By MEL&THEN SOME (195.219.7.77) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 07:10 am:

Can anyone please help me out,
were the group called The Players that recorded some great stuff on The Minit Record Label actually The Dells?
I know that the Dells were doing a bit of session work around the mid-sixties and that they supposedly backed Barbara Lewis on her million seller for Atlantic Records on 'Hello Stranger'.
From what I gather,
the only member of the Players to arrive for the recording session of 'He'll be back' was the guy on Lead vocals,so the Dells stepped in to provide the vocal support.
Now,if this is true,
then did they also cut the other tracks that were done by the Players on Minit,or was this a one off or is it all false.
Can anybody help me please.
Many Thanks
Mel.

By Heikki (62.71.79.239) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 08:27 am:

"The Players had a small hit with a Vietnam song, He'll Be Back, on Minit in '66 (soul-24, pop-107). It was written by two members of the group,Collis Gordon and John Thomas, but Calvin Carter and Al Smith regarded them as not good enough voices, so they were replaced by the Dells (without Marvin) leaving the Players' lead, Herbert Butler, as the only member of the group to sing on that particular single. Also on some later Players' tracks Chuck Barksdale attended."
(Soul Express, # 1/98).
Mel, this was confirmed by Chuck.

By MEL&THEN SOME (195.219.7.61) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 08:32 am:

Heikki,
many,many thanks for taking the time to let me know.At last I can now put that aside.
Very Much appreciated
Mel.

By Heikki (62.71.79.239) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 08:33 am:

Mel!
I just checked and there's a good article on the Players on AMG by Andrew Hamilton.
Heikki

By RD (63.188.32.101) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 08:35 am:

The Players minus the Dells toured and was well received on their R&B hits "He'll Be Back" and "I'm So Glad You Waited." Nobody knew at the time that the Dells contributed to their recordings. The lead singer was excellent.

By MEL&THEN SOME (195.219.7.7) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 01:16 pm:

Many thanks to you both
for the info.
mel.