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Just Sings
This recording is not available via iTunes.
To buy this recording from Amazon.com, click here: Just Sings
__________________________________________________
JERRY LEWIS
JUST SINGS
They laugh when Jerry Lewis steps up to the microphone…and they’ve laughed so long and so hard and so well, his talent as a singer has remained the best kept secret in show business!
This time no gags. No funny bits. No mugging. Jerry steps up to the Decca recording mike…the able Mr. Bregman gives the downbeat…and the rest…well, listen for yourself!
Jerry invests these wonderful “standards” with a magic completely his own; the musical style, the sincerity, the rhythmic drive in his voice make you wonder why he hasn’t been heard long before this. But this oversight can be remedied right now. Pull up your easiest chair and relax…as Jerry Lewis, one of America’s truly great entertainers…just sings!
ORIGINAL NOTES (1956)
___________________________________________________
“Doing these recordings at Decca was one of the highlights of my career!! What fun!!”
Jerry Lewis
June 1995
___________________________________________________
COME RAIN OR COME SHINE
(Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer)
master #100713
B-side of Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody
SHINE ON YOUR SHOES
(Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz)
master #100722
HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON
(George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin)
master #100717
I’VE GOT THE WORLD ON A STRING
(Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler)
master #100719
ROCK-A-BYE YOUR BABY WITH A DIXIE MELODY
(Jean Schwartz/Joe Young/Sam Lewis)
master #100723
released as Decca single #30124
charted position: #10, debut: 11/24/56
BYE BYE BABY
(Jule Styne/Leo Robin)
master #100718
I’M SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD
(Ray Henderson/Joe Young)
master #100714
GET HAPPY
(Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler)
master #100720
BY MYSELF
(Howard Dietz/Arthur Schwartz)
master #100715
BACK IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD
(Dave Dreyer/Billy Rose/Al Jolson)
master #100712
SOMETIMES I’M HAPPY
(Vincent Youmans/Irving Caesar)
master #100716
BIRTH OF THE BLUES
(B.G. DeSylva/Ray Henderson/Lew Brown)
master #100721
Bonus Tracks:
IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOU
(Lew Brown/B.G. DeSylva/Ray Henderson)
master #101769
recorded 2/26/57
released as Decca single #30263
charted position: #68, debut: 4/27/57
LET ME SING AND I’M HAPPY
(Irving Berlin)
master #101768
recorded 2/26/57
B-side of It All Depends On You
MY MAMMY
(Walter Donaldson/Sam Lewis/Joe Young)
master #L10077
recorded 4/30/57
released as Decca single #30345
WITH THESE HANDS
(Abner Silver/Benny Davis)
master #L10052
recorded 4/24/57
B-side of My Mammy
ROCK-A-BYE FALSE STARTS
Tracks 1-12: Orchestra Directed by Buddy Bregman
Tracks 13-16: Orchestra Directed by Jack Pleis
Album originally released on Decca Records as DL-8410
Recorded 10/8/56, charted position: #3, debut: 12/22/56
All original album photos of Mr. Lewis, including cover, especially taken for this album by Bill Avery.
All chart positions refer to peak position on Billboard’s “Best Selling Pop Albums” and “Top 100” charts.
Reissue Director: Mike Ragogna
Thanks to Bruce Resnikoff, Kathy Hale, Rhonda Malmlund, Alexis Davis, Mitch Steele, Andy McKale, Brigid Pearson, Karl Marquardt, Joe Stabile, Dave Richman, Rob Kemp, Michael Weiner, Ashley Warren and Eliot Goshman.
Thank you very much to Jerry Lewis Films, Inc. and Frank Reda for their contributions to this reissue.
Special Thanks to Burt Goldstein.
