Thursday, April 28, 2016

Forgotten Music: The Story of Gary Lewis & the Playboys

Jerry's Kid: the Story of Gary Lewis & the Playboys

5 comments:

Deb said...

That was interesting, although so glowing it could have been written by Gary himself. And I have to respectfully disagree about the contention that the group used no session musicians. You can clearly hear Leon Russell's unique keyboard style on several of the Playboys' hits--particularly, "This Diamond Ring".

Jeff Meyerson said...

That is one bad look. I thought it was Myron Floren for a minute.

That said, their songs were catchy and I bought most of them.

What Deb said:

Garrett wanted to maximize the chances for a hit, so he insisted on using experienced session musicians for the overdubs, which included guitar and keyboard solos, additional bass and drum overdubs, and timpani. These musicians included Mike Deasy and Tommy Allsup on guitars, Leon Russell on keyboards, Joe Osborn on bass, and Hal Blaine on drums, members of the larger group known as The Wrecking Crew. Session singer Ron Hicklin did the basic vocal track.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Al Kooper co-write This Diamond Ring.
Leon Russell co-wrote Save Your Heart for Me and She's Just My Style.

Deb said...

I suspect those are not featured prominently on Leon's C.V.

/Saw him in concert once, circa 1980, and he and his then-wife, Mary, both appeared, well, let's be charitable and say impaired, and they yelled at each other frequently during the show.

Don Coffin said...

Jeff made the Al Koooper mention before I got here.

Did people actually dress like that? I'd rather *not* remember...