Category Archives: Starfire

The Blue Dells “Trust Me” on Starfire Records


The Blue Dells: Lester Long (at top holding sax), Doyle Smith (center), Bill Maloney (at left with guitar), Bill Hamilton (right with bass), and Larry Reynolds (at bottom with drum sticks).
The Blue Dells were from Cincinnati but recorded this 45 at Ray Allen’s studio in Louisville, Kentucky. The publishing was through Shad O’Shea’s Counterpart Music in Cincinnati.

“Trust Me” is cool moody garage-rock with horns that don’t intrude.

The flip, “Everything for You” is a more typical ballad, and was written by D.B. Doyle and Lester Long. Writing credits on “Trust Me” are D.B. Smith – two D.B.s in one band? No, it turns out that is a misprint.

I didn’t know anything about the band until commentors below filled me in. One of these is the Blue Dells’ drummer Larry Reynolds, who sent in the photo above. I’ll repeat his comment here:

Band members [were] Larry Reynolds drummer, Bill Maloney lead guitar/singer, Doyle B. Smith organ/lead singer, Bill Hamilton bass guitar/ backup singer, Lester Long saxophone/backup singer. The band joined together in 1965 and broke up in 1969. We played at the Starfire Lounge for over two and a half years, Mustang Room, Tiki Lounge, and all over Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana. The band appeared on several record hop type TV shows in Cincinnati and Dayton to promote our record.

Thank you to Larry for responding to my request for a photo of the band.