___________________________________________________
Born into the biz as Joseph Levitch on March 16, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey, Jerry Lewis has proven to be a true American Renaissance Man; actor, director, writer, producer, singer, husband (first married to Esther “Patti Palmer” Calonico 1944 until 1980, then to SanDee “Sam” Pitnick since 1983), father (five sons, Ron, Scott, Chris, Anthony and singer Gary Lewis) and grandfather. His father, Danny, performed vaudeville (as Jerry puts it, “he was the total entertainer”), while his mother Rae played piano at New York City radio station WOR and was her husband’s arranger/musical director.
Jerry made his singing debut at age five, performing “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” at a hotel on New York’s Borscht Belt Circuit. By the time he was fifteen, he had perfected a comedy routine, miming and lip synching the lyrics of operatic and popular songs played on an off-stage phonograph.
Dressed in a drape jacket and pegged pants, Jerry then braved the offices of booking agents. When he finally got a gig, it was at a burlesque house in Buffalo, but it hardly turned out to be his big break. Discouraged and ready to give up, he was advised to continue his career by a veteran burlesque comedian, Max Coleman, who had worked with Jerry’s father years before. When Lewis tried out his mime act at Brown’s Hotel in upstate New York’s Catskill Mountains the following summer, the audience was so enthusiastic that Irving Kaye, another Borscht Belt comedian on the bill, helped the youth get further bookings.
In July 1946, Jerry began a show business partnership with Dean Martin, an association that would soon skyrocket both of them to fame. It all started when Jerry was performing at the 500 Club in Atlantic City and one of the other entertainers quit suddenly. Lewis, who had worked with Martin at the Glass Hat in New York City, suggested Dean as a replacement. At first, they worked separately, but then ad-libbed together, improvising insults and jokes, squirting seltzer water, hurling bunches of celery and exuding general zaniness. The team was an instant hit. In less than 18 weeks, their salaries soared from $250 a week to $5,000.
When the motion picture producer Hal Wallis saw the two perform at the Copacabana in New York City, he negotiated a contract for them with Paramount Pictures. Martin and Lewis made 16 hit movies together between My Friend Irma (1949) and Hollywood Or Bust (1956) and became the most successful duo in Hollywood. They also began recording together for Capitol Records in 1948. Their first 78 release was “The Money Song” b/w “That Certain Party” which was Lewis’ first musical appearance on vinyl. Martin continued recording solo (having had a successful recording career prior to this period), and Lewis began recording his own solo tracks, (including the 45 “If You Love Me Truly” b/w “Little Man You’ve Had A Big Day” which was a 1953 duet with wife Patti). In July ‘56, Martin & Lewis made their last nightclub appearance as a duo at the Copa, exactly ten years to the day they had become a team. From then on in every creative way possible, Lewis was constantly on the move.
Further exploring his musical talents with arranger Buddy Bregman, he recorded an album for Decca Records in 1956 packed with timeless classics like “Come Rain Or Come Shine,” “Birth Of The Blues,” and “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody.”
Simply titled, Jerry Lewis…Just Sings!, the LP reached #3 on the charts while its hit single “Rock-A-Bye…” reached #10, and has since sold nearly four million copies. Before releasing a follow-up album of popular standards entitled More Jerry Lewis (1957), Decca pressed up two more 45s of songs recorded during the More sessions. These tracks were never included on the album but appear on this collection as the bonus tracks, “It All Depends On You” (which charted at #68), its follow-up “My Mammy” and their respective B-sides “Let Me Sing And I’m Happy” and “With These Hands.”
Before leaving Decca, he released an album of songs for kids of all ages called Big Songs For Little People (1960). This album, minus three tracks, was later reissued as Songs For Children. Over the years, Jerry Lewis’ name would appear on many more records, including the Cinderella soundtrack on Dot Records (1960) and The Nagger (1963), a Capitol Records collection of 1951-53 single releases.
With increased confidence, Lewis ventured into screenwriting, directing and producing. In 1959, Jerry inked a $10 million movie deal with Paramount. At the time, it was the biggest single transaction in film history for the exclusive services of one star.
