Gary Lewis | |
|---|---|
 Gary Lewis (2nd from left) with The Playboys in 1996 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Gary Harold Lee Levitch |
| Born | July 31, 1945 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Genres | Pop rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) |
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| Years active | 1960s–present |
| Labels | Liberty |
| Website | www |
Gary Lewis (born Gary Harold Lee Levitch; July 31, 1945 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] ) is an American musician who was the leader of Gary Lewis & the Playboys. [6]
Gary Lewis is the son of Jerry Lewis [7] and singer Patti Palmer. [8] His mother, who was performing at the time with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra, [9] intended to name him after her favorite actor, Cary Grant, but her son became "Gary" as the result of a clerical error. [10] [7] He received a set of drums as a gift for his 15th birthday in 1960. [10] When he was 18, Lewis formed the band "Gary and the Playboys" with four friends. [10] Joking at the lateness of bandmates to practice, Lewis referred to them as "playboys", and the name stuck. [11]
Lewis was the drummer, and Dave Walker was the singer and guitarist. [10] Gary's mother was quietly funding the purchases of equipment as they believed Gary's father would not support the band financially. [11] Without the Lewis cachet, the band was relatively anonymous. Even though he lived down the street from the Lewis family, producer Snuff Garrett was not aware of the band until a mutual friend, conductor Les Brown, informed him that the group was appearing at Disneyland and that Garrett should give them a listen. [10]
Lewis was drafted into the United States Army. During his two years of service, he spent two months at the Saigon Airport during the Vietnam War, and the remainder of the time in South Korea. [12]
Seeing an opportunity to capitalize on the Lewis name, [10] Garrett put the band into the studio to develop, [6] still financed by Gary's mother. [10] Garrett pushed Lewis to improve his drumming skill, even getting Buddy Rich to tutor him, [6] and, more importantly, made Lewis the singer, and therefore the focal point of the group. [10] By Lewis' own admission, his natural singing voice was not one of his strengths, [11] and Garrett employed overdubbing techniques in the studio to enhance it. "This Diamond Ring" hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 20, 1965, [13] making Lewis an instant star. Lewis was Cash Box magazine's 1965 "Male Vocalist of the Year". [10] Besides The Lovin' Spoonful, the group was the only act during the 1960s to have its first seven Hot 100 releases each reach that chart's top 10. [10]
In addition to "This Diamond Ring", his hits include "Count Me In," the only non-British Commonwealth record in the Hot 100's top 10 on May 8, 1965, [14] (number two); "Save Your Heart for Me" (number two); "Everybody Loves a Clown" (number four); "She's Just My Style" (number three); "Sure Gonna Miss Her" (number nine); and "Green Grass" (number eight). Of "Everybody Loves a Clown", Lewis says he composed the song as a gift for his father's birthday. He believed the song was too good, so instead of giving it as a gift, he recorded it. [15] By 1966, Lewis was exclusively singing, replaced on the drums by, among others, Jim Keltner. [6] His career was put on hold when he entered the U.S. Army as a draftee in January 1967, and he served during the Vietnam War era with the Eighth Army in Seoul, South Korea, until 1968. [10] Lewis released a solo album in 1967 for Liberty Records called Listen!. [16]
Lewis has stated that he was reluctant to go to Vietnam, but he credits the Army with being the time when he "grew up". [15] He returned to performing and recording, but did not recapture his earlier success and five releases by the band that year peaked from 13th to 39th. His musical career was later marketed as a "nostalgia act" with appearances on his father's Labor Day telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, including the 2010 telethon which was his dad's final as host. In January 2012, Lewis released a new single, "You Can't Go Back".
He appeared uncredited in his father's movie The Nutty Professor (1963). [17] He also appeared in a credited role singing "The Land of La-la-la" with his dad in Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958), where he played Jerry Lewis as a boy. [18] He also was seen in the movie The Family Jewels (1965).
In 1971, Lewis took a break from performing, operating a music shop in the San Fernando Valley and giving drumming lessons. [11] A brief attempt at starting a new band called Medecine, with Billy Cowsill of the Cowsills in 1974, was not successful. [10] Lewis began touring again in the 1980s, with various incarnations of the Playboys, generally featuring no other original members. [11] On the nationally syndicated program Inside Edition , Gary met his half-sister Suzan Klienman, who had learned from DNA testing results that they are related siblings, the children of comedy star Jerry Lewis. [19] Lewis and his family reside in Rush, New York. [20]
In the summer of 2013, Lewis, along with a group of 1960s musicians including Gary Puckett (Gary Puckett & The Union Gap), Chuck Negron (formerly of Three Dog Night), Mark Lindsay (former lead singer of Paul Revere & the Raiders), and The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie, toured 47 cities in Paradise Artist's "Happy Together" tour. As of 2022, Gary Lewis and the Playboys are still touring the world on their own and occasionally with other popular acts of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. The group performs on cruise ships, at casinos, festivals, fairs, and corporate events.
Jerry Lewis was an American actor, comedian, singer, director, producer, writer and humanitarian. Nicknamed "The King of Comedy", his contributions to comedy and charity made him a global figure in pop culture. Starting in 1946, he teamed with singer Dean Martin to form the famous Martin and Lewis, then in 1956, went as a solo act, highest-grossing movie star and filmmaker.
Glen Dee Hardin is an American piano player and arranger. He has performed and recorded with such artists as Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Emmylou Harris, John Denver, and Ricky Nelson.
The Association is an American sunshine pop band from California. During the late 1960s, the band had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts and were the lead-off band at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival. They are known for intricate vocal harmonies by the band's multiple singers.
