Smiley Lewis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Overton Amos Lemons |
| Also known as | Smiling Lewis |
| Born | (1913-07-05)July 5, 1913 DeQuincy, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | October 7, 1966(1966-10-07) (aged 53) New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Genres | Blues,New Orleans R&B |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals,guitar |
| Years active | 1930s–1960s |
Overton Amos Lemons (July 5, 1913 – October 7, 1966),[1] known asSmiley Lewis, was an AmericanNew Orleans rhythm and blues singer and guitarist. Themusic journalist Tony Russell wrote that "Lewis was the unluckiest man in New Orleans. He hit on a formula for slow-rocking, small-band numbers like 'The Bells Are Ringing' and 'I Hear You Knocking' only to haveFats Domino come up behind him with similar music with a more ingratiating delivery. Lewis was practically drowned in Domino's backwash."[2]
Lemons was born inDeQuincy, Louisiana, a rural hamlet nearLake Charles, to Jeffrey and Lillie Mae Lemons. He was the second of three sons.[3] His mother died while he was a child, and later he named a song[4] and several automobiles after her. In his mid-teens, he hopped a slow-movingfreight train with some friends, who jumped off when the train began to speed up. Lewis alone remained on the train, getting off when it reached its stop in New Orleans. He found boarding with a white family in theIrish Channel neighborhood and eventually adopted theirsurname,Lewis.[5]
He began playing clubs in theFrench Quarter and integrated "tan bars" in the Seventh Ward, at times billed asSmiling Lewis, a variation of thenickname earned by his lack offront teeth. He was often accompanied by the pianistIsidore "Tuts" Washington, with whom he played in Thomas Jefferson's Dixieland band in the mid-1930s. When the band dissolved, Lewis began playing in clubs, earning only tips.[6]
Lewis married Leona Robinson in 1938. The couple lived with her mother until they began having children, when they moved to South Tonti Street, while Lewis worked at manual labor during the day and performed at night. DuringWorld War II, he joined Washington again, this time with Kid Ernest Molière's band, entertaining soldiers stationed atFort Polk, outsideLeesville, Louisiana, and serving as the house band at the Boogie Woogie Club. The two formed a trio with thedrummer Herman Seals after the war ended and again began playing in clubs in the French Quarter and alongBourbon Street.
The trio was invited by David Braun to record a session for his DeLuxe Records in 1947, which produced Lewis's debut record, "Here Comes Smiley"[7] (Papa John Joseph replaced Seals and playedbass at this session). The single "Turn On Your Volume" was a localjukebox hit, but DeLuxe requested no more material and left two other recorded sides unreleased. An invitation fromDave Bartholomew, who grew up in the same neighborhood as Lewis and was then beginning a career as aproducer withImperial Records, led to a recording session for the trio in March 1950, at which they recorded the song "Tee Nah Nah". Lewis had his first nationalhit song with "The Bells Are Ringing" in 1952. He was the first to record Bartholomew's song "Blue Monday", in 1954;Fats Domino's recording of the song was a hit two years later.[8][5] In 1955 he achieved his biggest sales with "I Hear You Knocking", the first recording of the song (written by Bartholomew and Pearl King), withHuey Smith playing the piano.[9]
In an attempt prompted by Imperial Records presidentLew Chudd to attract new record buyers in 1957, Lewis recordedpop andcountry songs. The experiment failed and did nothing to boost Lewis's declining record sales, and he was released from the label. In the early 1960s he performed as an opening act for new performers, includingLee Dorsey,Irma Thomas, andErnie K-Doe, for which he was paid little; he arrived at gigs by taking a city bus. His career rounded out with a brief stint atOkeh Records in 1961 that consisted of one 45-rpm single, produced byBill "Hoss" Allen in 1964 forDot Records, and ended with a re-recording of "The Bells Are Ringing" for Loma Records, produced byAllen Toussaint.
Lewis was hospitalized in 1965 with a diagnosis ofulcer; surgery revealed that he hadstomach 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.
None of Lewis's Imperial singles sold more than 100,000 copies, but cover versions of his songs were commercially successful for other artists.[9]Gale Storm's pop version of "I Hear You Knocking" reached the top five on the charts.[10]
Elvis Presley's cover of the Lewis song "One Night" (altering the ‘risqué’lyrics) was number 4 on the U.S.Billboard Hot 100chart and number 1 onUK Singles Chart.[11] 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.[12] A version of the song recorded byDave Edmunds in 1970 was his first solo hit, reachingnumber one in theUK[13] and number four in the United States;[14] in this version, Lewis is mentioned in the lyrics, along withChuck Berry,Fats Domino andHuey Smith.
Lewis's recording of "Shame, Shame, Shame" was used in thesoundtrack of the filmBaby Doll in 1956, accompanying a dramatic chase through a collapsing attic. The song failed to enter theR&B chart. It was covered by theMerseybeats for theirEPOn Stage in 1964.[1]Aerosmith included it on theirblues album,Honkin' on Bobo, released in 2004. The song also provided the title of the fifth episode of theHBO television seriesTreme, which included a rewritten version of the song with lyrics critical of the government's response toHurricane Katrina.
A short clip from "I Hear You Knocking" is included onBuchanan and Goodman's novelty hit, "The Flying Saucer", in which, in an ironic nod to his original stage name, Lewis is referred to as "Laughing Lewis." In 2019, "I Hear You Knocking" as recorded by Lewis, appeared inMartin Scorsese's epic-crime-drama "The Irishman" and is also present on its respectivesoundtrack album.[15]
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