebigfist]

There were quite a few mixed groiups, actually. Johnny Maestro and the Crests were Italian,African-American and Puerto Rican. The Jaguars were Mexican-American, African American and Italian.The Fascinators were Italian and African American,Rob-roys were Jewish and African-American. Marcels were German and African-American.Not bad for the 1950`s eh? When the cultures mix, then the races mix with little difficulty.Why do we complicate these things 50 years later???????

[STAYCOTT]

The Original Crests had 1 female member, Luther Vandross' sister. She left after they went from Joyce Records to Coed. Staycott

[thebigfist]

Nice R&B jump tune.There were many different versions of the Del-Vikings but there was significant overlap not just a sequential changing of personnel, where you had different Del-Vikings groups appearing at different locales during the same time frame.

[bradentonguy50]

May be true but Norman Fox and the Rob Roys weren't as famous as the Del Vikings

[muxfnl]

Whispering Bells and Come Go with Me are two classics from this groundbreaking mixed race group. See film AMerican Hot Wax for a great repro version!

[Nat1831]

The Del Vikings didn't get mixed until much later. Groups like Norman Fox & The Rob Roys were already there.

[PJDooWop]

Not true.. The original 5 were a mixed group - 2 white and three black. A Del-Vikings group comprised of all black members didn't happen until the group split in 2. The 2nd Del-Vikings on Fee Bee were an all black group while the group on Mercury (seen above) remained mixed.

[Nat1831]

The group on the Audition Tapes album (The title could be wrong. But it was on the collectables label I believe) was Black. The white members had come later. By later that could be 3 months. But the white members were not in at the begining.

[PJDooWop]

Their first line up was Kripp Johnson, Clarence Quick, Don Jackson, Bernard Robertson and Samuel Paterson - yes, all black. However, they never put out a record with this lineup. Their first recording session (the Audition Tapes) included Norman Wright and David Lerchey (white). Gus Bakus joined right after they did Come Go With Me because Don Jackson had to leave.

[PJDooWop]

My apologies Nat. I wasn't thinking of the lineup with Robertson and Paterson. I consider the "original" line up to be when they actually started recording. To correct myself, the group was 4 black members and one white member when they did their first recording session that produced the album you're talking about and Come Go With Me a year and a half later. Gus Bakus joined right before Whispering Bells making them 3 black, 2 white.

[Nat1831]

No worries. Group history and stuff gets pretty crazy.

[rbx937385]

You're Correct PJ, The Del Vikings were a Integrated group in the beginning , I believe they started while they were in The Armed Forces. Around 1955.

[THEMOJOMANsince1959]

@rbx937385 Yep in Pittsburgh,,,and if not for PORKY CHEDWICK they probably wouldn't have gone national,,,since they were on a small local label in the VERY BEGINNING.

[camf33]

I don't think I have this one on my collection. What's the name of the song? Awesome!

[embgls]

this was the Mercury group with only one L...

i prefer the two LL group on Dot and ABC Para

[allout1034]

lol @ the "dell vickings" @ the top..but its cool...lol

[jazzthedog11]

Fantastic, pure and original to the core

Thanks for putting this up

[mikeaustin1]

Note the silhouette jets on the background and their "military" unis. That's because the Del-Vikings were airforcemen stationed in Pittsburgh. Lots of personnel changes (military, you know) but this is a good rare video of the "original" group, who did "Come Go With Me." This lineup was only together for about 1 1/2 years before it changed, so good catch here!

[ahmadtajani]

Was this the same lead singer on Come Go With Me?

[doowop6116]

I've been listening to this delvikings song for 25 yr;s . Great to see them preform it the way it was origionaly done

[ybermude]

Never heard this, great vocals , great doo wop sound.

[nickmobile67]

I never heard that one, gold!!

[Poge11]

My Favorite of theirs!