Lenny Dee
| Lenny Dee | |
|---|---|
Lenny Dee in 1974
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Leonard George DeStoppelaire |
| Born | January 5, 1923 |
| Origin | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Died | February 12, 2006 (aged 83) St. Petersburg, Florida |
| Genres | Space age pop, easy listening, Nashville sound, boogie-woogie, swing |
| Occupation(s) | Organist |
| Instruments | Hammond organ |
| Labels | Decca, MCA |
Leonard George DeStoppelaire (January 5, 1923 – February 12, 2006), better known as Lenny Dee, was a virtuoso organist who played many styles of music. His record albums were among the most popular of easy listening and space age pop organists of the 1950s through the early 1970s. His signature hit, Plantation Boogie, charted as a Top 20 hit in 1955. He also had a gold record with 1970's Spinning Wheel.
Dee played a variety of songs in numerous styles. He played original compositions, popular songs, and novelty tunes, and was a master of improvisation. Although his unique style was a pop/boogie-woogie blend, he also played ballads, country and western, jazz, rock, and patriotic songs.
Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1923, Dee was an only child (though it is sometimes erroneously reported that he was one of eleven or twelve children). As a child, he sang in his church's choir; he also played ukulele, banjo and accordion. As a teenager, he turned playing the accordion into a profession in his uncle's quartet, which he continued until he volunteered into the Navy during World War II in 1943.
Upon his return from service, Dee spent his Navy earnings on a Hammond Model A organ, one of the earliest of its kind. With money from the G.I. Bill, he received instruction in organ at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. Afterward, he began playing hotels and night clubs in the south in the late 1940s to some degree of success, but no record contracts.
It was not until the early 1950s that Dee was signed up to Decca after country singer Red Foley heard him playing at the Plantation Inn in Nashville, Tennessee, and thought Dee's unique sound would be a good contrast to the label's then prominent organist, Ethel Smith.
Dee made good, and his original composition, Plantation Boogie charted at #18 in 1955. Dee re-recorded the hit on numerous albums, and was often imitated, even plagiarized, but never duplicated. Dee wrote 'Chicken in the Rough', and recorded the song as a duet with saxophonist, Boots Randolph. The uncanny similarity of 'Yakety Sax' to Dee's 'Chicken in the Rough" is often noted.
Dee ventured into recording albums for Decca starting in 1954 with his first LP, Dee-lightful. Part of Dee's charm was his albums' zany covers featuring Dee in various situations, and titles with puns that usually included his name, such as Dee-Lirious, Dee-Licious, and Dee-Most! His recordings featured organ with other instruments that were produced by Owen Bradley and developed into the Nashville sound and country pop of the 1970s and 1980s. He was nearly always backed by percussion; depending on the song, he also recorded with guitar legends, Les Paul and Chet Atkins; bass; a backup chorus; strings; horns such as saxophones, trombones, trumpets; and even the banjo. Dee played various instruments, and was highly influential in the history of organs and keyboards. Dee was recognized for his contribution to the field of music by Time Life for what Dee described as "bringing the organ out of the church and into mainstream music".
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