Released: 1961
Part of the entertainment industry’s lure is it’s (Supposed) equality of opportunity; you can be anyone, anywhere, and it can make you a star. Lee Dorsey was born in New Orleans on Christmas Eve in 1924 and in his youth was in the orbit of Fats Domino. Having moved with his family to the slightly less sub-Tropical Oregon when he was ten, Dorsey wound up joining the Navy, in which he served during World War II.
Home after that he began a short lived career in boxing, calling himself Kid Chocolate (Not to be confused with the successful Cuban fighter of the 1930’s who went by the same name). Depending on who you speak to the latter kid fought once and lost or many times and was undefeated, but either way he was back in The Big Easy by 1955, opening a car repair shop whilst singing in clubs on an evening.
In 1961, Dorsey was introduced to songwriter Allen Toussaint and the sailor turned pugilist turned grease monkey then had a string of hits, of which Ya Ya – inspired by the playground chanting of elementary school children – represented one of his biggest. Such was it’s appeal that, still widely unknown and flogging themselves in Hamburg, The Beatles were known to cover the song, although no recorded version exists. His run of success would eventually peter out by the end of the decade, but he had other skills to fall back on, and despite fleeting brushes with celebrity later, he went back to repairing cars.
The Voice Of Unreason 