Discography and Biography of Lee Dorsey. Listen to all their hits.
Lee Dorsey Songs

(with biography below if available)

Irving Lee Dorsey (December 24, 1924 - December 1, 1986) was an African American pop and R&B singer during the 1960s. His biggest hits were "Ya Ya" (1961) and "Working in the Coal Mine" (1966). Much of his work was produced by Allen Toussaint with instrumental backing provided by the Meters. After meeting Toussaint at a party, he recorded "Ya Ya", a song inspired by a group of children chanting nursery rhymes. It went to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Although the follow-up "Do-Re-Mi" also made the charts, later releases on Fury were not successful. In 1965 he recorded Toussaint's song "Ride Your Pony" for the Amy label, a subsidiary of Bell Records. The song reached no.7 on the R&B chart in late 1965, and he followed it up with "Get Out of My Life, Woman", "Working in the Coal Mine" - his biggest pop hit - and "Holy Cow", all of which made the pop charts in both the US and the UK. Dorsey toured internationally, and also recorded an album with Toussaint, The New Lee Dorsey in 1966. In 1970 Dorsey and Toussaint collaborated on the album Yes We Can; the title song was Dorsey's last entry in the US singles chart. It was later a hit for the Pointer Sisters under the title, "Yes We Can Can". With declining sales, Dorsey retired from recording until 1978 when he recorded the Night People album which failed to make much impact chartwise.

Below is a list of Lee Dorsey songs, sorted by the most popular first. Place mouse on to see information about song. Click song title to play song and to read details about the song including lyrics (if available). Click year to list all songs from that year. Click label to list songs from that record label. Songs with chart position "---" either never made it into the US top 100 R&B or UK charts or we have no details of their highest chart positions if they did.

(Song are sorted in highest US R&B Top 100 and/or UK Top 100 chart position order)


showing 1-29 of 29 records
‹r› i
artist discography/bio
read song lyrics, etc.
year
record label
1 record label: Fury 1053
chart position: RandB #1 (1 week), US #7
weeksinr&bchart: 19
written by: Lee Dorsey, Clarence Lewis, Morgan Robinson & Morris Levy
Lee Dorsey Ya Ya
1961 Fury
2 record label: Amy 958
chart position: RandB #5, US #8, UK #8
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: The New Lee Jersey
Lee Dorsey Working in the Coal Mine
1966 Amy
3 record label: Amy 965
chart position: RandB #10, US #23, UK #6
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: The New Lee Dorsey
comments: [southern soul]
Lee Dorsey Holy Cow
1966 Amy
4 record label: Amy 945
chart position: RandB #5, US #44, UK #22
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: The New Lee Dorsey
comments: [southern soul]
Lee Dorsey Get Out of My Life, Woman
1966 Amy
5 record label: Amy 927
chart position: RandB #7, US #28
written by: Allen Toussaint (as Naomi Neville)
album: The New Lee Dorsey
comments: [northern soul]
Lee Dorsey Ride Your Pony
1965 Amy
6 record label: Fury 1056
chart position: RandB #22, US #27
written by: King
Lee Dorsey Do-Re-Mi
1961 Fury
7 record label: Amy 952
chart position: UK #38
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: The New Lee Dorsey
Lee Dorsey Confusion
1966 Amy
8 record label: Stateside 465
chart position: UK #53
written by: Allen Toussaint
Lee Dorsey Can You Hear Me
1968 Stateside
9 record label: Amy 998
chart position: RandB #31, US #62
written by: Allen Toussaint
Lee Dorsey Go-Go Girl
1967 Amy
10 record label: Amy 987
chart position: Cashbox R&B #26, US #97
written by: Allen Toussaint and B. Backer
Lee Dorsey My Old Car
1967 Amy
11 record label: Amy 11055
chart position: RandB #33, US #95
written by: Allen Toussaint
Lee Dorsey Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky (From Now On)
1969 Amy
12 record label: AMY 974
chart position: Cashbox R&B #45, US #105
written by: Allen Toussaint
Lee Dorsey Rain Rain Go Away
1967 AMY
13 record label: Amy 939
chart position: Cashbox R&B #50, US #121
written by: Allen Toussaint (as Naomi Neville)
Lee Dorsey Work, Work, Work
1965 Amy
14 record label: Polydor 14038
chart position: RandB #46
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: Yes We Can
Lee Dorsey Yes We Can (Part I and 2)
1970 Polydor
15 record label: Amy 11057
chart position: Cashbox RandB #46
written by: Allen Toussaint
Lee Dorsey Give It Up
1969 Amy
16 record label: ABC 12326
chart position: RandB #93
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: Night People
Lee Dorsey Night People
1978 ABC
-- record label: Polydor
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: Yes We Can
comments: [bayou funk]
Lee Dorsey Riverboat
1970 Polydor
-- record label: Polydor 14055
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: Yes We Can
comments: [bayou funk]
Lee Dorsey Tears Tears and More Tears
1970 Polydor
-- record label: Polydor 14038
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: Yes We Can
comments: [bayou funk]
Lee Dorsey O Me-O, My-O
1970 Polydor
-- record label: Polydor
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: Yes We Can
comments: [bayou funk]
Lee Dorsey Who's Gonna' Help Brother Get Further
1970 Polydor
-- record label: Polydor
written by: Joe South
album: Yes We Can
comments: [bayou funk]
Lee Dorsey Games People Play
1970 Polydor
-- record label: Polydor
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: Yes We Can
comments: [bayou funk]
Lee Dorsey When The Bill's Paid
1970 Polydor
-- record label: Spring 114
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: Yes We Can
comments: [bayou funk]
Lee Dorsey Occapella
1971 Spring
-- record label: Fury 1061
written by: Bobby Robinson
Lee Dorsey Eenie-Meenie-Minee-Mo
1962 Fury
-- record label: Polydor 14147
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: Yes We Can
comments: [bayou funk]
Lee Dorsey Gator Tail
1972 Polydor
-- record label: Stateside 1043 (UK)
written by: Bobby Robinson
Lee Dorsey You're Breaking Me Up
1966 Stateside
-- record label: Polydor 14055
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: Yes We Can
comments: [bayou funk]
Lee Dorsey Sneakin' Sally Thru The Alley
1970 Polydor
-- record label: Polydor
written by: Allen Toussaint
album: Yes We Can
comments: [novelty album cut]
Lee Dorsey Would You?
1970 Polydor
-- record label: Sansu 474
written by: Allen Toussaint
Lee Dorsey & Betty Harris Love Lots Of Lovin'
1967 Sansu




Log in to use playlist feature
(no registration required)