Dee Dee Phelps

 We’re still flying high after the success of our concert on June 22^nd.  The show sold out, with some overflow purchasing standing room only tickets. Enthusiastic and geared up, the audience supported us on every song. We opened with “Thou Shalt Not Steal”. Then I told a story about the first time Dick St. John and I ever sang on a stage.

We followed that with “Young and In Love” and then a rousing version of the Gary Bonds song, “New Orleans”. The instrumental featured our hot guitar, piano and sax players. The audience was jamming.

I spoke about the City of New Orleans and how more contemporary music styles came out of there than any other city in the United States. Then I told the history of the folk song, “All My Trials”. The lights lowered and, sitting on stools, Michael and I sang the ballad.

Giving tribute to Neil Diamond, we sang “I’m a Believer”, then the Everly Brothers version of “Let It Be Me”, followed by “Tell Me”.

I told how our first record happened to be recorded and we sang “The Mountain’s High”, followed by the Boyce and Hart song, recorded by the Monkees, “I Want to Be Free”.

After an up-tempo version of “Mocking Bird”, Michael introduced the band. We ended with a rock and roll medley that had the audience singing along and dancing in their seats. The medley songs were “Do You Want to Dance” and “Dancing in the Streets”.

For an encore, we slowed the tempo down with “Turn Around” and ended with Twist and Shout. My three adult children, one daughter-in-law and my husband surprised me by coming on stage. They presented me with bouquets of flowers. It was a sweet and touching tribute.

After the show we held a reception in the foyer and gave some live interviews. The evening was exhilarating and very special.

Right now the video crew is putting together a three minute clip of highlights from the show that we’ll be posting on the website and YouTube.

I’m so grateful to the musicians that joined us, Johnny Kito on synthesizer (musical director for the Mama’s and Papa’s and Gary Bonds European tour), Ben Davis on keyboards, Bray Ghiglia on electric and acoustic guitars and sax, Edward “Pookie” Dixon on drums (he toured with Billy Preston), Adam Clements on bass and Robby Martinez conducting and playing flute on “Turn Around”. There would have been no show without them!

I especially want to thank Michael Dunn for his amazing talent and help with the show. I’m fortunate to be singing with him.

Last Sunday evening, the love and support from the audience warmed my heart and we look forward to sharing the gift of song with audiences in the future.

We’re excited to announce a show we’re putting together with a number of professional musicians, called the Dick and Dee Dee Sixties Musical Review. Our

first performance is Sunday evening, June 22nd, at Theatre Palisades in Pacific Palisades, California.

For this hour and a half show, we’ll be singing all the Dick and Dee Dee hits, plus other Sixties favorites, as well as showing a DVD of the Scopitone video (Where Did All The Good Times Go) and the last Shindig Show in which we sang Lighting Strikes.  We have some amazing people on instruments, with a string section as well. A video of the show will be taped, which we will send to promoters booking Doo Wop acts.  If any of you are in the Los Angeles area on that date, we hope you’ll drop by. Keep watching the website and blog for an official flyer, due to post by May 15^th.

So many wonderful things have been happening lately! Michael and I are forging forward in a number of directions, i.e. Doo Wop Shows (we’re going to be in the Boston area in October on a big show), public television, club work, etc. Right now we’re putting together our own band in Los Angeles so we can work corporate shows and places that would like us to bring a band with us. We hope to do an interactive set, with some brief stories from Vinyl Highway as well as video clips.

Within the last month, I was fortunate to find the original Dick and Dee Dee musical scores, written in the Sixties for full orchestra. We’re having all the parts copied so the originals can be kept in a safe place while we are traveling. For Doo Wop Shows, we will need to take the scores with us, as well as a musical director/keyboard player.

