Debuted #88 week-ending April 3, 1965, “Count Me In” peaks at #2 (2 weeks) on the Hot 100, week-ending, May 8, 1965. Having charted 11 weeks overall — on its final week on Billboard, the single drops out at #39 for the week-ending, June 12, 1965.
_______________
Source: The Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Charts [1965] Billboard Top Pop Singles
Audio digitally remastered by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
Debuted #62 week-ending January 16, 1965, “This Diamond Ring” peaks at #1 (2 weeks) on the Hot 100, week-ending, February 27, 1965. Having charted 12 weeks overall — on its final week on Billboard, the single drops out at #23 for the week-ending, April 3, 1965.
_______________
Source: The Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Charts [1965] Billboard Top Pop Singles
Audio digitally remastered by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
Gary Lewis a Star On First Disk
NEW YORK — It’s a lot easier for interviewers nowadays, with all these second generation show biz youngsters like Gary Lewis taking over. (Indeed, youngsters in general.) You have your stet questions—with a 19-year-old you can’t talk rack jobbing, you can’t rummage his past, you can’t ask him how he handles drunks in night clubs, etc.
You meet a Gary Lewis, son of comedian Jerry Lewis ( the biggest thing to hit Paramount Pictures since Cecil B. De-Mille and the bathtub scene), and a lad whose first record, “This Diamond Ring” (with his vocal-instrumental group, the Playboys), climbed to No.1 nationally, and it’s still early enough to ask:
Question: How did the record come about?
Answer: Snuff Garrett, my A&R man at Liberty Records, met Dad and hoped to sell him on a record idea he’d had for along time. But Dad’s film schedule was too heavy, so he suggested that our group might interest Snuff. My mother acted as our agent and financed the recording session for “This Diamond Ring”.
Question: How did your group get together?
Answer: I’d had a set of drums for about five years, but I didn’t started playing them in earnest until about a year ago. I was attending the Pasadena Playhouse at the time, and pretty soon I was joined by A1Ramsay, on bass guitar; John R. West, cordavox; Dave Walker and Dave Costell, guitarists.They were all from Pasadena. We played parties and then spent a good deal of last summer performing at Disneyland.
Question: Has it been easier to make the grade having a famous and influential father?
Answer: It’s been harder, I think. Maybe he could open a door for us but then we really had to show something. People would think, oh, he’s Jerry Lewis’ son—what does he think he can do? Then we were really on our own. (The answers sound as familiar as the questions after a while.)
Question: How does your father feel about your entering show business?
Answer: He approves. My Dad gives me advice and counsel more as a father than as a performer. This makes it rather easy because when he’s home he’s “Dad” and on the screen he’s Jerry Lewis the movie star.
Question: What next?
Answer: Well, we did a movie some time ago at Universal called “Swingin’ Summer” that is just coming out. And I’m going back to the Coast now to do a cameo role in Dad’s current film, “The Family Jewels.” We’ll do part of a musical number for this sight gag bit Dad has dreamed up for us. Incidentally, Dad plays seven different people in this picture, and they all get together in one scene! We’re also doing a Dick Clark road tour and more TV.
(Gary had just done the Ed Sullivan Show” and was wondering how all the teens who had been phoning and dropping by had found out where he was staying while visiting New York. Then he remembered he had signed an autograph for a teen-age female at the Sullivan theater on the only thing he had available: a matchbook from the Americana Hotel.)
Question: Have you done any other films?
Answer: Yes, several years ago I sang “The Land of La La La” in my father’s “Rock-A-Bye Baby.”
Question: Have you studied acting?
Answer: Yes, at the Pasadena Playhouse, where I did things like “Mourning Becomes Electra.” I think they’ve helped prepare me, too.
Question: Do you want to be a comedian?
Answer: I’d have to be awfully good, or have a completely different style from my father’s. I don’t know. Everyone says my seven-year-old brother, Chris, will be the next comedian in the family. (There are six Lewis children, all boys. Gary’s the oldest.)
