Salvaged and Restored -
The Shady Dell
Record Collection!
Vol. 3: Long Lost Dell Songs
of Summer and Fall, 1956
BEWARE! NOTHING CAN
PREPARE YOU FOR...
JUKEBOX GIANTS
THAT TIME FORGOT!
Hello, friends! Dell Rat Tom
welcoming you to volume 3
of my exclusive 36-part
Shady's Place series
SAVED
BY THE
DELL
Today, you will
travel back to the
summer and fall of
1956
and find yourself
standing before
the Dell jukebox.
Those dimes
and quarters
you brought
along are
burning
a hole
in your
pocket...
so why not
feed them
to the record
machine and
play five of
the fabulous
Dell songs
of 1956?
This series was made possible by Jim Sieling, my good friend
in York, and the husband of John Ettline's niece Nancy.
Jim Sieling
(faithful friend of The Dell)
As you recall, Jim acquired the Dell's Seeburg jukebox (below)
and many of the records that played on it through the decades.
Keep in mind that the Dell had two jukeboxes - one in Helen's
snack bar up at the house, the other down in "The Barn" -
the dance hall John had built onto the barn and garage.
When Jim took possession of the Dell's record collection,
he discovered, to his dismay and ours, that many of
the discs had been improperly handled and stored.
Simply put - they were filthy.
Mice (Dell rats?) had made a home among the records, and at least
one snake (a Violet Hill viper?) had slithered in looking for a meal.
Jim undertook the mammoth job of cleaning, organizing and cataloging
the records, then sent me the finished alphabetical list. There are 6,065
records on Jim's list including Christmas records, 12,130 songs in all!
My series brings you the 180 best Dell jukebox songs from 1955
through 1963, a period long before I arrived on the scene.
This series is dedicated to
the memory of Nancy Sieling.
Nancy Sieling
(faithful friend of The Dell)
Nancy, who was John Ettline's niece and Jim's wife, passed away in 2020.
Over the years, Nancy's generous contributions of pictures, information
and Shady Dell memorabilia greatly enhanced the quality of both of my
Dell-themed blogs. We have Nancy to thank for rescuing many of the
Dell's priceless platters when they were art risk of being thrown into
a trash dumpster and destroyed, hence the name of my series...
SAVED BY THE BELL DELL
Of course, we also have Jim to thank for tackling the enormous
task of cleaning, organizing and cataloging these 6,065 records!
Okay, it's time to use your imagination. Pretend that you are
at the Dell looking at the musical menu on the jukebox.
Scroll down and play the next 5 Dell songs.
BEWARE AND BEHOLD...
LISTEN AND LEARN...
AS WE EXPERIENCE...
JUKEBOX GIANTS
THAT TIME FORGOT!
The records and pictures are arranged in chronological
order, allowing you to trace the evolution of the
"Shady Dell Sound" and clothing styles
month by month through the years.
You know the drill.
ENJOY THE VINTAGE FASHION
PARADE AND FANZINES.
CLICK ON PICTURES OF
RECORDS TO PLAY SONGS.
JUNE - JULY 1956
SAVED BY THE DELL
DELL SONG 11
SAVED BY THE DELL
DELL SONG 12
AUGUST 1956
SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 1956
SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 1956
SAVED BY THE DELL
DELL SONG 13
SAVED BY THE DELL
DELL SONG 14
OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1956
SAVED BY THE DELL
DELL SONG 15
SAVED BY THE DELL
DELL SONG 15
Once again I thank our late, great friend of the Dell,
Nancy Sieling, and her husband Jim, for doing the
good work of preserving the Shady Dell legacy for
future generations. We owe you a debt of gratitude.
Stick around. You'll hear more long lost songs
of the Shady Dell... the moldy oldies, dusty discs,
colossal fossils and rusty relics we like to call...
JUKEBOX GIANTS
THAT TIME FORGOT!
coming up on the next exciting edition of...
SAVED BY THE BELL DELL
I did not realize that Roy Orbison was big that early as I thought he was more of a 60s guy. Loved all the old stuff. Take a listen to Kid Kyles version of Out of Sight Out of MInd when you get a chance. Jerre
ReplyDeleteHi, Jerre!
