LEE DORSEY

LONELY EVENING (w/Male Group)
ROCK (w/Female Group)

Ace 640 (promo)

GRADE: M-

Dorsey and his parents moved to Portland, Oregon when he was ten years old. He served in the United States Navy and then began a career in prizefighter boxing as a light heavyweight in Portland in the early 1950s. He fought under the name "Kid Chocolate" and was quite successful.

After Dorsey met songwriter/producer Allen Toussaint at a party in the early ‘60s, he was signed to the Fury record label. The song that launched his career was inspired by a group of children chanting nursery rhymes. Ya Ya went to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. He recorded other songs for Fury before the label folded, and his second hit for that label, Do-Re-Mi, made a very impressive #27 on the same charts in that same year. After those two hits, Lee went back to his business of car repair.

Toussaint later came back on the Amy label and began to work with Dorsey once again. From 1965 to 1969 Dorsey put seven songs in the Hot 100, the most successful being Working In The Coal Mine in 1966, reaching #6 on the charts. Other Amy releases, such as Get Out of My Life Woman, Holy Cow, and Ride Your Pony, etc., were good, moderate successes. Dorsey appeared on an album with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, which led to more recordings on his own with ABC Records in the late 1970s, but he had no more national hits. He contracted emphysema and died in New Orleans in 1986 at the age of 61.

Dorsey's delightful songs have been covered by artists as diverse as Petula Clark (Ya Ya Twist, a 1962 French version of Ya Ya) and Devo (Working In The Coal Mine).

Dorsey recorded on several other labels during the years from the late ‘50s (Rex & Valiant); through the ‘60s (Constellation, Sansu & Smash); and through the ‘70s and the early ‘80s (Bell, Polydor, Spring, and Gusto). One of his earliest labels was Ace, where he made only one record in 1961--the disk now up for auction. This is a really excellent and difficult record to get. Dorsey’s unmistakable voice is perfect for the A side, Lonely Evening, which is a terrific R&B ballad with a male group backup. On Side B, Dorsey rocks with his own composition, simply called Rock. On this side, Dorsey is accompanied by a female group, and they all whoop it up for a super dance song that could even be classified as Northern Soul. For you Lee Dorsey fans, of which there are legions (myself included), this beautiful promotional copy is a must-have--still in its original Ace sleeve. Better buy it now!

CONDITION: This record is in beautiful near-mint condition and the entire record looks and plays like new--all glossy, clean and bright! Outstanding disk!

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The Boring Stuff

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