Question: What are your latest records?
Answer: The album, “This Diamond Ring,” and the new single, “Count Me In.”
He’s a likeable individual, flexible of slender face and body, quick to smile with a natural propensity toward clowning, resembling Jerry a few pounds ago when he first came along in those “My Friend Irma” movies but with enough embryo Gary to speak well for his future. He moves a lot in his hotel suite, from couch to chair to phone table to wall, like a kind of an itch.
The same kind of itch, perhaps, that brought the five-year-old Jerry Lewis to a borscht belt stage singing “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” Hmmm. Son Gary’s first hit was “This Diamond Ring.” Yes, times have certainly grown easier for everyone, especially now that things are looking up for Gary Lewis. END
_______________
Information, credit and news source: Record World, April 3, 1965
In U.K., Gordy Slated to Personally Pitch Detroit for Beatles’ Second North American Tour
Detroit — Teenagers here may still be able to see the Beatles “in person” this summer.
International Talent Management Incorporated (ITMI), the booking agency arm of Detroit’s Motown Record Corporation, will attempt to add an appearance in Detroit to the tentative schedule already announced for the British foursome’s second American tour, which begins later in the year, Aug. 15. Berry Gordy Jr., Motown President, is currently in London and will meet with Beatles manager Brian Epstein to this end.
During their first visit to Detroit last September, the Beatles named many Motown recording artists, including the Miracles, the Supremes, as their personal favorite performers. The Beatles have also recorded many of the songs which had first reached popularity as recordings by Motown artists.
A spokesman for ITMI said, “If we are able to bring the Beatles to Detroit, it will be Motown’s way of saying ‘Thank you’ to Detroit; and to the teenagers of Detroit, for the constant support that they have given to Detroit’s recording artists.” END
_______________
Information, credit and source (as published): Record World, April 3, 1965
_______________
NEW! A special THANK YOU to Jason Belmont of Southfield, MI., for recently donating this WMXD aircheck gem from 25 years ago.
Audio recording was digitally enhanced by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
_______________
Debuted January 24, 1970. Peaked #8 R&B (1 week). “Give Me Just A Little More Time” charts 13 total weeks overall in the Billboard R&B Singles chart. B/side: “Since The Days Of Pigtails And Fairy Tales”
Source: Billboard Top R&B Singles [2004 Edition]
_______________
Debuted January 17, 1970. Peaked #1 R&B (1 week). “Rainy Night In Georgia” charts 14 total weeks overall in the Billboard R&B Singles chart. B/side: “Where Do I Go From Here”
Source: Billboard Top R&B Singles [2004 Edition]
_______________
Debuted March 21, 1970. Peaked #1 R&B (2 weeks). “Turn Back The Hands Of Time” charts 14 total weeks overall in the Billboard R&B Singles chart. B/side: “I Keep Coming Back”
Source: Billboard Top R&B Singles [2004 Edition]
_______________
Debuted March 21, 1970. Peaked #9 R&B, “Love Or Let Me Be Lonely” charts 13 total weeks overall in the Billboard R&B Singles charts. B/side: “This Generation”
Source: Billboard Top R&B Singles [2004 Edition]
The English Group, whose leader, — “the one with the tooth” — is only 17, has themselves a smash, and another on the way — Music Business
IT JUST FIT. “I mean–Hermit fits so well with Herman, that there was nothing more to it. We became Herman’s Hermits. And just in case you don’t know who I am, I’m Herman-the one with the tooth. Actually, my real name is Peter Blair Dennis Bernard Noone. It’s really a bit much. Herman’s so much easier, don’t you think?”
Sometimes Herman plays a little piano. Other times he claps a bit. Most times he makes hit records, like “I’m Into Something Good”, and now “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat”. There was also a record called “Show Me Girl”, which was never released here, but nonetheless hit the British charts.