The Knickerbockers were an American garage rock band formed in Bergenfield, New Jersey in 1964. They released the 1965 hit "Lies", which was known for its resemblance to the Beatles. The band was formed in 1964 by the brothers Beau Charles and John Charles
Martin and Lewis were an American comedy duo, comprising singer Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis. They met in 1945 and debuted at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 25, 1946; the team lasted ten years to the day. Before they teamed up, Martin was a nightclub singer, while Lewis performed a comedy act lip-synching to records.
Gary Lewis & the Playboys were a 1960s era pop and rock group, fronted by musician Gary Lewis, the son of comedian Jerry Lewis. They are best known for their 1965 Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "This Diamond Ring", which was the first of a string of hit singles they had in 1965 and 1966. The band had an earnest, boy-next-door image similar to British invasion contemporaries such as Herman's Hermits and Gerry and the Pacemakers. The group folded in 1970, but a version of the band later resumed touring and continues to tour, often playing for veterans' benefits.
The Buckinghams are an American sunshine pop band from Chicago. They formed in 1966 and went on to become one of the top-selling acts of 1967, charting their only five top 40 hits in the U.S. that year. The band dissolved in 1970, but re-formed in 1980 and as of 2019 they continue to tour throughout the United States.
The Grass Roots are an American rock band that charted frequently between 1965 and 1975. The band was originally the creation of Lou Adler and songwriting duo P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri. In their career, they achieved two gold albums, two gold singles and charted singles on the Billboard Hot 100 a total of 21 times. Among their charting singles, they achieved Top 10 three times, Top 20 six times and Top 40 fourteen times. They have sold over 20 million records worldwide.
Gary DalePuckett is an American singer. He was the lead vocalist for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, who had six consecutive gold records in 1968. After the group disbanded, Puckett embarked on a solo career and has released a handful of studio albums since the 1970s.
"This Diamond Ring" is a 1965 song written by Al Kooper, Bob Brass and Irwin Levine. The original demo was sung by Jimmy Radcliffe. It was first released as a single by Sammy Ambrose on Musicor #1061, then by Gary Lewis & the Playboys on Liberty #55756. Lewis' version charted first, number 101 on the January 2, 1965, Billboard "Bubbling Under" chart. Both versions charted on January 9, Lewis still at number 101 and Ambrose at number 117. Ambrose dropped off the chart at that point, but Lewis made number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the next week and his version continued to climb until it reached number 1 on February 20, 1965.
"Sealed with a Kiss" is a song written and composed by Peter Udell and Gary Geld. It first became a hit in 1962 for Brian Hyland. The original recording of "Sealed with a Kiss" was by the Four Voices which was released as a single in May 1960 without becoming a hit. Jason Donovan later had an international number one hit with the song.
The Ron Hicklin Singers were a group of Los Angeles studio singers contracted and organized by Ron Hicklin. They are mostly known as the real singers behind the background vocals on The Partridge Family recordings.
Jerry Fuller is an American songwriter, singer and record producer.
"Save Your Heart for Me" is a song written by Gary Geld and Peter Udell. The song was originally written for and recorded by singer Brian Hyland in 1963. Although not released as a single in its own right, it was included as the B-side to Hyland's song, "I'm Afraid to Go Home," and appeared on Hyland's 1994 greatest hits album.
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap was an American pop rock group active in the late 1960s. The group, formed by Gary Puckett, Gary "Mutha" Withem, Dwight Bement, Kerry Chater and Paul Wheatbread, who eventually named it The Union Gap, had its biggest hits with "Woman, Woman", "Young Girl", "Lady Willpower", "Over You", "Don't Give In to Him", and "This Girl Is a Woman Now". The members featured costumes that were based on the Union Army uniforms worn during the American Civil War. Jerry Fuller gave the act a recording contract with Columbia Records. The group eventually grew unhappy with doing material written and produced by others, leading them to stop working with Fuller. The band eventually disbanded, and Puckett went on to do both solo work and collaborations.
"Count Me In" is a song written by Glen Hardin and performed by Gary Lewis & the Playboys. The song was produced by Snuff Garrett and arranged by Leon Russell, and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, behind "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" by Herman's Hermits. Outside the US, "Count Me In" went to No. 6 in Canada, and No. 49 in Australia in 1965. It was featured on their 1965 album, A Session with Gary Lewis and the Playboys.
This Diamond Ring is the debut studio album by American band Gary Lewis & the Playboys, and was released in 1965 on Liberty Records, LRP-3408. It is the first of three charting albums released by the band in 1965.
A Session with Gary Lewis and the Playboys is the second studio album by American band Gary Lewis & the Playboys, and was released in 1965 on Liberty Records, LRP-3419. It is the second of three charting albums released by the band in 1965, and it was the band's highest charting album reaching number 18 on the Billboard 200. Two singles from this album, "Count Me In" and the Brian Hyland cover "Save Your Heart for Me" both reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Everybody Loves a Clown is the third studio album by American band Gary Lewis & the Playboys, and was released in 1965 on Liberty Records, LRP-3428. It is the third of three charting albums released by the band in 1965, and it was the band's third highest charting original album reaching number 44 on the Billboard 200. The single "Everybody Loves a Clown" was the band's fourth single in a row to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 4 in November 1965.
Jim Yester is an American musician. He is a member of the Sunshine pop group The Association, who had had numerous hits on the Billboard charts. He is the older brother of former Lovin' Spoonful member Jerry Yester.
Three months later they were married, and on July 31, 1945, while Patti was living with Jerry’s parents in Newark and he was performing at a Baltimore nightclub, she gave birth to the first of the couple’s six sons, Gary, who in the 1960s had a series of hit records with his band Gary Lewis and the Playboys.
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