- Ray Dorset
Ray Dorset (born Raymond Edward Dorset,
21 March 1946 , Ashford, Middlesex) is a Englishguitarist ,singer ,songwriter and founder of the skiffle band,Mungo Jerry .In 1968 he formed the group Good Earth, which also included Colin Earl on keyboards, Dave Hutchins on bass, and Ray Bowerman on drums. They recorded the
album "It's Hard Rock And All That" on the Sagarecord label , before Hutchins and Bowerman left.Joe Rush joined onwashboard and the group adopted a more acoustic-based skiffle style. In 1970 with further line-up changes the group becameMungo Jerry with classic hits to follow like "In the Summertime ".Dorset has also maintained a solo career parallel to his leadership of Mungo Jerry. In 1972 he released an album "
Cold Blue Excursion ", made up entirely of self-pennedsong s, many featuring strings and brass accompaniment; in 1983 he was part of one-off blues outfit Katmandu with Peter Green andVincent Crane , who recorded an album "A Case For The Blues"; and in 1986, billed as "Made in England", he recorded and released thetheme tune for the TV drama series "Prospects" as a single.One song recorded by Mungo Jerry, "
Feels Like I'm in Love ", was originally written by Dorset forElvis Presley , but he died before it could be presented to him. Nevertheless, in 1979 it was recorded bydisco singerKelly Marie , and became a UK Number one in September 1980. It thus made Dorset one of the first songwriters to top theUK Singles Chart with singles performed by himself, and by another artiste.In addition to
guitar he has played several other instruments on stage and record, includingharmonica ,kazoo ,accordion and keyboards.Dorset is currently residing in
Bielefeld ,Germany , where he lives with his wife and two sons. His son Russell Dorset is a director of sales and marketing at multi-channel retail specialist. He has over 20 years’ experience in the software industry, gained in a range of senior sales, marketing and operational management roles.External links
* [http://www.mungojerry.com Official Mungo Jerry Site]
*imdb name|id=1782205|name=Ray Dorset
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