The annual Happy Together tour kicks off on June 8th
in Biloxi, Mississippi and arrives at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on Friday
June 14th. This year’s incredible lineup of legendary 60’s and 70’s
Hit Makers are headlined and hosted by The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie,
Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night, Gary Puckett the lead singer from the Union
Gap, Mark Lindsay the voice of Paul Revere & the Raiders and Gary Lewis of
The Playboys.
These Five legendary music artists have generated
over (60) Top 40 hits (half in the Top10) including (6) number one hits. The
tour will span 54 cities in the U.S. and Canada.
Tickets for the Ruth Eckerd Hall show are available
at www.rutheckerdhall.com
or by calling 727-791-7400.
GARY LEWIS
and The Playboys became instant sensations after their first music gig in Disneyland
and eventually performed to packed houses nightly. Gary Lewis was the lead
singer and drummer, David Costell on lead guitars, Al Ramsay on bass guitar, David
Walker on guitar and John West on Cordovox (electronic accordion).
Gary Lewis is the son of legendary comedienne and
actor Jerry Lewis and Patti Palmer Lewis (née Esther Calonico) a former singer
with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra. Now it was Gary’s turn to begin an illustrious
entertainment career in rock and roll.
In the summer of 1964, by suggestion of band leader
Les Brown (His Band of Renown), Gary Lewis & The Playboys were invited into
the recording studio by producer/arranger Snuff Garrett. Garrett’s musical
partner was Leon Russell. The band immediately scored commercially with an Al
Kooper/Bob Brass/Irwin Levine penned composition entitled “This Diamond Ring.”
The song reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. With a little help from his
famous dad, the group was asked to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. After their
appearance, Gary Lewis & The Playboys became household names.
1965 became a momentous year for Gary Lewis &
The Playboys. “This Diamond Ring” sold over one million copies and became a
gold disc. Cashbox Magazine named Gary Lewis “Male Vocalist of the Year,” and a
string of hits just kept on coming. The
Playboy’s second hit single “Count Me In” reached #2 on the charts. The band
continued to churn out the hits with “Save Your Heart for Me” (#2 Billboard Hot
100 Hit), “Everybody Loves a Clown” (#4 Billboard Hot 100 Hit) and “She’s Just
My Style” (#3 Billboard Hot 100 Hit).
Lineup changes during this period included adding …
Tom Tripplehorn, Carl Radle and Jimmy
Karstein.
In 1966, Lewis came out from behind his drum kit to
exclusively perform his singing duties. During that year … Gary Lewis & The
Playboys spawned the hits, “Sure Gonna Miss Her” (#9 Billboard Hot 100 Hit),
“Green Grass” (#8 Billboard Hot 100 Hit), “My Heart’s Symphony” (#13 Billboard
Hot 100 Hit), “(You Don’t Have To) Paint Me a Picture”(#15 Billboard Hot 100
Hit) and “Where Will The Words Come From”
(#21 Billboard Hot 100 Hit).
Gary Lewis was drafted into the U.S. Army on January
of 1967 and later served in the Viet Nam War. Lewis returned to music after his
discharge from the Army but could not recapture the amazing success generated
before he was drafted. The music culture had also changed with the emergence of
hard rock and psychedelic.
Subsequent charting singles … “The Loser (with a
Broken Heart)” (1967 #43 Hit), “Girls in Love” (1967 #39 Hit), “Jill” (1967 #52
Hit), “Sealed with a Kiss” (1968 #19 Hit) and “Rhythm of the Rain” (1969 #63
Hit).
Gary Lewis &The Playboys generated (17) Top 40
hits, (8) gold singles and (4) gold albums in a period when the Brits were
dominating the American airwaves. The group sold (45) million records
worldwide.
The band appeared on American Bandstand,
Hullaballoo, Shindig!, The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas
Show and The Ed Sullivan Show (6) times … to name just a few of their
Television appearances.
Lewis also performed on his Dad’s ‘Jerry Lewis MDA
Telethon.’
He was also featured in several movies including …Way… Way Out, A Swingin’ Summer, The Family
Jewels, Out of Sight and My Boyfriends Back.
Lewis resurfaced with a new band as a nostalgia act
to great success.
TODAY Gary Lewis is
66 years of age and lives in Rochester, New York. He will be rejoining the
Happy Together tour since sharing the stage in 1985 with The Turtles (featuring
Flo & Eddie), The Mamas & the Papas, The Grassroots and The
Buckinghams.
In 2012, Gary
Lewis & The Playboys released a brand new single entitled “You Can’t Go
Back.” The song was written by Lewis and Nick Rather.
I had the great privilege of chatting with Gary
Lewis recently about Happy Together 2013, his incredible journey with Gary
Lewis & The Playboys, getting drafted, a famous dad …and much-much more!
Here’s my interview with singer/ songwriter/
musician/ actor/ Viet Nam veteran/ frontman for the legendary Playboys …GARY
LEWIS.
Ray
Shasho: Hello Gary! Are you living in New York?
Gary
Lewis: “I live in Rochester, New York. I love it up here.
We finally bought the house that I’ve always wanted after it finally came up
for sale. It’s just beautiful … eleven acres, all kinds of fruit trees, grape
vines and beautiful pine trees. I love this house.”
Ray
Shasho: Happy Together 2013 arrives at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Fl on
June 14th.
Gary
Lewis: “Yes, June 14th, I never played there
before. I love playing places that I’ve never played …looking forward to it.”
Ray
Shasho: Not to mention the weather is gorgeous and you’re really close to the
beach (laughing).
Gary
Lewis: “We used to have a house on Anna Maria Island where
we’d go to every winter, so we’re very familiar how nice it is.”
Ray
Shasho: Gary, have you performed on the Happy Together Tour before?
Gary
Lewis: “Yes, I did it in 1985. That was the second year
that it was out. Not only was it tremendously fun being with the guys that I’ve
known for years and years, but this time, I’ll be on the road with guys that
I’ve been hanging out and played with for even more years now. It’s just going
to be great. I love Flo & Eddie …their terrific. I’ve played with Gary
Puckett tons of times, Mark Lindsay tons of times, Chuck Negron a few times, so
it’s really going to be good.”
Ray
Shasho: “This Diamond Ring” was definitely one of the most remembered hits of
the 60’s.
Gary
Lewis: “Not only was it our first record but it was the only
one that went to number one for us and sold the most. I’ve got seven gold
records for “This Diamond Ring” already … I mean it just keeps going.”
Ray
Shasho: When you originally recorded the song in the studio, was it members of
The Wrecking Crew that actually provided
the music?
Gary
Lewis: “No,
myself and The Playboys did all of the tracks. We played on the original
recording. We used The Wrecking Crew when we needed overdubs or solos. So many
people have written all over the country for so long that The Playboys didn’t
have anything to do with the recording. Some people say I didn’t even sing the
song, and man, that really annoys me.”
Ray
Shasho: Leon Russell was extremely
important to the band?
Gary
Lewis: “Leon was like a co-producer and arranged
everything. He played something on
everything … keyboards mainly but he played guitar solos, he played a bass
trumpet on “Everybody Loves a Clown” …I
mean and all kinds of stuff, he was brilliant!”
Ray
Shasho: Gary, do you have any good Playboys stories
from back in their heyday?
Gary
Lewis: “Yea, I’ve got a good one for you … We were doing a
county fair in Florida and this young twenty year old girl who was just getting
into the radio business and her station assigned her to come down to our gig
and interview me. So we’re talking and she says, Gary I just love all your
songs. I said well thank you so much. She said and I really love your dad too.
I said thank you! She says yea, especially that tune “Great Balls of Fire” (All
Laughing). Can you believe it …my entire career is full of things like that.”
“In the 60’s it was so much fun because Beatlemania
was there and people just wanted to grab you and touch you and the screaming
and all that …and that got old real fast.”
Ray
Shasho: Your mom managed the band for awhile didn’t she?
Gary
Lewis: “Yes she did, when I had “This Diamond Ring” come
out I was still a minor, so she had
to sign all the contracts and do all the business, so she actually acted as the
manager and she never took ten percent. I said mom you’re entitled to take the
percentage, she said, I don’t need it. With my mom as manager I felt really
safe and confident. So that was cool.”
Ray
Shasho: Gary we both have Jewish dads and Catholic moms.
Gary
Lewis: “A Catholic and a Jew getting married …boy you should’ve seen all the stress
going on there with all the Jewish relatives.
But my mom was pretty tough … she’s great! I’m going to see her tomorrow.
She’s 91 living at an assistant living and we’re leaving New York tomorrow to
go to LA to see her.”
Ray
Shasho: My favorite Playboys tune has always been “She’s Just My Style” and it
seems like that song gets more airplay than any of the other hits.
Gary
Lewis: “It does. You know what’s funny though, the largest
selling internet tune of mine is “Sure
Gonna Miss Her.” Even above “This Diamond Ring” and “She’s
Just My Style.” It’s the biggest selling record of mine on the internet. It’s a
great song but I would have never figured that one above the others.”
Ray
Shasho: You co-wrote “She’s Just My Style”?
Gary
Lewis: “Yes I did.”
Ray
Shasho: The song had kind of a Beach Boys flavor to it.
Gary
Lewis: “That’s exactly what we were going for too. Even
before we started writing it we said lets go for The Beach Boys thing, a little
rock and roll with a lot of harmony and I was really happy the way we pulled it
off.”
Ray
Shasho: What was your perception of playing The Ed Sullivan show?
Gary
Lewis: “One time we were doing his show and did the dress
rehearsal with a live audience. And as Ed is introducing me he says, “Ladies
and gentleman let’s have a nice hand for Jerry Lewis’ son’s combo (All
Laughing). So after the show I did tell him … Gary Lewis & The Playboys
…please Ed. He got it right when it was on the air. He was so funny; I wonder
if he ever did any kind of research on who he was having on the show ... I
don’t think he did.”
