Len Barry

Len Barry
Background information
Birth name	Leonard Borisoff
Born	June 12, 1942 (1942-06-12) (age 67) West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Genres	Pop, Blue-eyed soul
Occupations	Singer, songwriter
Years active	1958 - 1982
Labels	Brunswick, RCA, Decca
Associated acts	The Dovells

Len Barry (born Leonard Borisoff, June 12, 1942, West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States^[1]) is a retired American vocalist and musician.

Career

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Barry had little thought of a show business career while still in school. Instead, he aspired to become a professional baseball player upon his graduation. It was not until he entered military service and had occasion to sing with the Army bands, and was so encouraged by the response of his soldier audiences, that he decided to make music a career.^{[citation needed]}

Upon his discharge from military service, Barry returned home to Philadelphia and joined The Dovells as their lead singer. His is the lead voice on their best selling records "Bristol Stomp", "Hully Gully Baby" and "You Can't Sit Down", among others. Barry also made film appearances with The Dovells, as well as guest appearances on US television on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Dick Clark Show. Soon after leaving the group, Barry recorded his first solo single "Lip Sync (To The Tongue Twisters)".

As a predominately blue-eyed soul singer, he recorded two hits in 1965 for Decca Records in the US and released by Brunswick Records in the UK: "1-2-3", and "Like a Baby", both of which made the Top Ten of the UK Singles Chart. Those songs also peaked at #2 and #27 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart respectively. Both songs were composed by Barry, John Madara and Dave White, one of the original Juniors from Danny & the Juniors. Barry also covered "Treat Her Right" by another blue-eyed soul act, Roy Head and the Traits.

In 1969 Barry and Madara co-produced The Original Version: Journey To The Moon LP for Buddah Records. According to Madara, "Neil Bogart wanted to be the first record company out with authentic conversations with the astronauts and others, including President Nixon, using original music that we composed."^[2] Barry used Madara's studio band (including Daryl Hall of future Hall & Oates fame) that would become Gulliver (Tim Moore (guitar), Tom Sellers (bass), Daryl Hall (keyboards), Jim Helmer (drums) and named them the 'Sound of Genesis' for this album. Sellers arranged it and it was billed as being recorded live on Earth, in Space and on the Moon. According to Madara, this album "was approved by NASA, who sent in the tapes every day to us of the moon flight, which we used on the LP."^[2]

Barry, obsessed with Indian culture, then went on to write and produce "Keem-O-Sabe" - which his friend and sometime manager Alan White called the first disco hit record, and the creation of the Philadelphia disco sound.^[3] Again Sellers arranged it and the future Gulliver performed it (this time as The Electric Indian) in conjunction with two musicians, Bobby Eli (guitar) and Vincent Montana, Jr. (vibraphone), who would go on to fame with MFSB and the Salsoul Orchestra. "Broad Street", the single's B-side also written and produced by Barry and never issued on an LP was an instrumental.

When the hits dried up, Barry continued performing his entertaining stage act, and later moved into songwriting and production work with WMOT Productions.^[4]

In May 2008 Barry reinvented himself as a writer with the publication of the semi-biographical graphic novel, Black Like Me. The storyline involved caucasian siblings growing up in the neighborhood, accepted by some, rejected by others in a sort of reverse perspective morality tale.^[5]

Legacy

• The song "1-2-3" was featured on the soundtrack for the film, Mr. Holland's Opus.
• "1-2-3" was one of the songs that appeared in John Lennon's jukebox.
• Motown Records sued the songwriters, Barry and Dave White, claiming that "1-2-3" was a reworked copy of Holland-Dozier-Holland song "Ask Any Girl". The songwriters did admit to taking the composition and the lawsuit led to Holland-Dozier-Holland getting equal credit for writing "1-2-3" as noted on the Billboard Top 10 official CD.^{[citation needed]}
• In December 2005, Welsh singer-songwriter Cerys Matthews recorded a new version of "1-2-3" in Nashville, Tennessee.^[6]
• In 1994, Scottish star, Edwyn Collins, sampled "1-2-3" for part of his hit "A Girl Like You".

Discography

Singles

• "1-2-3" - (1965) - Brunswick Records - UK Singles Chart high - Number 3
• "Like A Baby" - (1966) - Brunswick - Number 10

^[7]

Albums

• 1-2-3 - (1965) - Decca Records
• My Kind of Soul - (1967) - RCA Records
• Ups & Downs - (1972) - Ups & Downs
• More from the 123 Man - (1982) - Bulldog

^[8]

See also

Philadelphia portal

• List of artists under the Decca Records label
• List of people from Philadelphia
• List of NME covers
• List of performers on Top of the Pops

References

Additional sources

• Billboard Top 40 Hits (8th Edition) by Joel Whitburn

External links

• Len Barry biography at Allmusic website
• Oldies.com biography
• The Dovells biography (official website)