A Conversation with Gary Lewis, Who Appears in “Stars of the Sixties” at the Strand Theater
By Spotlight Central. Photos by Love Imagery
Singer Gary Lewis (“This Diamond Ring”) takes to the stage in Stars of the Sixties on October 1, 2021 at the Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ. The show, produced by Joe Mirrione, will also feature Lou Christie (“Lightning Strikes”), Dennis Tufano (“Kind of a Drag”), and The Cyrkle (“Red Rubber Ball”), in addition to special guest Chris Ruggiero.
Spotlight Central recently caught up with Lewis and talked to him about his early years, his rise to fame with Gary Lewis and the Playboys, and his upcoming appearance at Lakewood’s Strand Theater.
Spotlight Central: Many people know that you’re the son of actor/comedian Jerry Lewis, but some might not know that your mom, Patti Palmer, was a singer with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra. Were there any other musicians in your family?
Gary Lewis: No, it was just me who actually got into music. I think I got that from my mom because she sang with the band until she was eight months pregnant with me.
Spotlight Central: So you were already learning on the job, weren’t you?
Gary Lewis: [Laughs] It was definitely on-the-job training, yes! None of my other brothers went into music. One of them sings really well, but he’s got stage fright, so that was it for that.
Spotlight Central: You’ve said that when you were five years old and living in Los Angeles, your Dad’s friend would often come over and say, “Let’s go out to the drums. Let me show you some stuff,” and he would teach you things. Can you tell us any more about this teacher?
Gary Lewis: Well, I just thought it was a friend of my dad’s who came over to visit who just happened to know how to play drums. He would take me out to the drum set and would show me stuff, and teach me the rudiments — you know, how to fill correctly, and so forth. Finally, after seven years, I realized that this friend of my dad’s was Buddy Rich, and I went, “WHAT?!?”
Spotlight Central: [Laughs] We understand that, in addition to drums, you also played some other instruments, as well. What were they?
Gary Lewis: I play guitar now — because the drums are a little hard to do when you sing lead, and the hands have a little arthritis, too — but the first instrument I ever played was the clarinet. And then I picked up the saxophone because the fingerings are so similar. For a bunch of years I played those two instruments, but my heart was in rock and roll, so I wanted to play drums. That’s all there was to it; it was just in me. I was so driven; I had the drive for drums and I just I had to play the drums.
Spotlight Central: Who were some of your musical influences growing up?
Gary Lewis: When I was about 14, I started listening to music on a little transistor radio. This was 1959, and I loved to listen to people like Del Shannon, Johnny Burnette, and Brian Hyland. And there were drummers I liked, too. One was Jim Keltner — a great drummer — who later became a member of The Playboys before he made a name for himself.
And, later, when I was going to college in ’63 — BOOM! — all of a sudden, there was this new group from Britain, The Beatles, and I listened to them and said, “That’s it! That’s what I want to do!” So in January of ’64, I formed a band with some classmates from school, and we played for about a year — 11 months, actually — and then in November of that year, we got a gig playing at Disneyland in California. We didn’t have a record deal yet, but Liberty Records’ producer, Snuff Garrett, came out to the park with his family. He heard us, and he came backstage afterwards and said, “I like your sound. I’d like to talk to you about doing some recording.” I mean, isn’t that the way everybody wishes it would happen?
Spotlight Central: Of course!
Gary Lewis: [Laughs] So we started recording and, luckily, our first tune was “This Diamond Ring” and it went right to #1.
Spotlight Central: Originally, you called yourself Gary and the Playboys. How did you get that name, The Playboys?
Gary Lewis: It’s not much of a story, actually. It was just that a couple of guys were late to a rehearsal one day and when they walked in I said [in deep voice],“Where have you playboys been?,” and one of the guys said, “Hey, that’s pretty good! Let’s call ourselves The Playboys.”
Spotlight Central: You mentioned that you were discovered at Disneyland by Snuff Garrett. He started to produce you, and you also worked with Leon Russell, who arranged your music. What was it like working with those two pros?
Gary Lewis: Oh, my God! Talk about learning your craft? I mean, I was only 19 and I knew nothing about recording or anything, so I just followed their direction. And over two-and-a-half years of recording and having hits and everything, I learned so much about music — what to play and when to not play certain things, and how to sing, and how to breathe — you know, all that stuff that’s been so beneficial to me.
Spotlight Central: Wasn’t Snuff Garrett particularly good at not only choosing songs but, even more importantly, knowing exactly when to release them to the public?
Gary Lewis: That’s exactly right, and that’s exactly what I tell everybody — he knew how to pick songs and he knew exactly when to put them out. He’s never had a failure all the way from back in the 1958 when he produced Johnny Burnette. And then he had Gene McDaniels, Bobby Vee, and me, and then Cher, and Frank Sinatra. He never had any failures.
