Gary Lewis And The Playboys



Gary Harold Lee Levitch was born on July 31st, 1946. His mother Patti thought that Cary Grant was a terrific actor and wanted to name her oldest son Cary, but the hospital made a mistake, and recorded his name as Gary instead of Cary. As a youngster, Gary was no stranger to the entertainment business and seemed destined make a name for himself. He appeared movies, singing and acting before the age of thirteen. For his 14th birthday in the Summer of 1960, Gary was given a set of drums. Four years later he formed a group in the Los Angeles area with guitarists David Walker and Al Ramsey, lead guitarist David Costell, keyboard player John West, and Gary himself on drums. One day, two of the guys were late for rehearsal and when they finally arrived Gary asked, "Where have you Playboys been?" The others said, "Hey, that's a good name."

In 1964 the group auditioned for a job at Disneyland without telling Disney employees about Lewis' celebrity father. The entertainment director of the park liked what he saw and heard and hired Gary and the boys on the spot to perform at the Space Bar in Tomorrowland. They were enthusiastically accepted by audiences from the very first night and as the word spread, it was not long before they were playing to a packed house every night. At this point the band was called Gary And The Playboys, but guitarist Dave Walker was the musical leader and sang most of the vocals.

Record producer Snuff Garrett lived just two doors down from Gary's famous father, actor/comedian Jerry Lewis. Jerry and Snuff had a mutual friend, conductor Lou Brown, who'd worked with Jerry ever since the Martin & Lewis days. It was Brown who brought Gary Lewis to Snuff's attention. Garrett would later recall: "Lou came up to the office one day and said, 'Jerry's son Gary is playin' in a group... they're playin' out at Disneyland.' A week or so later he said, 'They're gonna rehearse at Paramount tonight. Why don't I come over and pick you up, we'll have a bite to eat and go over and see them?' So I did, and Gary was the drummer. He wasn't the singer or anything else. The next day I got to thinkin', if I could make him the singer, I'd never heard him sing, I thought, hey, if I can get a record cut with him, it'd be a new way to promote records, the son of a famous entertainer!" Snuff talked it over with the group and booked some studio time for them to rehearse. When he felt they were ready, Garrett brought in a song called "This Diamond Ring", which had originally been offered to, but rejected by Bobby Vee. The session was financed by Gary's mother, Patty. During the actual recording, The Playboys were almost irrelevant, as they weren't allowed to play their instruments and their voices were used sparingly. Snuff wanted a hit, so he insisted on using trusted studio musicians. (a point that Gary disputed for years) Garrett recalled: "I got a piano player I knew named Leon Russell to do the arranging. My string stuff wasn't making it anymore, so I used only five pieces. I didn't use The Playboys at all except as overtones." The studio musicians included Tommy Alsup on guitar, Carol Kaye on bass, Leon Russell on keyboards and Hal Blaine on drums. To help fill out what he felt to be Gary's vocal shortcomings, Snuff brought in a session singer, too. His name was Ron Hicklin. Ron did the basic vocal track, then Snuff added Gary's voice, overdubbed him a second time, added some of the Playboys, and then added more of Hicklin. "When I got through, he sounded like Mario Lanza", Snuff commented. When the band cut "This Diamond Ring", all of The Playboys had to sign a contract with Gary and his mother Patty, and became employees of ESTA MUSIC. They were no longer a group with equal participation or financing. It was at this point that they officially became known as Gary Lewis And The Playboys.

Next came the hype. Snuff got "This Diamond Ring" onto the radio in New York City by making a deal with WINS disc jockey Murray the K, who ran a series of all-star concerts at theaters around the New York area. He was promised that if he played Lewis' record, The Playboys would do his shows. Then Snuff had his neighbor, Jerry Lewis, pull some strings to get his son onto The Ed Sullivan Show. Within a few weeks, Gary and his group were on America's top variety program. There was a problem though. It was Sullivan's policy that all the acts appearing on his show had to perform live. Since so many studio tricks had been used on the record, there was no way The Playboys could re-create its sound. So a compromise was struck. Gary sang along with pre-recorded tracks as the Playboys faked it on instruments. According to Garrett, this marked the first time that a song had been lip-synched on the show. America didn't mind. Gary Lewis And The Playboys were instant stars. Their song "This Diamond Ring" shot up to #1 in America and the pressing plants ran twenty-four hours a day to keep up with the demand for the record.

In 1965 Gary himself was Cash Box magazine's Male Vocalist Of The Year, winning the honor over other nominees Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. He was the first and only artist during the 1960s to have his first seven releases reach Billboard's Top 10 on the Hot 100 chart. In the Philippines during this time, they were considered America's answer to The Beatles and spanning a two week period, sold out the 18,000 capacity Arianeta Coliseum for twenty-four performances. Along with his appearances on various popular television shows including American Bandstand, The Joey Bishop Show, and The Tonight Show, Gary accumulated an impressive five appearances within two years on the Ed Sullivan Show. However, by the end of 1965 only John West and Lewis remained in the band. Other members later included Tommy Tripplehorn (father of actress Jeanne Tripplehorn), Carl Radle, Jimmy Karstein and Dave Gonzalez.

