Smiley Lewis

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Smiley Lewis (actually Overton Amos Lemons ; born July 5, 1913 in DeQuincy , Louisiana , † October 7, 1966 in New Orleans ), was an American blues and R&B singer, whose best-known hits I Hear You Knocking and One Night have been successfully covered by other artists.

Career

As a teenager, Lewis went to New Orleans to make music. Lewis - a good guitarist - appeared from 1946 as a trio with pianist Tuts Washington and drummer Herman Seal. "We were the hottest trio in town and played in all the major clubs in the French Quarter, " recalls Tuts. That did not go unnoticed by DeLuxe Records, and so the trio was invited to an acceptance test in 1947. The result was Turn On Your Volume Babe / Here Comes Smiley (DeLuxe 1099), which appeared in October 1947. With Love Is Like a Gamble / Swimming Blues (DeLuxe 1108) the follow-up single came out in November 1947, both dubbed "Smiling Lewis". Both songs - still without hit parade response - were composed by Leo Franks, a bartender from the French Quarter. Both singles show the typical boogie-woogie piano sound of Tuts Washington and the full shout voice of Lewis. DeLuxe then lost interest in Lewis.

Smiley Lewis got his next chance in March 1950 when the performer and producer Dave Bartholomew became aware of him. Bartholomew had just produced Fats Domino's first single The Fat Man and invited Lewis and his band to a session at Cosimo Matassa's studio . With the studio band as accompaniment, Tee Nah Nah / Lowdown (Imperial 5067) was created in March 1950 . The title gave him a breakthrough. He expanded his band to include Joe Harris (saxophone), Albert Fernandez (trumpet), James Provost (bass) and Buddy Williams (drums). In May, Louisiana Weekly even reported briefly on their tour outside of town and the jukebox success of Tee Nah Nah . Imperial Records therefore hastened to add two more recordings from the first studio session with Slide Me Down / Growing Old in June 1950 (Imperial 5072) - this time without success. After a few more unsuccessful singles, Imperial Records 'patience paid off when Bells Are Ringing became Lewis' first national hit parade in September 1952 with a # 10 (R&B chart). The subsequent high frequency of further single releases fell through again, including Blue Monday from March 1954. When his label colleague Fats Domino covered the song in December 1956 after more than two years, it made it # 1 on the R&B charts.

Smiley Lewis - I Hear You Knocking

Lewis' biggest hit didn't hit the market until July 1955 when I Hear You Knocking (with Huey "Piano" Smith on piano) rose to # 2 on the R&B charts. A few more failures followed until he reached # 11 with One Night (Of Sin) in March 1956. Even the attempt to score points with the country standard You Are My Sunshine failed. Imperial now lost patience and from 1958 only brought a few Smiley Lewis records onto the market. In September 1960, Imperial Records ended the ten-year record deal with Lewis. His producer and composer of most Lewis titles, Dave Bartholomew: “We just couldn't get Smiley going commercially. He always had the best song material, but outside of New Orleans his records hardly sold ”. In fact, Lewis hadn't sold more than 100,000 copies of a single single. Lewis was always in the shadow of his label colleague Fats Domino, who had a very similar style of music, recorded in the same recording studio and used the same backing band.

After changing labels twice, he finally landed at Loma Records, where he recorded The Bells Are Ringing again in December 1965 under producer Allen Toussaint . Already suffering from cancer, he was hospitalized shortly afterwards, where he died in October 1966.

Cover versions

Other performers achieved much greater success with some songs by Smiley Lewis. Fats Domino made Blue Monday a crossover hit with # 5 on the pop charts. I Hear You Knocking was successfully covered three times. Gale Storm's first record immediately made it to # 2 on the pop charts in October 1955, Fats Domino thus came to the bottom of the US pop charts in December 1961 (# 67), and in November 1970 it was in the version of Dave Edmunds to # 4 in the US pop charts and even to # 1 in England. Elvis Presley had One Night (Of Sin) defused in October 1958, brought his version, only dubbed One Night , to a US pop # 4 and British # 1 and achieved million-seller status. Shame, Shame, Shame was best known for the Hollywood film "Baby Doll" in 1957 and recorded by the Merseybeats in 1964.

Discography singles, selection

As "Smiling Lewis":

  • Turn On Your Volume Babe / Here comes Smiley (DeLuxe 1099), October 1947
  • Love Is Like a Gamble / Swimming Blues (DeLuxe 1108), November 1947

As Smiley Lewis:

  • Tee Nah Nah / Lowdown (Imperial 5067), March 1950
  • Slide Me Down / Growing Old (Imperial 5072), June 1950
  • Where Were You? / My Baby Was Right (Colony 110), 1950
  • Bea's Boogie / My Baby Was Right (Imperial 5124), October 1951
  • Bells Are Ringing / Lillie Mae (Imperial 5194), September 1952
  • It's so Peaceful / Gumbo Blues (Imperial 5208), December 1952
  • Big Mamou / Playgirl (Imperial 5234), May 1953
  • Caldonia's Party / Oh Baby (Imperial 5241), July 1953
  • Blue Monday / Down The Road (Imperial 5268), March 1954
  • I Love You For Sentimental Reasons / The Rocks (Imperial 5279), April 1954
  • Too Many Drivers At The Wheel / Ooh La La (Imperial 5316), February 1955
  • Jailbird / Farewell (Imperial 5325), February 1955
  • I Hear You Knocking / Bumpity Bump (Imperial 5356), July 1955
  • Queen Of Hearts / Come On (Imperial 5372), December 1955
  • One Night / Ain't Gonna Do It (Imperial 5380), March 1956
  • She Got Me Hook Line And Sinker / Please Listen To Me (Imperial 5389), May 1956
  • Someday You'll Want Me / Down Yonder We Go Ballin (Imperial 5404), October 1956
  • Shame, Shame, Shame / No No (Imperial 5418), November 1956
  • You Are My Sunshine / Sweeter Words (Imperial 5431), March 1957
  • Go On Fool / Gonna Jump And Shout (Imperial 5460), July 1957
  • Rootin 'Tootin' / I Can't Believe It (Imperial 5470), November 1957
  • Bad Luck Blues / School Days Are Back Again (Imperial 5478), December 1957
  • Last Night / Ain't Goin 'There No More (Imperial 5676), July 1960
  • Stormy Monday Blues / Tell Me Who (Imperial 5719), September 1960
  • Tore Up / I'm Coming Down With the Blues (Okeh 7146), 1962
  • I Wonder / Lookin 'For My Woman (Dot 16674), 1964

As "The Smiley Lewis Band":

  • The Bells Are Ringing (new recording) / Walkin 'The Girl (Loma 2024), December 1965

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jeff Hannusch, I Hear You Knockin ': The Sound of New Orleans rhythm and blues , 1987, p 248
  2. ↑ Jeff Hannusch, I Hear You Knockin ': The Sound of New Orleans rhythm and blues , 1987, p 249
  3. ↑ Jeff Hannusch, I Hear You Knockin ': The Sound Of New Orleans Rhythm and Blues , 1987, pp. 254 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Lewis, smiley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lemons, Overton Amos (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American blues and R&B singer
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH DeQuincy , Louisiana
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 1966
Place of death New Orleans , Louisiana