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Born Irving Lee Dorsey in New Orleans on December 24, 1926, he dabbled in boxing, served a stint in the Marines and earned his living as a mechanic before launching his singing career in 1958 at age 32 with the small New Orleans label Valiant Records, singing an Allen Toussaint tune called Lover Of Love b/w one he co-wrote called Lottie-Mo. Released as Valiant 1001, it not only failed to chart but the label's owners had to change their name after being threatened with a lawsuit by another company claiming the name to be theirs. So they became Instant Records. The following year he cut Lonely Evening/Rock for the even more obscure Rex Records (Rex 1005), but hardly any pressings were distributed. Then, in 1961 at age 35 he finally got his big break with Fury Records, launched in 1957 in Bobby Robinson and which had a number of successful singles to this point including 1959's # 1 (Pop and R&B) Kansas City by Wilbert Harrison, himself over 30 at the time. So, clearly, Robinson wasn't adverse to taking chances with older artists in the days of those usually in their teens or early 20s.
The break-out disc was Ya Ya which climbed to # 1 R&B and # 7 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in September/October on Fury 1053. That success prompted Ace Records of Jackson, Mississippi and the much larger ABC-Paramount to each lease his earlier sides and re-release them as Lottie-Mo/Lover Of Love on ABC-Paramount 10192 and Lonely Evening/Rock on Ace 640. But without success, and after his follow-up Do-Re-Mi peaked at # 22 R&B/# 27 Hot 100 February 1962 on Fury 1056, his next three releases there into 1963 flopped. He followed that with two more failures, one in 1963 with the Mercury subsidiary Smash, and another in 1964 with Constellation Records. By this time the British Invasion was gaining momentum and so it seems few labels wanted to take a chance with a 38-year-old vocalist who may have already shot his bolt.
In stepped old collaborator Allen Toussaint who, with Marshall Schorn, felt Lee still had some magic left in him and, with a contract set up with the Amy Records subsidiary of Bell Records, an established label in New York first launched back in 1952 by Arthur Shimkin, they set to work. And this is the focus of this volume from BackBeats of the U.K. which, while presenting the sides with great sound reproduction, misses the mark in terms of those of his nationally-charting sides for Amy by omitting one and all but one of the B-sides to those charting singles, while at the same time including quite a few singles (both sides in some case) that failed, along with some of his LP sides from the two he had released at Amy.
They do provide both sides of his initial hit at Amy, the August/September 1965 # 7 R&B/# 28 Hot 100 Ride Your Pony (Amy 927 b/w The Kitty Cat Song), but after that they only give you the charting sides of Get Out Of My Life, Woman, a # 5 R&B/# 44 Hot 100 in January/February 1966 (Amy 945 b/w So Long), Working In The Coal Mine, a # 5 R&B/# 8 Hot 100 in August/September 1966 (Amy 958 b/w Mexico), Holy Cow, a # 10 R&B/# 23 Hot 100 in November/December 1966 (Amy 965 b/w Operation Heartbreak), Go-Go Girl, a # 31 R&B/# 62 Hot 100 in November 1967 (Amy 998 b/w I Can Hear You Callin'), and Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky (From Now On), a # 33 R&^B/# 95 Hot 100 in July 1969 (Amy 11,055 b/w There Should Be A Book). Completely overlooked is both sides of the May 1967 # 97 Hot 100 My Old Car on Amy 987 b/w Why Wait Until Tomorrow?
Instead, what you get from his failed singles are: Can You Hear Me?/Work, Work, Work (Amy 939 in 1965); Confusion (Amy 952 in 1966); Vista Vista (Amy 994 in 1967); Cynthia (Amy 11,010 in 1968; Wonder Woman (Amy 11,020 in 1968); Four Corners (Amy 11,031 in 1968); Little Ba-By (Amy 11,048 in 1968; and Give It Up/Candy Yam (Amy 11,057 in 1969). That last was a nice touch as it was not only his last single at Amy, but also the label's as it was absorbed into the parent Bell Records at this stage. Tracks 9, 12 and 16 are from his first LP "Ride Your Pony" (Amy 8010) released in 1966, while track 10 comes from the second album "The New Lee Dorsey" (Amy 8011), also issued in 1966. As for tracks 17, 1`8 and 20, I can only assume they were unissued sides at Amy because no record exists of their release. Anywhere.
As an album of selected sides by this underrated vocalist, who passed away from emphysema on December 1, 1986 at age 60, the quality rates it as a 5-star release. And although I was tempted to knock off 1 star for that missing hit and the B-sides, the fact it doesn't claim to be his greatest hits prevented me from doing so. It's a nice album all around.