DeleteThanks for coming and welcome back for Pt. 3 of Saved By The Dell, good buddy! We are now 1/12th of the way through this series! :)
I enjoyed reading about Roy Orbison's early career. The Texas troubador formed a band called Wink Westerners and started out writing and performing rockabilly and Country & Western. "Ooby Dooby" is a song he heard while attending North Texas State. His schoolmate, Pat Boone, landed a recording contact during this time, and Roy became determined to do the same. In the mid 50s, he came into contact with Elvis and Johnny Cash and they helped him with advice and contacts. The name of Roy's band changed to the Teen Kings and they signed with Sun Records. He later pioneered the smoother "Nashville sound" which allowed him to make full use of his vocal range which included a "glass-shattering falsetto." The addition of a string section on his recordings drew comparisons to Phil Spector and his Wall-of-Sound and he honed his trademark style which Rolling Stone concluded brought a new splendor to rock.
I looked on YouTube and could not find East Coast Music Hall of Famer Kid Kyle singing "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind," but read about his growing fame as a modern doo-wop sensation on his official site. That's where I listened to him sounding exactly like Little Anthony singing "The Diary." If you have a link to "Out Of Sight," please return and give it to me.
Thanks again for supporting all of my blogging efforts over the years, Jerre. One more volume of this series is coming up late next month and luckily it coincides with "Christmas time at the Dell" in 1956. I hope you like it. Take care and happy holidays to you, good buddy Jerre!
Out of Sight Out of Mind is on one of his later albums that are worth buying. I will try to find a link. Jerre
ReplyDeleteThanks, good buddy! He's amazing!
DeleteI was surprised to see two Roy Orbison songs during this time frame, as well.
ReplyDeleteTo each their own, I'm sure, but I'm glad I didn't have to wear the fashions of the 50s. Some decades have been better than others! (and I realize that's subjective)
Hi, Kelly!
DeleteThanks for hustling over to finish second this week, dear friend!
Yessum, the first two songs in this set, the up tempo rockabilly numbers "Ooby Dooby" and "Go! Go! Go!," are the A and B sides of Roy Orbison's first single, released on Sun Records in May, 1956, and credited to Roy Orbison and Teen Kings. Roy's style changed significantly in the years that followed. He developed a smooth, sophisticated, bold, dramatic and sadness-tinged sound that led to an impressive string of hits in the early to mid 60s.
It's interesting that you are glad you didn't have to wear 1950s fashions. As you know, many women are enamored of Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn and like to imitate their style. There are certain hairdos and clothing trends of the 50s that I find unattractive, but overall, I do like the looks of the decade.
Thanks again for coming right over, dear friend Kelly. I hope you, Pat and my other bow-wow buddies are AOK in the wake of the tornado outbreak that I read affected Arkansas yesterday. I've been thinking about you. Enjoy the rest of your week!
Tom,
ReplyDeleteThis set of songs pre-dates my birth. The only title I recognized was In The Still Of The Night, but after listening to The Five Satins I think what must I've grown up listening to either a cover artist or a different recording by them. I know that can make a difference in how a song sounds. All of the other songs are fresh to my ears. I enjoyed listening to these vintage tunes and I loved the fashion images. The ladies really looked so pretty in those days, didn't they? Thanks for dropping by CAAC earlier today. I got busy making chocolate covered cherries because my son requested that I make lots extra for Christmas. :) Have a good rest of the week, my friend!
Hi, Cathy!
DeleteThanks for making time for me today, dear friend! I'm happy to have you here for vol. 3 of my 36-parter on Dell records - long lost and long forgotten - but now saved and sorted thanks to the kindness and heads-up action of friends Jim and Nancy Sieling.