Herman is only 17–honest, it’s no publicity gimmick. But already he and the Hermits have made one trip to the U.S., and he’s due back again next month to go out with the group as special guest stars on the Dick Clark package.
ALMOST AN ACTOR. At one time he was going to be an actor. He even got roles in two television shows, and appeared in two children’s plays, but since he became a singer, he’s given up all thoughts of pursuing an acting career. “I didn’t like the people anyway”, he says. “On the other hand, of course, if it would be a movie, then that’s something else.
“I believe there’s a possibility of a film for MGM as soon as a suitable script can be found. I’d like a dramatic role, and it has to be a supporting one. A starring part would be a little beyond me right now.”
Herman, who is fascinated by such unlikely things as Afghanistan steaks and launderettes (he would like to open a cross country chain of them when he’s made enough money), was a little uncertain about the success of his first record, “I’m Into Something Good”, released here on MGM.
KNOCKED OUT. “I felt sick when I first heard it. I went flat on one of the notes in the song. Wanted to go over it again, but when I discovered it would be another four hour session, we had to leave it as it was. Because we weren’t confident about it was why we were so knocked out when it happened”. (The record stayed at the top of the British charts for three weeks, and went top twenty here).
Herman had more faith in his second British release, “Show Me Girl”, but said he realized why it didn’t get higher than 20 in their charts, when he heard it on the radio for the first time. It was never released here. Instead, MGM came out with “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat”, his current smash. Strangely enough, this record has been covered for England by an American group, “Goldie and the Gingerbreads”, and is their first hit in the British charts. However, Herman’s recording of it was never released over there, and he and his group are happily holding down the current number 4 slot with “Silhouettes”.
With all these records flying about, even Herman could be forgiven for getting a little confused. But what do you do, when, having experienced success in two different countries, with a variety of different discs, you have the added problem of a hit track from your first L.P.
MRS. BROWN TRACK. “Introducing Herman’s Hermits”, came out here a little more than a month ago. Already in the top hundred, just last week a flush of radio stations all over the country, decided to lay on “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter” and use it as a single track on their station playlists. MGM is now faced with the dilemma of whether or not this track should be issued as the group’s new single. At press time there had been no definite decision, but it would seem like a good idea.
Getting back to the group, Herman’s Hermits present line up has been together about six months. They were called the Heartbeats and playing the local Manchester, England, scene, when Herman joined them, and had a pretty big following even then.
Herman’s name is derived from a British TV series called “The Bullwinkle Show”. In it, there’s a character called Sherman, who bears a strange resemblance to Peter Noone. The Heartbeats mistook the name, called their new lead singer Herman, and changed their name to the Hermits.
Their record producer is Mickie Most, who signed them after having traveled North especially to watch one of their concerts. The rest of the group comprises of Karl Green (bass guitar), Derek Leckenby (lead and rhythm guitar), Barry Whitwarn (drums) and Keith Hopwood (lead and rhythm guitar).
DECIDED IDEAS. Herman has very decided ideas on lots of things. Speaking frankly, a little while after his first hit, he said “Of course our initial success has knocked us out, and the extra money has been very useful. But I’m jealous of ne groups that keep cropping up. They make things harder”.
Herman says that he loves what he’s seen of show business, and never wants to leave it. Realizing that trends are forever changing, he says he hopes he and the Hermits will always be able to adapt their style to fit in accordingly.
He’s looking forward tremendously to his next trip here, next month, and figures that although the Dick Clark tour is going to be pretty exhausting, the experience, and exposure will be worth it.
“I mean, it’s great to be the first ever British group on a Dick Clark package”, he says. “We hear so much about it in England, and how successful it is, that it’s a terrific honor to be invited to go on it. Of course, we’ve worked and traveled with American acts at home, but traveling in the U.S. will help us get a real feel for their music, and ours. It’s also encouraging to know that this is known as a very successful show, which makes it all the better”. END
_______________
Information, credit and news source: Music Business, March 27, 1965
