GARY LEWIS & THE PLAYBOYS PLAY MAGIC CITY THIS MONTH
WHEN “THIS DIAMOND Ring” - his first professional recording - reached #1 on the charts in 1964, Gary Lewis’ producer said, “Don’t get too excited about the success of one song.” He didn’t. Instead, Gary Lewis and the Playboys kept working hard and found the group’s next six releases in a row each zooming up the charts to rest in a Top 10 position. Lewis was the first and only artist of that era to do that.
The well-established Drifters didn’t want to do “This Diamond Ring” when producer Snuff Garrett offered it to them, in spite of his impeccable reputation for knowing how to pick hits. So he gave it to the immensely popular Bobby Vee who, reportedly, didn’t like the song and didn’t want to do it either. So when Garrett asked the newcomers if they wanted it, “With all of his knowledge and the great arrangements and the musicians,” Lewis says, “I was so thrilled to start recording I would have done any song he said.”
The group not only made its way into the record books, it also struck reverberating chords in the memories of listeners. When asked if he still hears his tunes when shopping in a supermarket or turning on the radio Gary says, “All the time. It feels wonderful!”
With 8 Gold Singles, 17 Top 40 Hits, 4 Gold Albums, and 45 million records sold worldwide, hits like “Everybody Loves a Clown,” “I’m Sure Gonna Miss Her,” and “Count Me In” are an indelible part of our cultural makeup, and the only reason the songs stopped coming is because, “I got drafted,” Gary reports. His music is breezy, pop stuff with the kind of bounce that makes a broken heart seem not so bad. But in the two years he was away doing military service in South Korea, “The music business changed from my kind of music to heavier rock like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.” The times were bad-assed and when Lewis got out of the service and returned to Liberty Records he was told there was no more market for his kind of music. “I said, so what is this? Like, Goodbye? And it was.” So he left entertaining, owned a music shop in California, and gave lessons on drums and guitar for more than a decade - until 1984 when an agent from Indiana called up and said, “Hey man, the ‘60s are comin’ back!”
The Indiana agent promised he could get multiple bookings every year for Gary’s familiar swinging ‘60s sound. Lewis was disbelieving but he says, “Since ’84, that’s what’s been happening.” When Gary was five years old his father bought him a set of drums. “A friend of my dad’s used to come over all the time and say, ‘Hey kid, come out to the drums, I want to show you some stuff.’ This went on for seven years. He taught me things on the drums, and I was getting good, and he really gave me some beautiful, beautiful pointers.” It wasn’t until he was twelve years old that Gary realized that this friend of his dad’s – this man named Buddy Rich – was celebrated as one of the greatest drummers of all time.
That isn’t too surprising when considering who Gary’s father is. Comic actor Jerry Lewis -- of vintage movie and charitable TV telethon fame -- is one of the best known show biz figures ever. When asked whether it was a help or a hindrance to be the child of a mega-famous parent Gary answers, “It was never a hindrance. You know why? Because we didn’t do the same thing. The Beatles came out and I said, ‘I want to play music.’ My dad never did that.” Throughout his recording career and his repeated appearances on television shows including American Bandstand, Hullabaloo, The Tonight Show and the Ed Sullivan Show Gary always maintained his own, separate identity, “and even to this day people will say to me, ‘I had no idea your dad was Jerry Lewis.’ That’s how well that separation of jobs worked.”
He no longer plays the drums. Drums are hard on the shoulders over the years. The drummer in Lewis’s upcoming concert at Magic City Music Hall is Bobby Bond, and the bass player is Dominic Lazerri, both of Rochester, NY which Gary now calls home. Nick Rather of Nashville is on guitar and the keyboard player is John Zehnder from Louisville. These “Playboys” (so named by Gary because the original group back in the day, before their career took off, is said to have had a penchant for idling in late to rehearsal sessions) have worked together since 2004. Gary says he loves being back on guitar because it puts him up front where he can see the crowd, “play to them, talk to them. Behind the drums, I couldn’t do any of that.”
In 2012, the group recorded their latest single, “You Can’t Go Back” which is somewhat blues-influenced. Apparently though, in some ways, you can go back. “We’re playing to the same people we were playing to in the ‘60s except they bring their kids,” Lewis explains, “and they bring their kids.” He was charmed by an email he received from a seven year old girl who said she loves all his songs because her grandma sings them to her as lullabies. “Wow, how cool is that?” he cooed.
The concert includes a little bit of video footage of Gary in bit parts his famous dad gave him in a few films, like “The Nutty Professor,” before his rock and roll days. He is almost speechless as he fishes around for the words to express how he feels about his audiences. “To honestly go on stage and want to have a good time with them, to see them mouthing the words right along with me, I’ve been given this tremendous blessing to have this career for 52 years.”
Gary Lewis and the Playboys play Magic City Music Hall on Friday, May 20th at 8pm. 1240 Upper Front Street, Northgate Plaza in Binghamton. General admission is $25; admission with reserved table seating is $35. For more information call (607) 296-3269 or visit themagiccitymusichall.com.