Yessum, "Still Of The Nite" is the biggie of the bunch. It is the best known song and biggest hit of the five. I distinctly remember sitting in Helen's snack bar on many occasions when that song played on her jukebox. This Five Satins ballad, along with Little Anthony's doublesider "Tears On My Pillow" / "Two People In The World," were the three most frequently played songs in the snack bar, as I recall. Several other artists have covered "Still of The Nite." Since you are quite a bit younger, it might have been Boyz II Men who released their version in late 1992. It also might have been The Beach Boys, who released a version in 1976, or the Ronnie Milsap song "Lost In the Fifties Tonight (In The Still of the Night," a chart-topper on the Country chart in 1985.
Close your eyes, Baby
Follow my heart
Call on the memories
Here in the dark
We'll let the magic
Take us away
Back to the feelings
We shared when they played
In the still of the night
Hold me darlin', hold me tight
So real, so right
I'm lost in the fifties tonight
Let me know if any of those ring a bell.
Yessum, in the 50s, women looked smart and feminine. I grew up seeing women dressed in this manner and always preferred it to the sloppy, baggy looks we often see today.
Yummy yummy! I know you delight DH with the things you whip up in the kitchen. I hope your son is equally pleased with the chocolate covered cherries you make for the holidays. Do you remember the song "Chocolate Covered Ants (Candy Coated Bees)" by Chuck Wood? I actually still have that 1965 record from my teenage years! :)
Thanks again for stopping by, dear friend Cathy, and enjoy the rest of your week!
Hi Tom! Doesn't looking at that snake skin give you the chills? Yuck! Anyway, I sure enjoyed all the fashion magazines and seeing something the youth of today never will experience...a cigarette ad! I was 3 during that summer but the song I do remember is "In the still of the night" and that's probably because of Dirty Dancing. I can see why those tunes would be fun to dance too. Roy Orbison would have you up and moving and the others would be made for young love and slow dancing. Jack listened to Roy Orbison with me here tonight and talked about how much Roy was loved by other artists like Elvis and how much he was loved in England. It's great that these records were saved and now they can be shared and give a good insight into life in the fifties were women dressed to the nines to go shopping or school events. White gloves would be saved for fancier places or church I imagine! Have a good rest of your week...can't believe November is now only a memory and we're into December tomorrow! Whew!
ReplyDeleteHi, YaYa!
DeleteI'm very happy to see you, dear friend! Thanks for coming over on day one of the run.
You'll be happy to know that you will have the pleasure of seeing that snake skin 33 more times. It appears in every volume of this series! :) Yessum, that cigarette print ad reminds us how ubiquitous such promotions were for decades, so much a part of our daily experience. My mother smoked "Luckies" throughout my childhood and teenage years. To her credit, she finally quit smoking in middle adulthood.
Yessum, as I told friend Cathy (above), "In The Still Of The Nite" emerged as one of the biggest doo-wop hits of the 1950s and has been covered by many other artists in the decades since. I forgot to mention to Cathy that in 1990, pop singer Debbie Gibson also recorded the song, entitled "In The Still Of The Nite (I'll Remember)" for The Wonder Years soundtrack album. All of the above makes it the one song in this post most people are likely to know.
I am always thrilled to know that the music in my posts often catches Jack's attention as he passes by your computer station. I'm delighted that he enjoyed hearing these very old Roy Orbison recordings, the A & B sides of the first single released by the lonesome crooner.
Yessum, your memory serves you well. When I was a boy, women dressed to look their best whenever they went out in public, and they wouldn't be caught dead with their hair in curlers and without makeup. At church, women were seen wearing gloves and fancy hats and I remember some wearing veils over their faces. The "come as you are" super-casual look was still light years away.
Yessum, we're racing full speed toward Christmas now, and soon we'll be saying goodbye to 2022. I have one more edition of Saved By The Dell coming up next month, so stick around to see the stunning coats and winter fashions of late 1956 and hear the Dell records that were playing during the holiday season that year.
Thanks again for joining the fun, dear friend YaYa! Take care and enjoy the rest of your week!
Hi friend Shady, what another great collection of oldies you have here. "In the Still of the Night" was the only one I recognized but I could easily envision them all playing in the jukebox at the Shady Dell.
