The Dovells

The Dovells were an American music group, formed at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1957, under the name 'The Brooktones'. The 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. Gross left the group in 1959 to form the group The Gems with Jerry Gross, 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. While rehearsing "Out in the Cold Again", which turned out to be the B-side of "Bristol Stomp", Len called Jerry and asked for help with the harmonies. After 2 days of trying, Len asked Jerry to be part of the group and replace 2 of the guys. Sirlen and Shunkwiler were replaced by Gross and Freda. Mark went on to start his own group Tony & the Raindrops ("Our Love is Over", a local hit), and later joined The Dovells in the 1960s. Warren Purdy went to work for the Boeing Corp., Roland Scarinci enlisted in The Marine Corps then went on to work for AT&T. The Dovells at that point (1961) were Barry, Gross, Silver, Mealey, and Freda, which went on to record many hit records, starting with the Bristol Stomp. Mealey left the group in '62 for personal reasons, but still did some recordings with them.

The Dovells first national hit was "Bristol Stomp", a dance song. This was followed by the similar hit "Do the New Continental" (featured in the John Waters movie Hairspray for a minute). "Bristol Stomp" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. They appeared performing both songs in the Chubby Checker movie Don't Knock The Twist in 1961. They released a series of singles over the next few years. These included "You Can't Sit Down", a top hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. Len 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".

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