Spotlight Central: Not too shabby! You mentioned that your song, “This Diamond Ring,” went to #1 in 1965. How did that song find its way to you?
Gary Lewis: The first time I went into Snuffy Garrett’s office to talk about recording, he said, “I’ve got this tune that’s been in my drawer for quite awhile. This guy, Al Kooper, wrote the song for The Drifters and The Drifters didn’t like it and didn’t want to do it. Then I offered it to Bobby Vee and he didn’t like it.”
So he played it for me and I said, “I LIKE IT!” You know, it wouldn’t have mattered what tune it was, I just wanted to record, you know? And it just so happened that “Diamond Ring” was a special kind of song. Liberty Records was worried that it might not sell that many copies because it was going so high on the charts and so quickly, but it did sell. And I still get million-seller gold records for my ’60s hits. In fact, over the years, they’ve sold a million eight times over.
Spotlight Central: In 1965, you were voted Cashbox magazine’s “Male Vocalist of the Year” over Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. How gratifying was that experience?
Gary Lewis: [Laughs] I, actually, really couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe they called my name, and I’m thinking, “Wait a minute. I’m not a better singer than either one of those guys! What, are you kidding me?” But later on, I found out that they weren’t voting on who was the best singer but, rather, voting on who had the most hits that year.
Spotlight Central: And you had more hits than Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra!
Gary Lewis: [Laughs] Well, I know that! It’s a wonderful thing and I’m not trying to downplay it — I was just stunned — and it’s just one of those statistics that I’m very proud of.
Spotlight Central: And speaking of being proud, in the ’60s, your first seven releases all hit the Top 10, even in the middle of the British Invasion!
Gary Lewis: I know — I mean, how blessed am I? All I can say about that is that, later on, Snuff Garrett told me that Gary Lewis and the Playboys and The Beach Boys were the only two American groups that were able to stay up in the Top 10 with the British Invasion groups. And, boy, I didn’t realize that at the time, but I went back and I looked at the Billboard and Cashbox charts and it’s true — it was just us and The Beach Boys that were up there with The Beatles, The Stones, and all those people.
Spotlight Central: You sort of alluded to this earlier, but wasn’t it after your hits “Diamond Ring,” “Count Me In,” “Save Your Heart for Me,” and “Everybody Loves a Clown” that you stopped playing drums in the background and came more to the foreground as a frontman?
Gary Lewis: That’s exactly right; that happened after “Everybody Loves a Clown.” Before that, I was behind the drums — I had all these cymbals in front of me, I couldn’t see the crowd, the spotlight was in my eyes, and people had to go side-to-side to even try to see me. And, also, I had too much energy to stay behind the drums; I felt like I had to get out front and just express myself — to move around the stage, have fun, wave to the people, smile at them, and things like that — and the people ended up liking it better and so did I.
Spotlight Central: And that’s when, as you mentioned, Jim Keltner became a part of the band as your drummer?
Gary Lewis: That’s right.
Spotlight Central: In addition to all the early hits, you had other hits like “She’s Just My Style” — which is one of our favorites — along with “Sure Gonna Miss Her,” and “Green Grass.” But isn’t it true that you were one of the writers of “Everybody Loves a Clown?”
Gary Lewis: Yes, I wrote that with Leon Russell and Snuffy Garrett. We also wrote “She’s Just My Style,” too.
Spotlight Central: What was it like for you becoming a songwriter?
Gary Lewis: It was different. We had done our first three songs — “Diamond Ring,” “Count Me In,” and “Save Your Heart for Me” — and after “Save Your Heart for Me,” Snuffy said, “Let’s try to write something.” And so Leon sat down at the piano in the studio and he started playing — it wasn’t exactly the intro to “Everybody Loves a Clown,” but it was pretty close. And I said, “Wow, that sounds like a calliope at the circus.” And so Leon went, “Ah!” He started playing and came up with the intro to “Everybody Loves a Clown.” Then we wrote the music first, and Leon later added the words to it.
Spotlight Central: Around this time, you started appearing on television on shows like American Bandstand, Hullabaloo, The Tonight Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show. Did you have a favorite TV appearance?
Gary Lewis: It would have to be the first time on Ed Sullivan. The first time we were on Ed Sullivan was December of ’64. We had recorded “Diamond Ring” and now we were gonna break it on The Ed Sullivan Show. Everybody in the world watched Ed Sullivan at the time, so there was no better show to do our very first recording on, and, boy, the song skyrocketed after that!
Spotlight Central: So here you were, this huge success. What did your parents say about it?
Gary Lewis: Well, there’s a cute little story behind that. When I first formed the band and we needed to rehearse somewhere and needed equipment, my mom said to me, “OK, I’ll go along with this and get you the equipment and the rehearsal time and all that, but don’t tell your father because if the project fails, then I’ll have to come up with an excuse as to where the money went.”