As a filmmaker, Lewis received enormous acclaim in Europe, winning Best Director of the Year award eight times. When “Hardly Working” opened in Paris in 1979, the marquee on the Champs Elysees simply read JERRY. No further explanation was necessary for Lewis’ fans. The French film critic, Robert Benayoun, wrote, “I consider Jerry Lewis to be the foremost comic artist of the time. He corresponds to his era both reflecting and criticizing civilization.” The London Times stated, “Quite apart from his gifts as a performer, Mr. Lewis is one of the best directors working in America today.”
Over the years, Jerry Lewis scored triumphs in stage appearances in Europe, where he has been hailed as one of the premier comedians of the 20th century. “Jerry Lewis is a man for all seasons, all people and all times. His name has, in the hearts of millions, become synonymous with peace, love and brotherhood.” With those words, Congressman Les Aspin concluded his nomination of Jerry Lewis for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977, making Lewis the first entertainer to be so honored, (though he lost to Amnesty International). His Labor Day telethon raises millions every year for the fight against muscular dystrophy, and is now a part of American culture.
Lewis has also served as a professor at the University of Southern California, where he taught a graduate course in film direction. “The Total Film-Maker,” a book based on his classroom lectures, was published by Random House in 1971. Between films, he found time to write his autobiography, “Jerry Lewis in Person,” written with author Herb Gluck.
After a brief stint in 1977’s touring musical “Hellzapoppin” (after which he said, “Goodbye Broadway, see you another day”), he finally appeared on the Broadway stage with a vengeance in the 1995 production of “Damn Yankees” which received glowing reviews and packed the theater on a nightly basis.
In light of all his achievements, awards and critical praise, he most values the words engraved on a plaque given to him by President John F. Kennedy: “There are three things that are real…God, human folly and laughter. Since the first two are beyond our comprehension, we must do the best we can to find the third.”
June 1995
___________________________________________________
MCA
RAZOR & TIE
(P) 1995 MCA Records, Inc., Universal City, CA 91608. © 1995 Razor & Tie Music, L.P., PO Box 585, Cooper Station, New York, NY 10276. WARNING: Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.
REC 2079
MSC-35830
To buy this recording from Amazon.com, click here: Just Sings
__________________________________________________JERRY LEWIS
JUST SINGS
They laugh when Jerry Lewis steps up to the microphone…and they’ve laughed so long and so hard and so well, his talent as a singer has remained the best kept secret in show business!
This time no gags. No funny bits. No mugging. Jerry steps up to the Decca recording mike…the able Mr. Bregman gives the downbeat…and the rest…well, listen for yourself!
Jerry invests these wonderful “standards” with a magic completely his own; the musical style, the sincerity, the rhythmic drive in his voice make you wonder why he hasn’t been heard long before this. But this oversight can be remedied right now. Pull up your easiest chair and relax…as Jerry Lewis, one of America’s truly great entertainers…just sings!
ORIGINAL NOTES (1956)
___________________________________________________
“Doing these recordings at Decca was one of the highlights of my career!! What fun!!”