Sadly, my writing has been almost non existent and the work I’ve done on Love From Big Sur has ground to a halt. I hope to get back to the second book soon, when all the preliminary work on the music is completed. But, meanwhile, what joy to sing the Dick and Dee Dee songs in rehearsal. I love the soaring notes in Young and In Love, the solemn moments in Turn Around, the rocking Thou Shalt Not Steal. Can’t wait to get out there to share the songs with others.

I want to thank all of you for leaving messages on the website, on the blog and comments on the videos and YouTube videos. I just discovered that 25,000 people have logged onto the Lightening Strikes video on YouTube! 

I try to answer every e-mail personally. The internet has brought the world closer and made communication easier so please let me know if there are any topics you’d like me to talk about on the blog. Hope to see some of you in person soon.

Dick and Dee Dee Featuring the Original Dee Dee (Sperling) Phelps and Michael Dunn. www.dickanddeedee.com

Rehearsals are going very well. Michael Dunn and I have worked out the Dick and Dee Dee hits and are also working on Where Did All the Good Times Go and All My Trials from The Best of Dick and Dee Dee CD.

Musical arranger Johnny Kito is writing music scores and will rehearse the bands and play keyboard for our live gigs. It fills us with great joy to re-create some of the beautiful songs Dick St. John and others wrote.

We did a photo shoot with photographer Kenny Morrison and are using three of the shots. One of the photos is being posted on the Dick and Dee Dee website. Soon we’ll post a second one on the blog.

As soon as we get a touring schedule together, we’ll be sure to let everyone know. Most shows are booked six months in advance, so we may have to wait awhile to do some major venues. That will give us time to rehearse many new songs

Thanks for all the supportive comments about singing again as Dick and Dee Dee. We hope to help people recall the joy that music brought to all of our lives. In the meantime, keep rockin’!

Happy 2008!

After appearing during the meet-and-greet at the Las Vegas Doo Wop weekend conference in November, 2007, I’ve been reliving the wonderful moments of talking to so many diverse and wonderful Dick and Dee Dee fans, who told me that our music was the sound track of their lives. One man mentioned how our music helped him make it through his Viet Nam experience; several people mentioned that they played “Turn Around” at their adult children’s wedding. One man said it was played for his father/daughter dance.

The beautiful comments touched my heart. I realized how much music brings back memories of our youth and what joy it adds to our lives. I finally came to a decision to sing as Dick and Dee Dee again, as a gift to those that remember the songs and those that want to hear them for the first time.

When I mentioned my decision over the phone to my friend, Lou Christie, he helped me brainstorm some ways to find a replacement for Dick St. John (who, as most of you know, passed away in 2003). This was no easy job, as Dick had a four octave range and a raise-the-roof falsetto. Lou also introduced me to the Mamas and Papa’s arranger, who is going play keyboard and rehearse the bands for the new Dick and Dee Dee.

Finally, we were going to hold auditions for a male singer in Los Angeles. But several people recommended I talk to a long time friend of mine, Michael Dunn, and consider getting together with him to see if this might work before holding the auditions.

I talked to Michael about the project, gave him a CD and recently worked with him to see if our voices blended. I was thrilled that Michael’s vocal range (a beautiful tenor voice) works perfectly in the key the songs were originally sung and that he can handle the falsetto parts as well. Michael is a trained singer/actor who has appeared in off Broadway productions and who performs one man shows in the Los Angeles area (over the holidays he starred in A Christmas Carol, where he played all the roles!).

Hopefully, you’ll see us singing soon on the public television doo wop shows and at theatres in your area. When we get rehearsals completed, we will be posting a touring schedule on the Dick and Dee Dee site.

Thanks to all who have encouraged me to sing again as Dick and Dee Dee. The songs are a joy to sing and we so look forward to performing the Dick and Dee Dee hits in 2008.

I wish everyone a joyful, peaceful Holiday Season. It’s the time of year to take a moment to stop and reflect on all the blessings in our lives. We have so much to be thankful for. Even though serious challenges may crop up, we don’t have to search very far to find people worse off than we are.

May 2008 be a year filled with happiness, health and prosperity for all.