Cooley was born in
Atlanta, Georgia, later moving to
New York City, where he befriended singer and songwriter
Otis Blackwell. Around 1955 he contacted Blackwell with an idea for a song he had written, "
Fever." According to Blackwell, Cooley said to him: "Man, I got an idea for a song called 'Fever,' but I can´t finish it." Blackwell finished writing the song, and it was recorded by
Little Willie John, becoming an R&B number one hit in 1956, and later being recorded by
Peggy Lee,
Elvis Presley,
Madonna,
Beyoncé, and many others. Cooley and Blackwell continued to collaborate on songs for musicians on the
King label, including
The 5 Royales and
Joe Tex. Later in 1956, Cooley presented a song, "Priscilla," to singer
Boyd Bennett, who turned it down. A
demo version reached Teddy Reig of
Royal Roost Records, and he arranged for Cooley to record it with a backing trio of girl singers, The Dimples – Beverly Coates, Carolyn Coates and Barbara Sanders – who Blackwell had discovered. It was promoted by
DJ Alan Freed, and after first becoming successful on the
east coast rose up the national charts, reaching number 20 on the
Billboard pop chart in November 1956. Although Cooley was not primarily a singer, he promoted it by touring. The song was released in the UK on the
Columbia label, and by
Buzz Clifford and
Conway Twitty. In 1959, he made his last recordings, for
Herb Abramson's
Triumph label, but again they were unsuccessful. In the early 1960s, after Blackwell had had continued success as a songwriter for Elvis Presley, in particular, he approached Cooley to contribute tracks to the album ''We Wrote 'Em, We Sing 'Em''. Cooley performed "Fever" and "Lay It On" on the album, released by
MGM in 1961. He died at
Anderson Regional Medical Center in
Meridian, Mississippi on April 15, 2020, his 87th birthday. ==References==