Smiley Lewis & Dave Bartholomew ~ 109 years later

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Smiley Lewis     

date & photographer unknown 

 

Today is the birthday of New Orleans rhythm and blues singer and guitarist, Overton Amos Lemons, better known as Smiley Lewis, born on July 5, 1913, in DeQuincy, LA. He played clubs in the French Quarter there, often with pianist Tuts Washington (and was sometimes billed as "Smiling" Lewis).   

 

Dave Bartholomew, grew up in the same neighborhood as Lewis and was then beginning a career as a producer with Imperial Records, this led to a recording session for the trio in March 1950, at which they recorded the song Tee Nah Nah. Lewis had his first national hit song with The Bells Are Ringing in 1952.   

Lewis was the first to record Bartholomew's song Blue Monday, in 1954; the Fats Domino recording of the song was a hit two years later. In 1955 Lewis achieved his biggest sales with I Hear You Knocking, the first recording of the song (written by Bartholomew and Pearl King), with Huey "Piano" Smith on piano.        

 

None of Lewis's Imperial singles sold more than 100,000 copies, but cover versions of his songs were commercially successful for other artists.     

 

 Dave Bartholomew Band 

date & photographer unknown

 

The Elvis Presley cover of the Lewis song One Night (which altered one risque lyric) was number 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on UK Singles Chart. I love this song with its klink-klink-klink piano beat that makes the song smoothly glide along, in spite of the bouncy rhythm, while Presley does what he does best.    

 

Lewis's recording of I Hear You Knocking was released when U.S. radio was still mostly marketed to exclusively white or exclusively black listeners. A version of Knocking, his first solo hit, reached number one in the UK and number four in the United States; it was recorded by Dave Edmunds in 1970, in this version, Lewis is mentioned in the lyrics, along with Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Huey "Piano" Smith. The Gale Storm pop version of I Hear You Knocking reached the top five on the charts (link below).            

Lewis's recording of Shame, Shame, Shame was used in the soundtrack of the film Baby Doll in 1956. The song failed to enter the R&B chart. It was covered by the Merseybeats for their EP On Stage in 1964 and Aerosmith included it on their blues album, Honkin' on Bobo, released in 2004. The song also provided the title of the fifth episode of the HBO television series Treme, which included a rewritten version of the song with lyrics critical of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.     

A short clip from I Hear You Knocking is included on the Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman novelty hit, The Flying Saucer (link below), in which, in an ironic nod to his original stage name, Lewis is referred to as "Laughing Lewis." Like everyone else whose music was appropriated for the record, Lewis was never paid.     

In 1975, Sylvia Robinson wrote a song with the same title performed by Shirley & Company, however, it was noting like the Lewis song. It is disco at it's best with a fantastic sax played by Seldon Powell! It was at the beginning of the disco era, so, what more can be said about that?

 

Lewis was hospitalized in 1965 with a diagnosis of ulcer; surgery revealed that he had stomach cancer. Bartholomew organized a benefit for him at La Ray's on Dryades Street. On October 7, 1966, three days before the benefit, Lewis died, in the arms of his second wife, Dorothy Ester Lemons, whom he had married six months before.         

 

Lewis was inducted into the Cleveland, Ohio, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Charles & Art Neville of The Neville Brothers in 1991.        

      

     

      

     

     

     

Viewfinder links:       

         

Aerosmith       

Dave Bartholomew         

Chuck Berry          

Buchanan & Goodman ~ The Flying Saucer          

Fats Domino        

Coleman Hawkins         

Smiley Lewis        

Smiley Lewis ~ Shame, Shame, Shame        

Elvis Presley        

Gale Storm ~ I Hear You Knocking         

Tuts Washington             

Tennessee Williams          
     
YouTube links:       

        

Buchanan & Goodman ~ The Flying Saucer        

Fats Domino ~ I Hear You Knocking               

Smiley Lewis ~        

       I Hear You Knockin'      

       Shame, Shame, Shame       
Elvis Presley - One Night        

Huey Piano Smith ~ Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu   

Gale Storm ~ I Hear You Knocking        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, July 5, 2022        
        

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Music Notes

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