ReplyDeleteI love looking at all the clothes from that era. Gone are the days when women dressed up even when they were doing housework. My mom never wore pants because my dad didn't want her to. How old fashioned is that? He even went as far as to say, "If you are going to wear pants then I'm going to wear a dress!" He actually did once as a gag when they went on a bus trip to Reno with some of their friends. He was a character.
What a rare thing to see a cigarette ad too.
I hope that you and the Mrs. are doing well. We are all slowly getting better here. It's a rainy day but our Benny is still going to get his walk in a bit. Have a wonderful weekend.
Hi, Janet!
DeleteWelcome in, dear friend! I am very happy to see you again and learn that you and your family are pulling out of your recent health slump. Unfortunately, the news on my side of the screen is not as good. Mrs. Shady's son, who lives with us, has tested positive for COVID, and she and I suspect that we had it too, and perhaps still have it. As I told you, my symptoms started on my birthday, Nov. 20, and continued for about a week. In the last few days, I have felt a lot better and so has Mrs. Shady, but her son has been struggling with a fever and chills for several days. He got tested yesterday and is COVID positive. Now Mrs. S and I are distancing. sanitizing and taking other precautions, because we don't want a second go-around with the stubborn virus.
I'm thrilled that you are enjoying this Saved By The Dell series which showcases old gold from the Dell vaults along with fashions, celeb gossip mags, cigarette and booze ads - all the things that were part of our mass media experience in the 50s and early 60s. I saw those pictures of your mother, and I'll bet she was a beautiful, well dressed woman during that period. Your dad was brave and clearly had a sense of humor to wear a dress on a bus trip to Reno. I don't remember my mom going as far as dressing in an evening gown to do housework like June Cleaver and other TV housewives, but she always gussied up before going out in public. My dad always felt most comfortable wearing a suit and tie, even when he didn't need to. I am much the same way.
Yessum, put on your boots, grab your umbrella and take my buddy Benny for a walk. He'll appreciate you for it. Besides... he needs to pee real bad! :)
Enjoy the rest of your week and again thank you for your kind visit and comment, dear friend Janet!
Hi Shady, Like everyone before me in the comments, I only knew, "In the Still of the Night." It is very romantic, as are the last two songs. I really like hearing a group of men singing and they were all fantastic. I love Roy Orbison but didn't recognize his songs. I noticed he had a deal with Sun Records like Elvis did and then saw in the comments Elvis helped him.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you and your wife had Covid and now your stepson. I'm relieved to hear you are better. I just found out my niece got it last week and is recovering. Yes, you can get Covid twice, both my daughters did, the second time at a rock concert. Thanks for the good time here!
Hi, Belle!
DeleteI'm delighted that you could stop in to see this month's fashion parade and listen to five more long lost Dell tunes. Thanks for making time, dear friend!
I have the 180 songs in this series arranged in chronological order based on the release dates of the records and, whenever applicable, the exact weeks they were popular on the national charts. Keep in mind that some of these records remained uncharted. In any given volume of the series, any given set of five songs, there is no guarantee that any of them will be familiar hits. As it turned out in this volume, there is one big hit, and it is the one everybody remembers and has mentioned: "Still Of The Nite." In volumes soon to come, there will be more recognizable hits per post because we will be entering the late 50s and early 60s, the golden era of doo-wop, when numerous artists were releasing major hits in the genre.
I'm glad you enjoyed the history lesson about Roy Orbison's early career. His rough, rowdy rockabilly style stands in stark contrast to the refined, dramatic, operatic Orbison sound we came to know during his hit making period as a leading exponent of "The Nashville Sound."
Yessum, Mrs. Shady, her son and I have been taking turns getting sick for the last three weeks. Mrs. Shady was the first to fall ill. Next, it was my turn, and now her son has tested positive for COVID. We are doing our best to distance from each other, wash our hands frequently and sanitize surfaces in the kitchen and elsewhere. I still have some lingering symptoms such as an urge to cough and a chill late at night. I hope we all bounce back soon because Mrs. Shady's brother arrives on a flight from the West Coast a week from now to begin a month long stay with us. He is retarded and will expect to be entertained. I'm so sorry one of your nieces has COVID. It doesn't seem fair that we can keep catching it over and over again. I would think we build up immunity after the first time, but Mrs. S says this variant didn't get the memo and doesn't work that way. It's a real drag on one's spirits as the holidays are now upon us.
