From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Jun 12, 2002  1:21 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Len Barry
 
LEN BARRY

Born Leonard Borrisoff, 12 June 1942, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Singer. Len Barry began with a group called the Boss-Tones, who had
a local hit with "Mope-Itty Mop" in 1958. Circa 1959 he became the lead
singer of the Brooktones, later the Dovells, a Philadelphia quintet. They
had their first and biggest hit in 1961, with "Bristol Stomp" (# 2), on the
Parkway label. This was followed by several similar dance-craze tunes:
"Do The New Continental", "Bristol Twistin' Annie" and "Hully Gully Baby"
(all top 40, 1962). A vocal version of the Philip Upchurch hit "You Can't
Sit Down" went to # 3 in 1963. In 1965 Barry left the Dovells for a solo
career, which brought him three major hits on the Decca label : '"1-2-3"
(# 2 USA, # 3 UK in 1965, produced by Leon Huff), "Like A Baby" (# 27
USA, # 10 UK, 1966) and "Somewhere" from West Side Story (# 26 USA).
He left Decca for RCA, tried his hand at soul material with a toned down
James Brown-styled stage act, before drifting into cabaret in the '70s.

Dovells website: http://www.dovells.com/