The “Golden Hits Of The 60s”
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HAROLD DORMAN
“Mountain of Love”
(HAROLD DORMAN)
Rita 1003
No. 21 May 23, 1960
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PARTIAL UPDATE, AUGUST 13, 2015
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There was a time when a rock’n’roller could become a “star” nearly over night; or so it seemed. And
once again, nearly over night, with no effort at all and very little notice given that star could be returned
to the mire of the everyday reality near all inhabit.
Outside of his famlly and loved ones Harold Dorman is little known today. But, for a very little time he
was notable to quite a few. Harold was born in Drew, Mississippi on December 23, 1931 and raised in
Charlie Pride’s home town of Sledge. From little on he loved music and loved listening to the saturday
night Grand Old Opray radio show. He’s not sure when but he picked up on playing the guitar and
singing and he knew from hence forth that he wanted to create the songs that people sing. As Harold
has said in an interview with Peter Grendysa, “There were obstacles along the way.” Apparently so for,
Dorman didn’ t get to record any of his material or anything until he was near 30 and had crossed paths
with the owners of Rita Records, a very tiny operation in Memphis, Tennessee. Rita was owned by Sun
artist and creator of rockabilly classics “Flying Saucer Rock’n’Roll” and “Red Hot,” Billy Lee Riley, and
by Sun session artist and one of Riley’s Little Green Men, Roland James. The very first issuance with the
Harold Dorman name on it was the music moment of Harold’s life. “Mountain of Love” made Harry’s
name flicker of recognition for a brief spell. He met Dick Clark, appeared on “American Bandstand”
and toured the country those several spring weeks that his tune was being played on the nations radios.
The two follow-up Rita releases bombed. It’s hard to say just why. Possibly they sounded too much like
“Mountain.” Then again their demise might have been the fault of the shakey distribution system the
Rita label was able to mustard up. Three Sun singles followed. Harry was sounding a little more
country. Maybe “too” country for rock’n’rollers. Santo Records issued “There On Yonder Hill,” but
not a noteable number of fans bought it. In 1964 Johnny Rivers returned “Mountain of Love” to the
charts, to the top 10. Four years later Ronnie Dove rode the “Mountain” once again through not quite
to the peaks. Over the years Narvel Felts, Moon Mulligan, home-towner Charlie Pride and the Beach
Boys recorded songs Dorman had written.