Thank you again for brightening my day with your kind visit and comment. I'm glad you are enjoying this series. Stay tuned for my next post starting Monday morning. I wish you and your family a safe, healthy and happy weekend, dear friend Belle!
I came to see if my comment was Here...and it is not...grrr. I love the fashion from the 50s and early 60s. They just seem more elegant and pretty especially wearing hats and gloves. I enjoyed listening to each piece of music Herr and just love In The Still of the Night. Your friend did something Ginormous by getting each record and saving it from the bin. I also love the painting of Helen and John's niece. So very pretty. Hope you are doing well.
ReplyDeleteHi, Birgit!
DeleteThanks for returning to Shady's Place, dear friend! I've been missing you something awful. I just checked, and there are no comments from you in my spam bin on this post or on the previous post. I know the Blogger gremlins have been working overtime and love to goof things up. If you left comments and they vanished, I apologize.
I'm pleased to have you here to examine another set of elegant, tasteful fashions from the mid 50s, specifically the styles that were popular in the middle of 1956. I tried to be as accurate as possible in finding pictures for this series, combing through the catalogs of major department stores and clothiers and finding some great vintage ads for brands like Bobbie Brooks, Jantzen and Ship 'n Shore.
Turning to the featured Dell records, you join other readers in best remembering "In The Still Of The Nite" as the biggie of the bunch.
Yessum, Jim Sieling and his wife Nancy came through for Dell rats, saving thousands of priceless platters from destruction. As a record collector, I know how much care and effort goes in to safely cleaning vinyl discs, and Jim got the job done. We are forever grateful for his and Nancy's efforts. I'm glad you like the portrait of Nancy. You are the first to mention it.
I think all three of us have COVID, Birgit, but we are all slowly recovering and hoping we can bounce back completely as we head through the holiday season.
Thanks again for your visit and comment, dear friend BB. Have a safe and happy weekend!.
Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry to hear you got Covid. I hope you and your wife are feeling better and have no after effects from it. So far, I have bewn spared. But it's only a matter of time. Then agai , maybe I did have it and never knew. You rest and get better
DeleteThank you for the well wishes, dear friend BB! All three of us came down with it. Mrs. Shady was the first to fall ill. Next, I was hit by the bug, needed to wear a coat to bed night after night and cover myself with four blankets trying to keep warm. Then, Mrs. S's son developed symptoms. He was the first to be tested and it was positive for COVID. I waited a few more days and was tested along with Mrs. Shady. She was negative (recovered), but my test came back positive! I am supposed to go for my infusion one week from today, but will need to put it off until I test negative. A delay of more than one week will most likely cause a painful flare-up that could very well make me miserable through the holidays. I'm sure you know how it goes with chronic pain.
DeleteSo, to answer your question, when you missed or skipped my post on Dea Matrona, and then didn't seem like you were going to come over for for this post, Saved By the Dell, I decided to take a break from BBC, because I felt lousy and needed the rest. When you are fatigued, sick and depressed, it is very hard to concentrate and compose good comments. Realizing that I couldn't give you my best, I decided to show up for one of your posts last week, but not all three.
Hi Shady,
ReplyDeleteWow! You just sent me on a trip down memory lane. I remember seeing these types of ads in some scrapbooks Nan kept. Same with newspapers she kept as well. I loved the way that companies advertised in the 40s and 50s. Even some of this fashion reminds me of pictures Nan had. Her and her sisters often wore these types of clothes, with dad as an infant, his cousins as babies, and his other cousins as kids. Ahhhhh...
I'm not familiar with any of these songs. Like always, I'll have to show this entry to dad and see if he remembers any of these songs. He would have ranged from 3 months to 14 months in 1956. He does like oldies and doo-wop, so he may remember some of these.
