Gary Lewis And The Playboys

This Diamond Ring


















 




Gary Lewis And The Playboys - This Diamond Ring
Liberty Records LRP-3408 (1965)


Side One
1. This Diamond Ring
2. Dream Lover
3. All Day And All Of The Night
4. Forget Him
5. Needles And Pins 
6. Love Potion Number Nine

 Side Two
1. Keep Searchin'
2. The Birds And The Bees
3. Sweet Little Rock And Roller
4. Go To Him
5. The Night Has A Thousand Eyes 
6. The Best Man


Personnel Include:
Snuff Garrett - producer 
Bones Howe - engineer 
Al Kooper, Bob Brass, Irwin Levine - composers (This Diamond Ring) 
Gary Lewis - lead vocals
Ron Hicklin - lead vocals (overdubs) 
Leon Russell - keyboards, arrangements 
Tommy Allsup - guitar
Mike Deasy - guitar
Joe Osborn - bass
Carol Kaye - bass
Hal Blaine - drums


Notes:

On December 30, 1964, overdub sessions for the song "This Diamond Ring" by Gary Lewis And The Playboys took place in Hollywood. The initial demo session took place on November 19 at Western Recorders.

Lewis, the son of comedian Jerry Lewis, had a band of friends and were playing a gig at Disneyland in Anaheim, California when producer Snuff Garrett saw them perform.

Jerry hated rock music and would have nothing to do with Gary's group so his mother put up the money for a demo session in which the Playboys played their own instruments. On November 30, 1964, Snuff took that demo into the studio and using studio musicians, replaced most of the Playboys' instrumental parts. He also doubled Gary's thin vocals with singer Ron Hicklin's stronger voice while adding lots of reverb.

Over the years, Lewis has insisted that the Playboys did play on the song. That's partially true in that they did do the original demo, but what you hear on the song is the Wrecking Crew members listed below, which Snuff said in an interview that he used on the single.

"This Diamond Ring" was released in January of 1965 and hit the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart February 20, 1965.

Listen to the single "This Diamond Ring" on YouTube:




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Count Me In / Little Miss Go-Go























Gary Lewis And The Playboys - Count Me In / Little Miss Go-Go
Liberty Records LRP-55778 (1965)

Personnel included:

Snuff Garrett - producer 
Leon Russell - arrangements, keyboards 
Bones Howe - engineer 
Gary Lewis - vocals 
Rick Hicklin - doubling vocals
Dave Hassinger - engineer 
Henry Lewry - engineer 
Mike Deasy - guitar 
Tommy Allsup - guitar 
Joe Osborn - bass 
Hal Blaine - drums, percussion


Notes:

After the runaway success of Gary Lewis' first album and the singles from it, Snuff Garrett was once again at the helm of Lewis' follow-up album, "A Session With Gary Lewis And The Playboys". 

The first single from the album was released on March 15, 1965, which was "Count Me In" written by Glen Hardin, and would peak on the Billboard Hot 100 at #2. The members of the Playboys did contribute in minor ways but the album once again featured mostly studio musicians.

Listen to "Count Me In" on YouTube:



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Save Your Heart For Me / Without A Word Of Warning























Gary Lewis And The Playboys - Save Your Heart For Me / 
Without A Word Of Warning
Liberty Records LRP-55809 (1965)

Personnel included:

Snuff Garrett - producer
Leon Russell - arrangement, keyboards
Gary Harold Lee Levitch - arrangement
Dave Hassinger - recording engineer
Bones Howe - recording engineer
Henry Lewy - recording engineer
Gary Lewis - vocals 
Ron Hicklin - vocals
Mike Deasy - guitar 
Tommy Allsup - guitar 
Joe Osborn - bass 
Hal Blaine - drums, percussion 


Notes:

On June 11, 1965, Liberty Records released the single "Save Your Heart For Me" by Gary Lewis & The Playboys. The song also appeared on their album "A Session With Gary Lewis And The Playboys".

