Don't Dilly Dally

Updated April 2024, with new links and the A-side added

Today (20 January 2017) is one of the darkest says in world politics; it’s also the 50^th anniversary of the Beatles recording their masterpiece A Day in the Life – and should the tangerine hate machine push the button, I would be quite happy if that apocalyptic piano chord at the end of the song were the last thing I ever heard. Incidentally, it was a discussion with a friend about A Day in the Life that reminded me of the tracks I present for you today. I figure a few of us will need some cheering up, so here is a fun favourite to help you pass the day with a smile on your face and an earworm in your head.

Those of us of a certain age will have fond memories (well, memories at least) of the Dilly Sisters, the Mariachi moppets who regularly turned up on the Banana Splits Show to sing Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay or somesuch. Well, in 1968 the pair of little darlings released a one-off 45, coupling the classic Cu Cu Rru Cu Cu Paloma with a nutso cover of the Standells song Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White - a top 50 US hit for them on September 1966. Written by Ed 'Tainted Love' Cobb, the song was also later covered by US hardcore band Minor Threat.

Research would suggest that the sisters, Maria and Toni were just six and five years old respectively in 1968, the same year that they first appeared on the Banana Splits Adventure Hour (which itself made its television debut that September). Advertised as 'the world's youngest guitarists, in their short career they performed at Disneyland, the Hollywood Palladium, in Mexico City. and across the States from San Francisco to New York.

Legend has it that only 500 copies of this brilliant 45 were pressed by Mexican music specialist Gordo Enterprises (tagline: ‘Chicanos are Happening!'), part of Eddie Davis’s Rampart Records company. Certainly it’s a rare thing, and copies usually fetch in the $60-$100 region. 

After their brief brush with televisual fame the Dilly Sisters spent a few years touring the holiday resort circuit before they vanished: sadly there’s nothing else I can add (don’t get confused by the existence of another 60s girl group called the Dilly Sisters from Washington), but if you know anything about what happened to Las Dilly Sisters after their moment in the spotlight, do let me know. 

Enjoy!

Download Paloma HERE

Download Good HERE