From: "Dik de Heer" Date: Mon Dec 23, 2002 6:14 am Subject: Born To Be With You : Harold Dorman HAROLD DORMAN (By Tony Wilkinson) Born 23rd December 1931 (some sources state 1926), Sledge, Mississippi Died 8th October 1988, Memphis, Tennessee The town of Sledge Mississippi is famous for two it making sons, namely country singer Charley Pride and the subject of this piece, Harold Dorman, who possessed a good blues tinged singing voice and fused country music together with R&B into a fine beat ballad styling. Harold grew up listening to the likes of Hank Williams Snr along with Fats Domino and Muddy Waters. Upon discharge from the US armed services during which he saw active service in the Korean conflict, he and his wife Peggy relocated to Memphis in 1955, just in time for the rockin' explosion that was going to shake the world. Dorman cut four audition sessions for Sun Records in 1957 including numerous cuts of the ballads 'I'm Stepping Aside', 'Spark Of Love' and 'To Be With You' but Sam Phillips chose to release nothing. Come 1957, he auditioned for Fernwood Records and cut 'Soda Pop Baby', 'Sweet Sweet Love' and 'Lonely Nights' under the supervision of Roland Janes at the latter's Sonic Studio. These three titles eventually saw the light of day on a Bear Family compilation of Harold's work in 1988. Later in 1959 at another session organized by Janes but this time at Hi's Royal Studio, Dorman cut the classic 'Mountain Of Love' which Roland tried unsuccessfully to lease to various labels. Roland and Billy Lee Riley launched their Rita Records in 1960. Janes kept the faith with Harold and signed him to the label. 'Mountain Of Love/To Be With You' was issued as Rita 1003 and on a promotion tour through the south, a dee jay in Macon, Georgia took a liking to the disc and it started to take off. Distribution was arranged through Bill Lowery's NRC set up and strings were dubbed on the disc to make it more acceptable to the northern and eastern states of the USA(!). The record became a national hit in America, peaking at # 21, and Harold found himself on a package show tour with Connie Francis plus Johnny & The Hurricanes. 'Mountain Of Love' was issued in the UK on Top Rank JAR 357 but to these ears, it sounds like a different cut. The follow up, the similar sounding 'River Of Tears' c/w the rocker 'I'll Come Running' (#111) stiffed and there was a dispute between NRC and Rita, with the result that the former discontinued distribution of Rita. However this disc also saw release in California on the Tince label (#1002) but credited to the Roland James(!) Orchestra, with vocals by Harold Dorman. There was one more single release on Rita with 'Moved To Kansas City' and 'Take A Chance On Me' (#112). This time Roland was successful in leasing the titles to American Top Rank (#RA 2092) but commercial success was not forthcoming. Dorman then signed with Sun Records and three singles were released between May 1961 and April 1962 including the tasty and Gary US Bonds inspired 'Uncle Jonah's Place' c/w 'Just One Step' (Sun 370). The other two issues were 'I'll Stick By You/There They Go' (#362) and 'In The Beginning/Wait 'Til Saturday Night' (#377). From here Dorman moved returned to Fernwood Records and saw one release on its subsidiary Santo label with 'In An Instant/There On Yonder Hill (#9005) but he is known to have recorded other tracks for the label including a workout on 'Heartbreak Hotel'. He gave up touring in 1962 and took up as a leather tooler but did keep writing songs. Here Charley Pride enters the picture as he recorded Harold's 'Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town'. Charley also revived 'Mountain Of Love' in 1982 and scored a # 1 country hit with his version. Actually the song has been recorded fairly frequently and is close to becoming a standard from the closing days of the rock 'n' roll era. Harold suffered two strokes in 1984 and unfortunately died in 1988, before he was able to visit Europe and perhaps gain some long overdue fame. Whilst not a ravin' rocker, he made consistently good records. A CD compilation of his recordings is long overdue. Recommended listening: Bear Family BFX 15262 'Mountain Of Love' (1988 vinyl release of recordings made for Roland Janes). New Century Music MCM 2034 'Dorman Meets Clifford'. (A bootleg CD release from a few years back, containing the sixteen tracks from the aforementioned Bear Family album plus fourteen tracks by Buzz Clifford).