Irving Lee Dorsey was born in 1924 in New Orleans. He moved to Portland, Oregon, at the age of ten, finally returning to New Orleans many years later. After work in his car-repair business, he started singing in local clubs. In 1958 he made his first recordings at Cosimo Matassa’s studio and later came to the attention of Allen Toussaint, who recorded a song called “Ya Ya” in 1961.
This was Dorsey’s breakthrough. The single reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and number one on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart, selling over a million copies and giving Allen Toussaint his second gold disc of 1961. Dorsey’s follow-up releases were less successful, until, in 1965, he cut a Toussaint song “Ride Your Pony”, which entered the charts, followed by three more chart singles in 1966. Backing was usually provided by The Meters.
The most successful release was “Working in the Coalmine”, his best-known song, which peaked at number five on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and number eight on the US and UK Pop charts. The song was written, arranged, and produced by Allen Toussaint, and was recorded at Cosimo Studios on Governor Nicholls Street in New Orleans. Part of the arrangement includes the sound of a pickaxe being used in the mine. When asked to clarify how this sound had been made, Toussaint explained that “my brother hit the mic’ stand with a drumstick”.
Dorsey’s 1970 album “Yes We Can” generated one charting single, the title track. Eight years later, after a break from recording, Dorsey had one final chart entry with the title single of his “Night People” album. He was still touring, performing in 1980 as a support act for The Clash (US tour), James Brown and Jerry Lee Lewis. He died aged sixty-one in 1986.
