Billy Woodruff obit

Billy Woodruff of the Del Vikings dies

 He was not on the list.

Billy Woodruff of the Del Vikings passed away on January 26, 2019, after a long illness.  Woodruff can be heard on the Del Vikings recordings on ABC-Paramount and Alpine. Billy samg lead and tenor for the group in the early 1960's and is the tenor lead on their classic recording, "The Sun".  Thanks to Jim Santa Barbara for letting us know about this.

The Dell-Vikings were an American doo-wop musical group that recorded several hit singles in the 1950s and continued to record and tour with various lineups in later decades. The group is notable for the hit songs "Come Go with Me" and "Whispering Bells", and for having been a successful racially mixed musical group during a period of time when such groups were rare.

The Del-Vikings were formed in 1955 by members of the United States Air Force stationed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Clarence Quick, Kripp Johnson, Don Jackson, Samuel Paterson, Bernard Robertson and guitarist Joe Lopes. Because all of the members were in the armed forces, the group constantly ran the risk of being disrupted by members being stationed in other places. This happened soon after the group's forming when Paterson and Robertson were sent to Germany. They were replaced by baritone David Lerchey, the group's first white member, and tenor Norman Wright. Wright had started a group with Lawrence "Prince" Lloyd called The Valverteens from Amarillo Air Force Base, Texas, before joining The Del-Vikings. Shortly after, Don Jackson left the band and was replaced by Gus Backus, the group's second white member.

The band's name was created by Clarence Quick. Some sources say that band members had read about Vikings with the prefix "Del" being "added to give the group name an air of mystery." Another suggestion is that Clarence Quick had known of a basketball team in Brooklyn, New York, called the Vikings and had suggested the name.[5] The name may also have originated from the popular Viking Press, publisher of paperbacks that group members liked to read.