Artist of the Month: Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Gary Lewis and the Playboys were discovered performing at Disneyland in 1964 by Snuff Garrett. Gary was possessed with a limited vocal range and he also considered himself not having good looks. Still he managed to make some exceptional good and good selling records out of Los Angeles, during the British invasion,and still teenagers loved him.
In late 1964 the song “this Diamond Ring” a remake of an earlier song became a big hit. Sometimes the playboys would record with Gary in the studio but most of the time it was studio musicians like Haile Blaine and Leon Russell. You might also remember their cameo appearance in the Raquel Welch movie “A Swingin Summer”. By 1965 the song “This Diamond Ring” had hit #1, later they would perform that song on the Ed Sullivan Show. Also remember that on the Sullivan show it was a general policy that all acts appearing on the show had to perform live. Since so many studio tricks were used on the Playboys recordings, they could not recreate that sound.
In compromise Gary Lewis sand along to a pre-recorded track as the Playboys pretended to play their instruments. Another problem during this time was the British Invasion,the music charts were being dominated by British acts and Gary Lewis and the Playboys were the only American act on the surveys. January 1966 the group appears in the espionage B-Movie “Out of Sight”, with the Turtles, the Knickerbockers, and Freddie and the Dreamers. By June of 1966 the song “Green Grass” hits #8 on the charts, this would be the last of Lewis’s 7 consecutive US top 10 Hits. Although there was some rumors going around “Green Grass” was a reference to Marijuana, many radio stations would not play the record. After a short time Gary joins the US Air Force Reserve and by 1967 he is drafted into the US Army and the band is forced to breakup.
Bitter at the interruption to his career, he refuses to form a Special Services band to entertain the troops,and instead spends his time as a clerk/typist in Korea. Gary Lewis and the Playboys were one of only two acts during the 60’s whose first 7 releases on the Billboard Hot 100 would reach the charts top 10, the other group would be the “Lovin Spoonful”. In all the group had 8 gold singles, 12 top 40 hit singles, but only 15 Hot 100 entries and 4 gold albums. Despite of being in so many TV shows and Movies, Gary Lewis and the Playboys made virtually no impact at all in the U.K. Learn more about Gary Lewis and the Playboys as we feature them as artist of the month. And as usual all information and known facts are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez.