Big Dee Irwin

Big Dee Irwin first came to prominence in the Pastels, a group that sang doo wop during the 1950s. The New York City native, whose real name was Defosca Erwin (sometimes spelled Difosco Ervin), joined forces with three other young men to form the group in 1954 when all were stationed at a U.S. Air Force base in Greenland. Lead singer Irwin joined a talent competition held for servicemen, along with baritone Jimmy Willingham, first tenor Richard Travis, and second tenor Tony Thomas. When all four singers received orders that took them to Washington, D.C., Irwin and the Pastels began to entertain at nightspots that catered to servicemen, as well as at functions hosted by the USO. In 1957, after receiving a warm and encouraging response for their performance in an annual Air Force competition called Tops in Blue that was staged on the grounds of Mitchell Air Force Base in New York, Irwin and the others set out to land a recording contract. That summer they almost landed a deal with Central Records. Some sources say that Irwin and the Pastels actually did snag a long-term contract, but the group never made a record for the label. Instead, the Pastels landed on the doorstep of Hull Records. The four singers belted out "Been So Long," which Irwin had penned. With a few changes and some fine-tuning of the arrangement, the song was put out late in 1957 by Mascot, a division of Hull. "My One and Only Dream" landed on the flip side. Irwin received his military discharge papers the following year. By that time, his fellow group members also had been released from duty, and "Been So Long" was doing extremely well on the charts. It reached the Top Five in R&B and crossed over to pop, where it landed at number 24. Irwin and the others embarked on a tour of the southern states of the...