After singing during his military career for a few years, Leonard Borisoff changed his name and joined Philadelphia vocal group The Dovells in 1958 singing lead vocals on their million selling hit “Bristol Stomp,” plus “You Can’t Sit Down,” “The Continental” and “Hully Gully Baby.” Barry struck out on his own and within a short time struck gold with this classic AM radio staple from 1965 that went all the way up to number two on the Billboard charts. Soon thereafter, Motown Records’ lawyers came knocking on songwriters Len Barry and Dave White’s door, suing them both for plagiarizing the Holland-Dozier-Holland Supremes hit “Ask Any Girl.” Barry and White admitted that they did use part of the song as a basis for their song and H-D-H received a settlement and a writing credit for the song. After the hits began to dry up, Barry worked on a few projects with a local up-and-coming R’n’B group called Gulliver that featured Daryl Hall in its ranks.