Jerry Lewis
June 1995
___________________________________________________
COME RAIN OR COME SHINE
(Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer)
master #100713
B-side of Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody
SHINE ON YOUR SHOES
(Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz)
master #100722
HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON
(George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin)
master #100717
I’VE GOT THE WORLD ON A STRING
(Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler)
master #100719
ROCK-A-BYE YOUR BABY WITH A DIXIE MELODY
(Jean Schwartz/Joe Young/Sam Lewis)
master #100723
released as Decca single #30124
charted position: #10, debut: 11/24/56
BYE BYE BABY
(Jule Styne/Leo Robin)
master #100718
I’M SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD
(Ray Henderson/Joe Young)
master #100714
GET HAPPY
(Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler)
master #100720
BY MYSELF
(Howard Dietz/Arthur Schwartz)
master #100715
BACK IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD
(Dave Dreyer/Billy Rose/Al Jolson)
master #100712
SOMETIMES I’M HAPPY
(Vincent Youmans/Irving Caesar)
master #100716
BIRTH OF THE BLUES
(B.G. DeSylva/Ray Henderson/Lew Brown)
master #100721
Bonus Tracks:
IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOU
(Lew Brown/B.G. DeSylva/Ray Henderson)
master #101769
recorded 2/26/57
released as Decca single #30263
charted position: #68, debut: 4/27/57
LET ME SING AND I’M HAPPY
(Irving Berlin)
master #101768
recorded 2/26/57
B-side of It All Depends On You
MY MAMMY
(Walter Donaldson/Sam Lewis/Joe Young)
master #L10077
recorded 4/30/57
released as Decca single #30345
WITH THESE HANDS
(Abner Silver/Benny Davis)
master #L10052
recorded 4/24/57
B-side of My Mammy
ROCK-A-BYE FALSE STARTS
Tracks 1-12: Orchestra Directed by Buddy Bregman
Tracks 13-16: Orchestra Directed by Jack Pleis
Album originally released on Decca Records as DL-8410
Recorded 10/8/56, charted position: #3, debut: 12/22/56
All original album photos of Mr. Lewis, including cover, especially taken for this album by Bill Avery.
All chart positions refer to peak position on Billboard’s “Best Selling Pop Albums” and “Top 100” charts.
Reissue Director: Mike Ragogna
Thanks to Bruce Resnikoff, Kathy Hale, Rhonda Malmlund, Alexis Davis, Mitch Steele, Andy McKale, Brigid Pearson, Karl Marquardt, Joe Stabile, Dave Richman, Rob Kemp, Michael Weiner, Ashley Warren and Eliot Goshman.
Thank you very much to Jerry Lewis Films, Inc. and Frank Reda for their contributions to this reissue.
Special Thanks to Burt Goldstein.
___________________________________________________
Born into the biz as Joseph Levitch on March 16, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey, Jerry Lewis has proven to be a true American Renaissance Man; actor, director, writer, producer, singer, husband (first married to Esther “Patti Palmer” Calonico 1944 until 1980, then to SanDee “Sam” Pitnick since 1983), father (five sons, Ron, Scott, Chris, Anthony and singer Gary Lewis) and grandfather. His father, Danny, performed vaudeville (as Jerry puts it, “he was the total entertainer”), while his mother Rae played piano at New York City radio station WOR and was her husband’s arranger/musical director.
Jerry made his singing debut at age five, performing “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” at a hotel on New York’s Borscht Belt Circuit. By the time he was fifteen, he had perfected a comedy routine, miming and lip synching the lyrics of operatic and popular songs played on an off-stage phonograph.
Dressed in a drape jacket and pegged pants, Jerry then braved the offices of booking agents. When he finally got a gig, it was at a burlesque house in Buffalo, but it hardly turned out to be his big break. Discouraged and ready to give up, he was advised to continue his career by a veteran burlesque comedian, Max Coleman, who had worked with Jerry’s father years before. When Lewis tried out his mime act at Brown’s Hotel in upstate New York’s Catskill Mountains the following summer, the audience was so enthusiastic that Irving Kaye, another Borscht Belt comedian on the bill, helped the youth get further bookings.
In July 1946, Jerry began a show business partnership with Dean Martin, an association that would soon skyrocket both of them to fame. It all started when Jerry was performing at the 500 Club in Atlantic City and one of the other entertainers quit suddenly. Lewis, who had worked with Martin at the Glass Hat in New York City, suggested Dean as a replacement. At first, they worked separately, but then ad-libbed together, improvising insults and jokes, squirting seltzer water, hurling bunches of celery and exuding general zaniness. The team was an instant hit. In less than 18 weeks, their salaries soared from $250 a week to $5,000.
