The group reached the national pop charts with "I Learned A Lesson I'll Never Forget" in 1944, but Dickens soon left to join the Phil Moore Four as bass player, recording with them for the RCA label.
[3][4] He formed the Doles Dickens Quartet with Herbie Scott (trumpet), Reuben Cole (piano), and Dickie Thompson (guitar), in New York City in 1946.
By that time, his group had become a Quintet, comprising Dickens himself on bass, Louis Judge (tenor sax), Clarence Harmon (piano), Sam Hendricks (guitar), and Jimmy Crawford (drums), with vocalist Joe Gregory.
He maintained a career as a session musician in New York, appearing on records by Wilbert Harrison, Varetta Dillard, Jimmy Witherspoon, Piano Red, Mahalia Jackson, Bill Haley, LaVern Baker and others.
His final recording under his own name was "Piakukaungcung", an instrumental on the Dot label in 1958, written by Lincoln Chase and described by Billboard as having "the sound of hysteria... [and] the quality of a jungle war dance.