Cooley was born in Atlanta, Georgia, later moving to New York City, where he befriended singer and songwriter Otis Blackwell.
[1][2][3] Cooley and Blackwell continued to collaborate on songs for musicians on the King label, including The 5 Royales and Joe Tex.
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.
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.
[5] He died at Anderson Regional Medical Center in Meridian, Mississippi on April 15, 2020, his 87th birthday.