Have a great day, dear friend.
Hi, Jessica Marie!
DeleteI'm so glad you made it to the platter party and fashion parade, dear friend. Welcome and thanks for dropping in on your weekend!
Yessum, I'll bet Nan introduced you to images like these in scrapbooks, newspapers she kept and old photos from the period. You and I both wish she were still here to comment on posts like this one. I'm sure she would have appreciated her own stroll down memory lane.
I predict your dad will know the Five Satins biggie "Still of The Nite" but probably not any of the other songs. As this series winds through the late 50s and early mid 60s, your dad should remember more songs in each volume. I'm always curious to find out such things.
Thanks again for your kind visit and comment, dear friend JM, and enjoy your weekend!
I recognized Roy Orbison but that was all.
ReplyDeleteThose dresses are something. They're pretty but dang you had to be small to fit in them. lol
Have a good week.
Hi, Mary!
DeleteHere we go again, dear friend. I'm finding your comment in spam three hours after you submitted it. I am so sorry this is happening on a regular basis again. Thanks for your patience and for coming by to check out Vol. 3 of Saved By The Dell!
I'm pleased that you know Roy Orbison. I trust these two songs on his first single are new to your ears. That means you learned five new songs today.
Yessum, you didn't see many plus size models in the mid 50s, at least not to my recollection. I for one am happy that changed in the last couple of decades and we now see women with more realistic figures in print ads and commercials. 99% of the hetero men I have known over the years state that they do not prefer wafer thin women.
Thanks again for coming over on a Saturday night. I hope my buddy Falcor is continuing on the mend after hurting himself recently. I'll be visiting you at Dark Thoughts tomorrow for an update on your neighborhood. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, dear friend Mary!
It's still another four decades away, but "Ooby Dooby" will go on to make galactic history:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhDDddL0ims
You've told me in the past that you have no secret point you're trying to make with these posts, but I've always thought of Roy Orbison as a kind of early '60s white boy successor to Doo Wop, so to play his early rockabilly hits, when he was trying to sound like Bill Hailey or whoever instead of his later balladic masterpieces, and then FOLLOW it with the balladic masterpiece "In the Still of the Night", made the same year as "Ooby Dooby", well, it may not prove any secret point but it is sure is ironic and got one helluva run-on sentence out of me.
Live long and prosper.
That should be Bill Haley, like the comet(s).
ReplyDeleteHi, Kirk!
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming over in the nicotine and doubling up on your comments, good buddy! Multiple comments are good as gold here at Shady's Place, and a special "Attaboy (or Attagirl) Award" will be presented at the end of the year to the friend who submits the greatest number. :)
I appreciate the fun fact that Roy Orbison's "Ooby Dooby" was used in the soundtrack of the 1996 sci-fi feature Star Trek: First Contact. I didn't see the movie, but read that Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride".was also used in it.
As you know, there are more than 12,000 songs on the list that Jim Sieling sent me. Dell rats of the 50s and early 60s had 12,000 choices on the jukebox. I picked those two early atypical Roy Orbison sides because it's exciting to think that 1956 Dell rats might have swing danced to those jumpin; rockabilly songs and then, in the grand tradition of jarring juxtaposition, embraced and slow danced to "Still of The Nite." I believe Dell rats have always had eclectic taste in music, explaining why there were big band sounds, traditional pop ballads, soulful doo-wop group sounds and rockabilly and rock & roll numbers all in the jukebox at the same time during that early period. In the mid 60s, when I arrived at the Dell, I found on the jukebox a mix of mainstream pop, Motown, Chicago soul, Philly soul, New York soul, southern R&B, British Invasion, garage rock, folk-rock, psychedelic sunshine pop and hard rock. All of these genres were eagerly embraced by Dell rats. You can imagine all the glorious jarring juxtapositions that occurred through the years as vastly different styles of music played in sequence on the dance hall jukebox.
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So thanks again for staying up late and paying a visit to Shady's Place. I hope you will be able to check out my next post which begins tomorrow for a 5-day run. Have a great week, good buddy Kirk!
Delete