Gary Lewis Profile
Gary Lewis is an American musician best known for being the leader of Gary Lewis & the Playboys. Lewis served as the band’s drummer, but singer-guitarist Dave Walker was the band’s frontman.
Gary Lewis Wiki
Full Name: Gary Harold Lee Levitch
Profession: Musician
Nationality: American
Education: to Available
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: 31 July 1946
Age / How Old is Gary Lewis?: 78 years old as of 2024
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California
Country: United States Of America
Height / How tall is Gary Lewis?: 5 feet 6 inches
Parents: Jerry Lewis (dad) and Patti Palmer (mom)
Wife: Donna Grow
Children: Not Available
Net Worth: $10 Million
Gary Lewis Personal Life, Family, Parents, and Wife
Lewis is 78 years old as of 2024. He was born on 31 July 1946 in Los Angeles, California, United States. Lewis stands at a height of 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m). Lewis is the son of Jerry Lewis and Patti Palmer, a singer. His mother, who was performing with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra at the time, intended to name him after her favorite actor, Cary Grant, but due to a clerical error, her son became “Gary.” In 1960, he was given a set of drums as a gift for his 14th birthday. He formed the band “Gary and the Playboys” with four friends when he was 18 years old.
Lewis referred to his bandmates as “playboys” in a joke about their tardiness to practice, and the name stuck. Lewis was the drummer, but singer-guitarist Dave Walker was the band’s frontman. Gary’s mother was quietly funding the band’s equipment purchases because they believed Gary’s father would not financially support the band. Gary met his half-sister Suzan Klienman on the nationally syndicated show Inside Edition, who had discovered through DNA testing results that they are related siblings, the children of comedian Jerry Lewis. Lewis lives in Rush, New York, with his family. Talking about his marriage life, Gary is currently married to Donna Grow – they wedded in the year 2003. Before that, he was married to Sara Jane Suzara from 1967 to 1970.
Gary Lewis Net Worth
Lewis has an estimated net worth of $10 Million.
Gary Lewis Gary Lewis & the Playboys
Garrett, seeing an opportunity to capitalize on the Lewis name, put the band into the studio to develop, with Gary’s mother still funding the project. Garrett pushed Lewis to improve his drumming ability, even hiring Buddy Rich to tutor him, and, more importantly, made Lewis the singer, and thus the focal point of the group. According to Lewis, his natural singing voice was not one of his strengths, so Garrett used overdubbing techniques in the studio to improve it.
On February 20, 1965, “This Diamond Ring” debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, catapulting Lewis to stardom. Lewis was named Cash Box magazine’s “Male Vocalist of the Year” in 1965. Aside from The Lovin’ Spoonful, the group was the only artist in the 1960s whose first seven Hot 100 releases all charted in the top ten.
In addition to “This Diamond Ring,” his hits include “Count Me In,” the only non-British Commonwealth record to reach the Hot 100’s top 10 on May 8, 1965 (number two); “Save Your Heart for Me” (number two); “Everybody Loves a Clown” (number four); “She’s Just My Style” (number three); “Sure Gonna Miss Her” (number nine); and “Green Grass” (number ten) (number eight). Lewis says he wrote “Everybody Loves a Clown” as a gift for his father’s birthday. He thought the song was too good to give as a gift, so he recorded it instead.
1966 to present;
By 1966, Lewis was solely singing, with Jim Keltner, among others, filling in on the drums. His career was put on hold when he joined the United States Army as a draftee in January 1967, and he served with the Eighth Army in Seoul, South Korea, during the Vietnam War, until 1968. Listen! was Lewis’s first solo album for Liberty Records, released in 1967.
Lewis has stated that he was hesitant to go to Vietnam, but that the Army was the time when he “grew up.” He returned to performing and recording, but he was unable to replicate his previous success, and the band’s five releases that year charted from 13th to 39th.
His musical career was later marketed as a “nostalgia act,” with appearances on his father’s Labor Day telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, including his father’s final telethon as host in 2010. Lewis released a new single, “You Can’t Go Back,” in January 2012.
Gary Lewis Alive
Lewis is still alive as of Janaury 2024.
Gary Lewis Songs
- Gary lewis & the playboys sure gonna miss her
- Autumn
- Doin’ The Flake
- Everybody Loves A Clown
- Face In A Crowd
- Girls In Love
- I Don’t Wanna Say Goodnight
- Jill
- Let’s Be More Than Friends
- Little Miss Go—go
- My Heart’s Symphony
- The Loser (with A Broken Heart)
- Tina
- She’s Just My Style
- Way Way Out
- When Summer Is Gone
- Where Will The Words Come From
- Without A Word Of Warning