Ray
Shasho: Yea, poor Ed was the butt of a lot of jokes.
Gary
Lewis: “Every time my dad would be on his show, I mean my
dad would tackle and wrestle him to the floor, bite his head, just all kinds of stuff, and Ed would
just get up as if nothing happened. He was cool, I did like him though. We
ended up doing the show six times.”
Ray
Shasho: Gary, what was it like to be at the height of your career and then
receiving your draft notice?
Gary
Lewis: “We
were coming off seven top ten’s in a row and then I got the draft notice. The
only way I could describe that is like hitting a brick wall in your car going
one hundred miles an hour. That’s actually what it felt like. But then I
thought to myself, well, I’ll just do what I have to do and when I come back
I’ll just pick it up. But when I was in the service the music changed radically
and it happened so fast. All of a sudden it was Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and
that kind of music was in … and I didn’t know what I was going to do when I got
out.”
“When I did get out my producer Snuff Garrett told
me, “You know there’s really no more market for your kind of music. You know
…thanks bye! Instead of saying, well, maybe we can try this or try that… they
just said okay thanks, see you! And it
was very hard to take. So what I had to do, in order to stay in the business, I
kept working all the time but had to play smaller venues, clubs, and do four
sets a night. If we wanted to keep working that’s what we had to do. So I did
it all the way until 1984 when the 60’s started coming back slowly. The
promoters and the bookers were starting to book the 60’s acts again. So from
1984 until now I’ve been doing 60 to 100 dates a year and it’s wonderful.”
Ray
Shasho: You were sent to Viet Nam?
Gary
Lewis: “Yea, I went to Viet Nam and spent three months
there. But the North Koreans took one of our ships called the Pueblo in 1968
and it was a gigantic military buildup in South Korea because they expected
something bad to happen and I was one of those who went up to South Korea. So I
spent nine months up there and spent three months in Viet Nam. Boy it was a
scary thing landing in Viet Nam. One of my big things now is being an advocate
for the vets. I do free shows for the veterans and their families and I play in
golf tournaments to raise money and awareness for disabled vets. I went to
California last December to do a show for the brain injured vets. I take tours
of the hospitals and stop into the rooms and shake hands and say hi to them and
thank them for their service too.”
Ray
Shasho: How’s your dad doing?
Gary
Lewis: “He’s doing pretty good. He’s always got his hands
into something. He’s just going on the road and doing shows now. He’s 87. His
shows mainly consist of … he sits down now, he tells stories, jokes, shows
videos and people ask questions …it’s that kind of thing. So he’s doing alright.”
Ray
Shasho: Gary,
here’s a question that I ask everyone that I interview, If you had a “Field of
Dreams” wish, like the movie, to play or collaborate with anyone from the past
or present, who would that be?
Gary
Lewis: “John Lennon. I always thought he was the most
brilliant Beatle .And I loved the way he lived his life. You need people with
the love and peace thing. He really believed it and got a lot of people going
on that too. And that was great.”
Ray
Shasho: Did you get the chance to meet John Lennon?
Gary
Lewis: “Yea, I met him a couple of times. I met him at a
party in Bel Air, California and one time backstage at the Hollywood Bowl when
they played there. I had a couple hits … “This Diamond Ring” and “Count Me In”
so they sent one of their guys out to come get me and bring me back. So I met
them all. When I walked in John Lennon looks at me and says, “Nice suit mate
…cool!” Of course I had my Beatles suit on with the black velvet collar and
cuffs.”
Ray
Shasho: Did you meet Elvis too?
Gary
Lewis: “Yea, I met Elvis and he was darn nice too, in 1971
when he was playing the Las Vegas Hilton. He asked me backstage and he was
walking around pouring champagne for everybody and giving out scarves. When he
would talk to you it sounded sincere, very nice guy …I liked Elvis.”
Ray
Shasho: Gary, thank you so much for being on the call
today and more importantly for all the incredible Playboys music you’ve given
to all of us. We’ll
see you at Happy Together 2013 in Clearwater!
Gary
Lewis: “It’s been my pleasure Ray, see you in Clearwater.”
Coming
up next … an
interview with Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night and the Happy Together Tour 2013.
Check out Happy Together 2013 show dates here www.pollstar.com
Tickets for Happy Together 2013 at Ruth Eckerd Hall
in Clearwater, Fl are available at www.rutheckerdhall.com
or by calling 727-791-7400.
Download Gary Lewis & The Playboys latest single “You Can’t Go
Back” at itunes.
Very special thanks to Jeff Albright of The Albright Entertainment
Group.
Purchase
Ray’s very special memoir called ‘Check the Gs’ -The True Story of an Eclectic
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Book Review says Ray Shasho is a product of the second half of
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