In just two short years Gary Lewis And The Playboys rattled off an impressive string of hit singles. "This Diamond Ring" (#1 in 1965), "Count Me In" (#2 in 1965), "Save Your Heart For Me" (#2 in 1965), "Everybody Loves A Clown" (#4 in 1965), "She's Just My Style" (#3 in 1966), "Sure Gonna Miss Her" (#9 in 1966), "Green Grass" (#8 in 1966), "My Heart's Symphony" (#13 in 1966), "You Don't Have To Paint Me A Picture" (#15 in 1966) and "Where Will The Words Come From" (#22 in 1967). Despite the name of the band, Lewis projected a wholesome image. They performed in formal black suits and sported a clean-cut look, staying away from drugs and liquor.

Following his last appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, Gary received his draft notice, and less than a month later, on New Years Day in 1967, he officially entered the U.S. Army for a two year period. He took basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and later served with the Eighth Army in Seoul, South Korea. Proving his dedication and his love for music, Gary spent his time on leave in the recording studio. In the remaining time that Gary was out of the country, his record company released "Girls In Love" (#39 in 1967) and "Sealed With A Kiss" (#19 in 1967). He also recorded a solo album called "Listen!", which featured heavier material than his previous work. Although it didn't sell well, the LP was called "worthwhile" by some music critics.

During 1967, Gary met a Filipina lady named Jinky and married her just nine months after the two met backstage. The marriage produced one daughter, Sarah. The couple, however, divorced four years later. Gary would later say "I guess I was much too young to marry at the time. I was only twenty-one and I wasn't mature enough to commit. But Jinky was wonderful. I wouldn't call my marriage to her a mistake. The next three marriages were major mistakes." At one point he had been married five times.

Gary Lewis fared better than the offspring of other stars who had taken a run at Rock 'n' Roll. He was a talented singer, songwriter and musician. His party songs sold well in the mid-60s at the height of Beatlemania, but the Psychedelic mood that prevailed in the following years made his style of music out of vogue. In total, Gary Lewis had eight Gold singles, twelve US Top 40 hits and four Gold albums.

In 1971, Gary retired from performing and opened a music store in San Fernando Valley where he sold drums, guitars and accessories. He found however that he still had the urge to play and in 1973, put a group together called Medicine out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which included a former member of The Cowsills, Bill Cowsill. The band failed to meet with any success and Gary flew under the Rock 'n' Roll radar until one day in 1984, when a booking agent called him from Indianapolis and said "Hey, you know the '60s are coming back. I can get you 60 to 100 dates a year." Gary replied "Well, if you can do it, I'll play 'em" and put a new version of The Playboys together. Since that time, Gary and the band performed with the likes of The Grass Roots, Peter Noone, The Turtles and The Buckinghams. He also appeared and performed on many of his father's Labor Day telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In the mid 1970s two of Gary's original hits, "My Heart's Symphony" and "Count Me In" showed up in the UK Top 10.

From 1988 to 1989, an arrangement of Gary's hit "She's Just My Style" was used in an Oldsmobile television advertisement. Gary has also proved successful at endorsements such as those he has done for products by Kelloggs and Coca-Cola, and thanks to the lucrative deal that his mother signed for him when he first started recording, continued to collect substantial royalties from his hit records.

As the new millennium rolled around Gary was still touring North America with a group known as Gary Lewis And The Playboys. In January 2012 he released a new single called "You Can't Go Back". In the Summer of 2013, Lewis, along with a group of 1960s musicians including Gary Puckett, Chuck Negron, Mark Lindsay and The Turtles toured 47 cities in Paradise Artist's Happy Together tour. Lewis' website showed a short list of tour dates booked into 2021. Looking back at his career, Gary Lewis racked up forty-five million records sold worldwide.

Gary's name was back in the news in September, 2017 when it was revealed that his famous father, comedian Jerry Lewis, left all six kids from his first marriage out of his will after he passed away on August 20th. News sources reported that the elder Lewis included in his 2012 testament: "I have intentionally excluded Gary Lewis, Ronald Lewis, Anthony Joseph Lewis, Christopher Joseph Lewis, Scott Anthony Lewis and Joseph Christopher Lewis and their descendants as beneficiaries of my estate, it being my intention that they shall receive no benefits hereunder." With his sons omitted, Jerry left his considerable estate to his widow SanDee Pitnick. After Joseph Lewis committed suicide in 2009, Gary openly blamed his father for his brother's death, reportedly saying "Jerry Lewis was a mean and evil person. He was never loving and caring toward me or my brothers".

As of 2022, Gary Lewis And The Playboys were still touring the world on their own and occasionally with other popular acts of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. The group was performing on cruise ships, at casinos, festivals, fairs, and corporate events.

For more, be sure to read Gary James' interview with Gary Lewis

CLASSIC TRIVIA:
Playboys member John West was once a member of 'The Innocents', the band who backed up Kathy Young on her 1960 hit, "A Thousand Stars".