The Dovells

The Dovells were an American doo-wop group, formed at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia in 1957, under the name 'The Brooktones'. The original members were Arnie Silver, Len Borisoff, Jerry Gross (alias Summers), Mike Freda, and Jim Mealey (alias Danny Brooks). Their first single "No, No, No" was a local hit for The Brooktones.Summers left the Brooktones in 1959 to form the group The Gems with Summers, Mark Stevens, Mike Freda, Warren Purdy, and Roland Scarinci. The remaining Brooktones signed to Parkway Records in 1960 and added Jerry Sirlen and William Shunkwiler to the group, while changing the band's name to The Dovells. When they were rehearsing "Out in the Cold Again", which turned out to be the B-side of "Bristol Stomp", Borisoff called Summers and asked for help with the harmonies. Borisoff, after two days, asked Summers to be part of the group and replace two of the other members. Sirlen and Shunkwiler were replaced by Summers and Freda. Stevens later began a group Tony & the Raindrops ("Our Love is Over", a local hit), and he joined The Dovells in the 1960s. Purdy worked for the Boeing Company. Scarinci enlisted in the Marine Corps and after being in the military worked for AT&T.The Dovells in 1961 were Len Borisoff (aka Len Barry), Summers, Silver, Mealey, and Freda. They recorded eight hit records starting with the "Bristol Stomp". Mealey left the group in 1962 for personal reasons but still recorded with them occasionally.The Dovells first national hit was "Bristol Stomp", a dance song which was followed by a similar hit "Do the New Continental" (in the John Waters movie Hairspray). "Bristol Stomp" sold over one million copies and won a gold disc. They appeared performing both songs in the Chubby Checker movie called Don't Knock the Twist in 1961. They released a series of singles over the next few years. including "You Can't Sit Down", a top hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. Borisoff left at the end of 1963 for a solo career under the name Len Barry. The high point of his solo career was the Top 5 smash "1-2-3" in 1965, and the follow-up hit "Like a Baby".The Dovells released "If You Wanna Be Happy" on the album You Can't Sit Down in 1963. The song had been previously released by Jimmy Soul earlier that year and was based on the song "Ugly Woman" by Roaring Lion. In 1963, American Bandstand signed the band to Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars national U.S. tour which was scheduled to perform its 15th show on the night of November 22, 1963 at the Memorial Auditorium in Dallas until suddenly the Friday evening event had to be canceled moments after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated that afternoon while touring the city in an open car caravan.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.