5 YEAR REWIND: THE DELLS posted by O.W.

(As part of our 5th year anniversary, we're revisiting 20 key songs. This post was originally published on May 20, 2006).

The Dells: I Can Sing a Rainbow/Love Is Blue
From Love Is Blue (Cadet, 1969).

"What's so great about this song? Three things. 1) The shift from the mellow, almost folksy "I Can Sing a Rainbow" and then the out-of-nowhere dip into the funky soul blast of "Love Is Blue". 2) The call and response between the lead vocalist and the rhythm/brass sections, i.e. "Blue!" BLARE! Blue! BLARE! BLARE!" There's that moment where you know the hammer is about to drop between voice and instruments and you just know it's going to be incredible. 3) Check out the string arrangement that's subtly slipped underneath following that call-and-response. It adds this extra musical layer which turns a really good song into a wholly awesome one."