David Campanella & The DellChords

Clockwise from bottom, David Campanella, George Kafcos, Kenny Hamilton and Joey Vertucci.

David Campanella & The DellChords (Brooklyn, NY)

Personnel :

David Campanella (Lead / Second Tenor)

George Kafcos (Lead / Baritone)

Kenny Hamilton (Bass)

Joey Vertucci (First Tenor)

Discography :

1959 - Everything's That Way / Over The Rainbow (Kane 25593)

Biography :

George Kafcos (Kafcopoulos) and best friend Kenny Hamilton from Flushing  had a ramshackle group with no name. Kenny Hamilton attended Queens Day School in Sunny Side Queens with David Campanella. George Kafcos attended Bayside H.S. and Kenny brought David around to their neighborhood and introduced george to him.

 
Early Dellchords : Larry Marshal, George Kafcos, Algie Hough, Georgia Kafcos (Manager), Kenny Hamilton & David Campanella

David Campanella  was living in Glen Cove NY at the time, he was son of Roy Campanella, nicknamed "Campy", an American baseball player, primarily as a catcher.  Their three part harmony blew away anything they had heard with their group and that at that moment was the beginning of the group. The DellChords were born. They needed more voices and they take in their adventures Algie Hough and Larry Marshall from Queens Day School as well.

Early Dellchords, with Roy Campanella  (Larry Marshall, Kenny Hamilton, Algie Hough, George Kafcos and David Campanella)

  This group configuration now was three black guys and two white guys (Kenny Hamilton and George Kafcos). Algie and Larry sang with the group very briefly and they will be replaced by Joey Vertucci , a First Tenor from Corona NY. Now, the future recording group was one black guy (David) and three white guys  (Kenny, George & Joey).

David Campanella, George Kafcos, Joey Vertucci and Kenny Hamilton

They signing a recording contract with Richard Oats, head of Kane Records in 1959. The Dell Chords cut two songs for Kane, The classic "Over The Rainbow" and "Everything's That Way". George Kafcos wrote the words and music to "Everything's That Way" for his girlfriend at the time, a really cute blond nicknamed "Chickey".

David Campanella, Joey Vertucci, George Kafcos and Kenny Hamilton Auditioning for Alvin Wilks (Bottom)

David Campanella wrote the riff at the fade out end of the song and that is his voice doing the riff. Incidentally, they never received a dime. Long story as to why they didn't pursue them? They were 15 years old. For several years David Campanella  was in trouble with the law. He was a member of the street gang the Chaplains, and he was convicted for disorderly conduct and burglary. He died age 41 drug related dead.


Songs :

  
Over The Rainbow                       Everything's That Way

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