Harold Dorman Biography
- Born in 1926 (other sources say 1931) in Sledge, Mississippi, USA. Dorman was a one-hit artist, whose ‘Mountain Of Love’, fared better when it was covered by Johnny Rivers four years later. Dorman’s music career began when he left the army in 1955. His first sessions were recorded for the legendary Sun Records in 1957 but were never released. Two years later Dorman was signed to Rita Records, owned by former Sun artist Billy Lee Riley and guitarist Roland Janes, who had played with Jerry Lee Lewis. Dorman’s first single was his own ‘Mountain Of Love’, one of five tracks he recorded at the Hi Records studio in Memphis. The record started to sell well in Georgia, at which point strings were added to the master tape and it was re-released. The single ultimately reached number 21 in 1960. Dorman continued to record for Rita for another year; then he recorded again for Sun until 1962, but failed to produce any further chart hits. In 1964 Rivers recorded ‘Mountain Of Love’ and took it to number 9 in the US charts. Dorman’s only other notable success came when country singer Charley Pride recorded his ‘Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town’. Pride also covered ‘Mountain Of Love’. Although disabled by two strokes in 1984 Dorman continued writing songs.