When the motion picture producer Hal Wallis saw the two perform at the Copacabana in New York City, he negotiated a contract for them with Paramount Pictures. Martin and Lewis made 16 hit movies together between My Friend Irma (1949) and Hollywood Or Bust (1956) and became the most successful duo in Hollywood. They also began recording together for Capitol Records in 1948. Their first 78 release was “The Money Song” b/w “That Certain Party” which was Lewis’ first musical appearance on vinyl. Martin continued recording solo (having had a successful recording career prior to this period), and Lewis began recording his own solo tracks, (including the 45 “If You Love Me Truly” b/w “Little Man You’ve Had A Big Day” which was a 1953 duet with wife Patti). In July ‘56, Martin & Lewis made their last nightclub appearance as a duo at the Copa, exactly ten years to the day they had become a team. From then on in every creative way possible, Lewis was constantly on the move.
Further exploring his musical talents with arranger Buddy Bregman, he recorded an album for Decca Records in 1956 packed with timeless classics like “Come Rain Or Come Shine,” “Birth Of The Blues,” and “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody.”
Simply titled, Jerry Lewis…Just Sings!, the LP reached #3 on the charts while its hit single “Rock-A-Bye…” reached #10, and has since sold nearly four million copies. Before releasing a follow-up album of popular standards entitled More Jerry Lewis (1957), Decca pressed up two more 45s of songs recorded during the More sessions. These tracks were never included on the album but appear on this collection as the bonus tracks, “It All Depends On You” (which charted at #68), its follow-up “My Mammy” and their respective B-sides “Let Me Sing And I’m Happy” and “With These Hands.”
Before leaving Decca, he released an album of songs for kids of all ages called Big Songs For Little People (1960). This album, minus three tracks, was later reissued as Songs For Children. Over the years, Jerry Lewis’ name would appear on many more records, including the Cinderella soundtrack on Dot Records (1960) and The Nagger (1963), a Capitol Records collection of 1951-53 single releases.
With increased confidence, Lewis ventured into screenwriting, directing and producing. In 1959, Jerry inked a $10 million movie deal with Paramount. At the time, it was the biggest single transaction in film history for the exclusive services of one star.
As a filmmaker, Lewis received enormous acclaim in Europe, winning Best Director of the Year award eight times. When “Hardly Working” opened in Paris in 1979, the marquee on the Champs Elysees simply read JERRY. No further explanation was necessary for Lewis’ fans. The French film critic, Robert Benayoun, wrote, “I consider Jerry Lewis to be the foremost comic artist of the time. He corresponds to his era both reflecting and criticizing civilization.” The London Times stated, “Quite apart from his gifts as a performer, Mr. Lewis is one of the best directors working in America today.”
Over the years, Jerry Lewis scored triumphs in stage appearances in Europe, where he has been hailed as one of the premier comedians of the 20th century. “Jerry Lewis is a man for all seasons, all people and all times. His name has, in the hearts of millions, become synonymous with peace, love and brotherhood.” With those words, Congressman Les Aspin concluded his nomination of Jerry Lewis for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977, making Lewis the first entertainer to be so honored, (though he lost to Amnesty International). His Labor Day telethon raises millions every year for the fight against muscular dystrophy, and is now a part of American culture.
Lewis has also served as a professor at the University of Southern California, where he taught a graduate course in film direction. “The Total Film-Maker,” a book based on his classroom lectures, was published by Random House in 1971. Between films, he found time to write his autobiography, “Jerry Lewis in Person,” written with author Herb Gluck.
After a brief stint in 1977’s touring musical “Hellzapoppin” (after which he said, “Goodbye Broadway, see you another day”), he finally appeared on the Broadway stage with a vengeance in the 1995 production of “Damn Yankees” which received glowing reviews and packed the theater on a nightly basis.
In light of all his achievements, awards and critical praise, he most values the words engraved on a plaque given to him by President John F. Kennedy: “There are three things that are real…God, human folly and laughter. Since the first two are beyond our comprehension, we must do the best we can to find the third.”
June 1995
___________________________________________________
MCA
RAZOR & TIE
(P) 1995 MCA Records, Inc., Universal City, CA 91608. © 1995 Razor & Tie Music, L.P., PO Box 585, Cooper Station, New York, NY 10276. WARNING: Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.
REC 2079
MSC-35830
