TRIP BACK IN TIME IS MAR DELS’ TICKET TO SUCCESS

It’s getting harder to find a seat in the Belly Up Tavern on Monday nights, much less a spot on the dance floor.

For the last three years, the Solana Beach nightclub has provided a weekly home to the Mar Dels. And each time the group plays there, it seems, the crowds--most of whom are in their early 20s--get bigger and more dance-happy.

The Mar Dels’ ticket to success, however, is not the same mix of steamy, new wave originals and hot, Top 40 copy tunes that most popular local bands play.

Rather, the Mar Dels are the reigning champs of the pompadour-and-ponytail set, dishing out a repertoire of rock oldies from the 1950s and ‘60s that topped the charts when most of their young fans--and the six band members themselves--were still in diapers.

“When I started the band back in the summer of 1982, there was nothing else like it around,” said Doug Allen, the group’s 25-year-old saxophonist and lead singer.

“But all my life I had enjoyed listening to oldies, and I thought that somewhere out there must be people who feel the same way.

“And, as it’s turned out, I was right.”

He sure was. Shortly after Allen and five of his Del Mar buddies first got together in Allen’s garage for a jam session that included such rock classics as the Marcels’ “Blue Moon,” the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann” and Gene Chandler’s “Duke of Earl,” the fledgling group’s popularity took off like a rocket.

“Around the same time as we started the group, the big nostalgia craze hit the country,” Allen said. “And a month after our first rehearsal, we got our first two gigs, at the Fiesta Del Sol and the annual Del Mar Days celebration, both on the same day.”

Since then, Allen said, he and the other Mar Dels--guitarist Jesse Horner, drummer Albert Williams, bassist Burt Newman and backup singers Angel O’Brien and April Doyle--have enjoyed a hectic schedule that has made them the envy of other bands in town.

Aside from their Monday nights at the Belly Up Tavern, the Mar Dels have played more than 20 other nightclubs throughout the county, as well as several dozen festivals and private parties.

They’ve played in Atlantic City and New York nightclubs as well; most recently, they finished a monthlong engagement at the Sheraton Hotel in Tucson.

They’ve opened local concerts for such rock luminaries of the past as the Platters, Johnny Rivers, Frankie Avalon, the Association, the Diamonds and Little Anthony, many of whom originally recorded some of the songs the Mar Dels now play.

Earlier this year, they signed a management and booking contract with Luckenbach Productions, the Encinitas firm that had been involved solely with promoting country-western concerts.

One of the first jobs Luckenbach got them, Allen said, led to the recording of their first album, which is scheduled to be out by summer.

“Originally, we were hired to star in a commercial for a mail-order do-wop album released by World Communications,” Allen said. “We filmed the spot in January, and the commercial is now airing on television stations all over the country.

“And based on our performance, I just got word that World is going to release a second do-wop album. Only this time, instead of it being a compilation of early rock hits by the original artists, we’re going to play all the songs ourselves.”

The Mar Dels recorded that album in May, Allen said, and in late summer will go to Bermuda, where they will play at the annual Young Presidents Organization meeting.

“Last year, the Young Presidents--a group of corporate executives younger than 40--held their annual meet here in San Diego and had the Beach Boys play a private showcase for them at the Coast Guard Auxiliary,” Allen said.

“We opened that show, and now they want us back--this time as headliners.”

Allen attributes much of the Mar Dels’ success to the group’s firm policy of reproducing rock classics like Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” and the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” as faithfully as possible, from the music down to the band members’ appearance on stage.

The guys, their hair combed back in pompadours, wear ‘50-style tuxedos or bowling shirts when playing live; the women, in ponytails or beehives, are also clad in period dress, such as poodle skirts, capris or prom dresses.

But Allen concedes that the biggest reason for the Mar Dels’ success is the music itself: simple, up tempo, timeless rock ‘n’ roll.

“I don’t know if this current fad is going to last, but even if it starts to fade, it will always be back,” Allen said. “Our fans come from all age groups.

“The older ones grew up with this type of music, and as a result they’ll always have a place in their hearts for it--it’s almost like going back to your old neighborhood, or visiting with some old friends you haven’t seen in years.

“And the younger fans are getting into oldies for the same reason I did: because it’s good music. The melodies are clean and simple, the rhythms are upbeat and danceable, the vocal harmonies are strong, and the lyrics are light and positive, not negative like so much of the new music.

“More importantly, however, oldies just seem to feel good. And as long as we can capture that feeling and share it with the people who come to see us, our good fortune is going to continue.”