Verne Allison formed The Dells with high school pals from Harvey who harmonized their way onto the Billboard charts. He liked to tell the story of how the group's turn as opening act for Ray Charles came to an abrupt end after a Carnegie Hall show in 1966."The Dells sang so well that they got standi ng ovations and five encores before Ray Charles even went on stage," according to his son, who is also named Verne. At the end of the night, when the elated group got back on their tour bus, Charles' manager appeared with a question: "Where do you want to be dropped off at?""Ray fired them," said the son, a musician who played with his father. "The message was clear: 'Naw, this is my show. You're doing too much.' "He'd laugh when he told the story. But it wasn't funny back then, I'm sure."Undeterred, The Dells — a quintet that sang doo-wop before turning to RB — went on to enjoy decades of touring and chart success.Their sound was "hypnotic," according to the Rock Roll Hall of Fame, which praised their "astonishing" track record when it inducted the group in 2004: 46 RB hits between 1956 and 1992.Mr. Allison, who sang second tenor, was 90 when he died Oct. 6 of natural causes, according to his family.The Dells originally formed as the El-Rays in 1952, when the group's members were still students at Harvey's Thornton Township High School.Their biggest hit was “Oh What a Night,” which crested at No. 3 on the charts in 1956 — behind Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” and Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill.” The song was about a night when the band met a group of young women at a nightclub in Markham."One Sunday night, a group of girls told us they were crazy about us and asked to cook dinner for us," lead singer Marvin Junior, who died in 2013, told the Chicago Sun-Times in an interview in 1982. The Dells also sang backup for other Rock Roll Hall of Famers, among them Jerry Butler and Etta James.The Dells also were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, which dubbed them "The Grandfathers of RB Harmony" and said of the group: "They paved the road for such groups as the Temptations, the Miracles, the Stylistics and, more recently, Boyz II Men, Jagged Edge and 112.""They had a very distinctive sound, very high voices for a male group, which is why you don't hear a lot of other bands performing their songs," Mr. Allison's son said. "They toured Europe and Japan. They were well-dressed, classy, excellent performers and humorous. "And they always told a story in the songs they sang."The group stopped touring in 2009."The fact that they stayed together that long is kind of a miracle," said retired Chicago radio personality Richard Steele.It wasn't only music they did as a group, according to the younger Verne Allison."The Dells did everything together," the son said. "No one person was above the other. That's how they stayed together for more than five decades."Michael McGill, the last surviving member of The Dells, couldn't be reached. Mr. Allison lived in Flossmoor in recent years and was an avid golfer.In addition to his son, Mr. Allison is survived by his daughter Sheila Allison Moore and three grandchildren. Services are being planned. ...read more read less