The song had been written by Gary Geld and Peter Udell and recorded in 1963 by Brian Hyland as a B-side to his single "I'm Afraid To Go Home". It would eventually make its way up the Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 Singles Chart to the #2 position the week of August 21, 1965, stopped only by Sonny & Cher's "I've Got You Babe". That same month it would hit #1 on Billboard's Easy Listening Chart, staying there for three weeks. 

Once again, Snuff Garrett produced the single using members of Hollywood's studio musician cadre now known as The Wrecking Crew and Lewis credits the success of the single to Garrett and the fact that the song was under two minutes long, making it DJ friendly back in the 1960s when shorter songs were given preference.

Over the years, Garrett tells basically one story of the recording sessions where Gary gives three of four different versions. A close, headphone listen to the albums pretty much tells the story of who played the music heard on the songs.

Listen to "Save Your Heart For Me" on YouTube:



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A Session With Gary Lewis And The Playboys



















Gary Lewis And The Playboys - A Session With Gary Lewis And The Playboys
Liberty Records LRP-55809 (1965)

Personnel included:

Snuff Garrett - producer
Leon Russell - arrangements, keyboards
Bones Howell - engineer
Dave Hassinger - engineer
Henry Lewy - engineer
Gary Lewis - vocals, drums
Tommy Tripplehorn - lead guitar, vocals
Dave Costell - guitar
Carl Radle - bass
John R. West - keyboards
Jimmy Karstein - drums
Mike Deasy - guitar
Tommy Allsup - guitar
Joe Osborn - bass
Hal Blaine - drums


Notes:

In August of 1965, Liberty Records released the second album "A Session With..." by Gary Lewis And The Playboys.

Following the success of "This Diamond Ring", Liberty sent Gary back into the studio hoping to ride the wave of that song with more of the same. Once again, producer Snuff Garrett took the helm using basically the same studio players to provide most of the music as on the first album. Lewis and the Playboys provided the vocals and some of the instrumentation.

Two songs included on the album would become hits: "Count Me In" and "Save Your Heart For Me", both which would reach the #2 position on Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 Singles Chart.

Listen to "A Session With Gary Lewis And The Playboys" on YouTube:



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Listen!























Gary Lewis - Listen!
Liberty Records LRP-3524 (1967)

Personnel included:

Gary Lewis - vocals
Andrew Sandoval - producer
Steve Stanley - producer
Jack Nitzsche - arrangements, conductor
Hank Levine - arrangements
John Haeny - engineer
Mike Deasy - guitar
Al Casey - guitar
David Cohen - guitar
Russ Titelman - guitar
Carol Kaye - bass
Ray Pohlman - bass
Lyle Ritz - string bass
Bob West - string bass
Michael Lang - keyboards, piano
Don Randi - keyboards, piano
Toxey French - drums
Jim Gordon - percussion
John Clauder - percussion
John Baker - percussion
Curry Tjader - percussion
Gene Cipriano - saxophone
Jau Migliori - saxophone
Jack Nimitz - saxophone
Bud Shank - saxophone
John Vidusich - trombone
Louis Blackburn - trombone
Roy Caton - trumpet
Irving Geller - strings
Irving Lipschultz - strings
Joseph Quadri - strings
Darrel Terwilliger - strings
Norman Botnick - strings
Emil Briano - strings
John Peter Devoogdt - strings


Notes:

In September of 1967, Liberty Records released the album "Listen!" by Gary Lewis. 

With the guidance of producers Andrew Sandoval and Steve Stanley, and the 1960s sunshine pop orchestrations of Jack Nitzsche and Hank Levine, Gary's solo album has gone mostly overlooked for decades. It may be partly due to Gary being called to duty in the military during the recording of this project and by the time he got back home, things had moved on in the fast evolving music world of late-60s Los Angeles. Even then, many consider "Listen!" to be his best work to date.

This album had also not been reissued on compact disc until the U.K. company Now Sounds released it September 7, 2010 with 26 digitally remastered songs including bonus tracks.

Listen To "Listen!" on YouTube: