I'm On My Way - The Dean Parrish Story

Saturday 12 January
2004 - 2100

Pete Mitchell presents the remarkable and little-known tale of Northern Soul legend Dean Parrish.

Born Phil Anastasia, Dean is an American singer who hung up his microphone in the late 1960s, unaware that he had developed a huge popularity on the UK's Northern Soul scene.

Dean sold over one million records in Europe, but barely received a penny for his work as he had no idea of this success.

Thinking he had failed as a singer, he went on to play guitar with Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley.

Later in his career Dean moved into acting, securing a role on American TV drama The Sopranos.

Dean was tracked down in 2003 by a private detective and persuaded to perform in the UK for the first time in 40 years.

He arrived to find thousands of fans worshipping him, singing along to every word of his back catalogue and even revealing their Dean Parrish tattoos. It came as quite a shock.

Pete Mitchell travels to New York to meet Dean. The programme revisits the clubs he played with Hendrix, the Brill Building where he recorded most of his work and Brooklyn where Dean learnt his trade singing doo-wop on street corners.