Len Barry

This article concerns the American singer Len Barry; for the Canadian ice hockey player, see Len Barrie .

Len Barry 1990

Len Barry (* 12. June 1942 as Leonard Borisoff in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ; † 5. November 2020 ) was an American pop singer , songwriter , record producer and author .

Artistic career

At the beginning of his musician career, Len Barry sang in a US Coast Guard band in Cape May , New Jersey, during his military service . After his discharge from military service, he went back to his hometown Philadelphia, joined the pop music group The Dovells and became their lead singer. With the Dovells he had a million seller with the title Bristol Stomp in 1961 . From 1964 Barry began to release solo records, the first two appeared on the Cameo label . In 1965 he received a two-year contract with Decca and was able to achieve the first solo success of his career with his first single . The title Lip Sync was listed on the Billboard charts for four weeks, although it only rose to # 84. With the track 1-2-3 on his second Decca single, Barry had his breakthrough in the fall of 1965. 1-2-3 rose to second place in the Hot 100. The single sold over a million times and was awarded a gold record . 1-2-3 was also internationally successful, the title topped the British charts ( New Musical Express ) and Len Barry came in at number 38 in Germany. The long-playing record of the same name , which was released by Decca, also came in at number 90 Rating of the US Top 200 LP Charts. By the end of 1966, he had four other titles on the US Hot 100, all of which were released by Decca. In 1967 he switched to the record company RCA Victor , but remained there without success. From 1968, Barry released records in rapid succession on the Amy , Scepter and Buddah labels . His last single was released by Paramount in March 1973 .

In addition to his singing career, Len Barry also worked as a songwriter, where he often worked with other colleagues. Barry's successful titles Lip Sync , 1-2-3 and Like a Baby as well as Chubby Checker's hit Hey You Little Boo-Ga-Loo emerged with John Medora . Several rhythm and blues hits such as Give a Broken Heart a Break (Impact, 1976) and Summer Snow (Blue Magic, 1976) were created with Bobby Eli . They also have the UK hits Zoom (Fat Larry's Band, 1982) and Love Town (Booker Newberry III, 1983).

Len Barry was also active as a music producer and in 1969 worked intensively with the studio band The Electric Indian. Under his direction, the titles Keem-O-Sabe and Land of 1000 Dances were created, which reached the Billboard Hot 100 with places 16 and 95. The long-playing record Keem-O-Sabe , produced by Barry, was also successful with number 46 in the R&B LP charts.

During the 1970s, Len Barry increasingly withdrew from the music scene. He discovered writing as a new profession and began writing novels, screenplays and comics. Among other things, he wrote the semi-autobiographical novel Black-Like-Me with Spencer Barry .

Millionsellers with 1-2-3 on Decca 31827

US discography

Albums

title	Catalog no.	published
Len Barry - Sings With the Dovells	Cameo 1082	1963
1-2-3	Decca 4720	1965
My kind of soul	RCA Victor 3823	1967
Ups and downs	Buddah 5105	1972

Singles

From page	Catalog no.	published
	Cameo
Don't Come Back / Jim Dandy	303	02/1964
Hearts Are Trump / Little White House	318	04/1964
	Mercury
Let's Do It Again / Happy Days	72299	07/1964
	Decca
Lip Sync / At the Hop '65	31788	05/1965
1-2-3 / bullseye	31827	07/1965
Like a baby / happiness	31889	12/1965
Somewhere / It's a crying shame	31923	03/1966
It's That Time of the Year / Happily Ever After	31969	05/1966
I Struck It Rich / Love Is	32011	08/1966
You Baby / Would I Love You?	32054	12/1966
	Parkway
Hearts Are Trump / Little White House	969	12/1965
	RCA Victor
The Moving Finger Writes / Our Love	9150	03/1967
All Those Memories / Rainy Side of the Street	9250	8/1967
Come Rain Or Shine / The ABC's of Love	9348	10/1967
Sweet and Funky / I Like the Way	9464	3/1968
	Amy
456 (Now I'm Alone) / Funky Night	11026	6/1968
Christopher Columbus / You're My Picasso Baby	11037	10/1968
A Child Is Born / Wouldn't It Be Beautiful	11047	12/1968
	Scepter
Put Out the Fire / Spread It on Like Butter	12251	5/1969
Keem-O-Sabe / This Old World	12263	10/1969
Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice / In My Present State of Mind	12284	6/1970
	Buddah
Diggin 'Life / Just the Two of Us	284	2/1972
	Paramount
Heaven Plus Earth / I'm Marching to the Music	0206	3/1973

Chart placements

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
		US
1965	1-2-3	US90 (13 weeks) US

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1965	Lip Sync (To the Tongue Twisters) 1-2-3	-	-	US84 (4 weeks) US
	1-2-3 1-2-3	DE38 (4 weeks) DE	UK4 (14 weeks) UK	US2 (15 weeks) US
1966	Like a baby 1-2-3	-	UK10 (10 weeks) UK	US27 (9 weeks) US
	Somewhere	-	-	US26 (8 weeks) US
	It's That Time of the Year	-	-	US91 (3 weeks) US
	I struck it rich	-	-	US98 (2 weeks) US

literature

• Julia Edenhofer : The Great Oldie Lexicon . Bastei-Lübbe 1991, ISBN 3-404-60288-9 .
• Frank Laufenberg : Rock & Pop Lexicon . Econ Taschenbuch Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-612-26206-8 , Volume 1, p. 101.
• Martin Popoff : Standard Catalog of American Records 1948–1991 . Krause Publications, Iola 2010, ISBN 978-1-4402-1131-7 , p. 92.
• Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit Guide US Chart Singles 1950–1963 , Taurus Press 1992, ISBN 3-922542-47-6 .
• Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit Records British Chart Singles 1950-1965 Taurus Press 1995, ISBN 3-922542-32-8 .
• Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit balance sheet German chart singles 1956–1980. Taurus Press 1987, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 .

Web links

• Len Barry website
• Discography at www.45cat.com
• Len Barry in the Internet Movie Database (English)

sources

1. ↑ Len Barry, '1-2-3' and 'Bristol Stomp' Singer, Dies. Retrieved November 6, 2020 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE UK US