So we rehearsed and we recorded “This Diamond Ring,” and as it was going up the charts, when it reached about #20, my mom said, “OK, now you can tell your dad.”
Spotlight Central: And was he, like, “How did this happen?”
Gary Lewis: Yeah, he said, “When did you do this?” And I hadn’t been worried about him hearing it on the radio before we told him because he didn’t listen to rock and roll at all. He loved the big band music of the ’40s — and because of that, I do, too, actually.
Spotlight Central: Is it true that you once did a radio interview where the interviewer was a little confused about who your dad was, thinking that he was Jerry Lee Lewis?
Gary Lewis: That really, honestly happened. The story is: I was doing an interview with a 20-year-old girl — and what station asks a 20-year-old girl to interview me? — so I was thinking, “Is she well-versed on me and my music?” And when we were talking, she said, “Gary, I love all your songs,” and I said, “Thank you.” And then she said, “And I love your dad, too — especially that song he did, ‘Great Balls of Fire,’” and man, I just fell on the floor! [Laughs] I tell that story at shows now and people just flip out!
Spotlight Central: We know you went to serve in the military — and to this day, you do free shows for vets, don’t you?
Gary Lewis: Yes, free shows for vets and their families, wherever they want us to come. And I just love doing it. We don’t charge them anything. We sign CDs and pictures after the show and we don’t charge anything for that either.
I’m a vet, and I love the vets, and I saw first-hand how the vets were treated coming back from Vietnam, and I thought it was disgusting — absolutely disgusting. We were fighting for these people and we’d get spit on when we’d come home? I didn’t like it at all, and I said, “I’m gonna do things for the vets — and I’m gonna do things for the military.” And so, for example, we’ve even gone overseas and played officers’ clubs, non-commissioned officers’ clubs, and enlisted men’s clubs on bases all over Asia.
Spotlight Central: After you served in the military, once you returned, you opened a music shop in California. How long did you do that, and what got you back to playing live shows again?
Gary Lewis: I got out of the Army in ’68 and after I came home, I was still able to tour for about two years on the strength of some songs we’d already had in the can and had released while I was away. These songs — which were remakes of “Listen to the Rhythm of the Falling Rain” and Brian Hyland’s “Sealed with a Kiss” — actually were semi-hits for me. But after that, all these new people — Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors — became popular, and I didn’t want to stay in music and do whatever was happening at the time just to stay in music. So I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew that just wasn’t for me.
And I remembered Leon Russell telling me a long time ago, “Never sing out of your style,” and that was very good advice for me. So I bought a music store in 1972 in the San Fernando Valley in California and I sold drums and guitars and I gave lessons on both. That lasted until 1984 when an agent from Indiana called me and said, “Hey, man, the ’60s are coming back!” and I said, “Who the hell is this?” He said, “No, I’m not kidding! I can book you 60–100 dates per year.” I said, “If you can book ’em, I’ll play ‘em!” and since ’84, that’s what’s been happening.
Spotlight Central: You toured with Bobby Vee for quite awhile and also, were a part of the Happy Together Tour with performers like Gary Puckett, Chuck Negron, Mark Lindsay, and The Turtles. What was it like for you to be out performing again?
Gary Lewis: It was great! I didn’t know if things were ever going to turn around, but they did turn around in ’84. That guy was right! There was a renewed interest in ’60s music and I said, “Oh, thank you, thank you!” and we started playing on tour again. Gosh, it was just a second chance — and one which still hasn’t stopped.
Spotlight Central: That’s true, and as result, we’re happy to say that you’ll be performing on October 1 at the Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ along with a number of other great artists. What can people who come to the show expect to see and hear at this performance?
Gary Lewis: Because it’s a multi-act show, each of us has to do a shorter set, but I’m definitely going to be doing all of my hits — all of ’em — every one, right in a row!
Spotlight Central: And you have a lot of them, too! And, in addition to your hits, people will also to hear hits by some other great artists including Lou Christie, Dennis Tufano, and The Cyrkle.
Gary Lewis: Yes, they’re all very nice people, and they’re all very thankful for this second chance, too.
Spotlight Central: Your music has been going strong for so many years now. Is there anything else you’d like to add — or anything you’d like to say to all the fans who’ve been following you for so long?
Gary Lewis: What I’d like to say to the fans is — thank you so much for keeping me where I am. The fans are the ones who put all of us wherever we are, so I want to do this music and give happiness back to the fans — to make them happy with what I do. And then, afterwards — when this whole COVID thing is over — I want to be able to out into the lobby and sign CDs, autograph pictures, and shake hands with everybody, and stay there until every last person is gone. So I guess you could say I want to give back to the fans because they’re the reason I’m still here!
Gary Lewis will appear with Lou Christie, Dennis Tufano, The Cyrkle, and Chris Ruggiero on October 1, 2021 at 7pm at the Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ. Tickets are priced from $39 to $69. For more information, please go to strand.org.
