Lewis
FamilyName
LINDA GAIL LEWIS
shindig mix (1965)
as producer of "international affair," i am increasingly proud of the neglected talent which i sought in the suburban squalor of memphis, 1990. And equally proud of delivering, once found, linda gail lewis, unto an unsuspecting public--fully formed and supercharged--playing piano, and covering everything from nick lowe to gram parsons on a parisian record label she shared with the likes of johnny thunders. through one telephone call, i came to meet the woman and family whom i will always love. to describe the nights of chaos, work and laughter with a singular personality such as hers would be impossible; but nights spent with elvis impersonators, jerry lee lewis groupies (bonnie bakley, to name one), JERRY LEE LEWIS, AND learning to laugh at that which might render other mere mortals into jellyfish, will, i'm afraid, never repeat itself.
tpa
Ferriday, LA
daughter
Elmo and Mamie Lewis
sister
Jerry Lee
and
Frankie Jean Lewis
Wedding Bell Blues
Linda Gail Lewis has her own hell-raising past and is now on her eighth marriage. Raised in a strict, poverty-stricken family in Ferriday, Louisiana, she was married when she was 14 and her husband was 25.
He killed himself a year later for unknown reasons. "And my brother was so mean to me about it," she recalled. "He said, 'Well Linda, it's all because of you, I think!'"
But Jerry Lee was mostly generous to his sister, who was about 9 when he hit it big and started sharing the wealth with his family.
"We lived in a shack. My mother had two dresses, that's all she had. And we were very, very poor. As soon as my brother started making money, he immediately brought us a beautiful house, a beautiful brand new Fleetwood Cadillac, thousands of dollars' worth of clothes," Linda Gail said.
She was bitten by the showbiz bug around that time when she performed onstage during a show he headlined with Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins, singing the latter's "A White Sport Coat."
But the going got rough a few years later when word belatedly spread about Jerry Lee's 1957 marriage to their distant cousin Myra Gale Brown.
Linda Gail's school chums shunned her, which is why she got married -- so she could drop out. By 16 she had been married three times. She toured with her brother as a backing vocalist for 15 years and recorded a hit duets album with him in 1969.
She also found time to marry her brother's tour director (twice) and his band leader.
"I was brought up to think that if you're going to be with someone you should be married to them, and I was very lonely and a hopeless romantic and just looking for love and trying to be happy," she said.
husbandsBobby Goza
Jim Bushland
Cecil Harrelson (twice)
Kenny Lovelace
Brent Dolan
Robert Ellis (aka Bobby Memphis)
Eddie Braddock...
?
children
Cecil Jr.
Mary Jean
Annie
OliverLinda Gail Lewis is the younger sister of one of music's great performers, Jerry Lee Lewis. After decades of lingering in his shadow, she finally achieved a measure of fame in 2000 with a critically acclaimed album of duets performed with Irish rocker Van Morrison. Living a life every bit as tumultuous as her piano-thumping brother's, Lewis has toured the world repeatedly, married eight times, nearly died from drug overdoses, and has fought the ongoing battle of family-versus-career. In the course of her musical career she has written and sung a variety of music, some good and some comically bad. Her style, which has embraced hard-core honky-tonk music, 1950s rock'n'roll, and touches of Memphis soul, has made her a favorite in Europe.Like her brother Jerry Lee, Linda Gail Lewis soaked up the sounds of hillbilly music and rhythm and blues in the rural areas of Ferriday and Black River, Louisiana. Although the Lewis family was poor, they always had enough to eat because of father Elmo Lewis's skill at farming. When Jerry Lee began to score hits with "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire" in 1957, he singlehandedly lifted the family from dire poverty to a life of relative ease. "Jerry shared everything he had with us," Linda Gail remarked in a personal interview. "He'd call my mama up and say, 'Mama, I want you and daddy and Frankie Jean and Linda Gail to have everything that I have.' And we did!. ... I don't know how many people would say that. He meant it too." Linda Gail's chief inspiration was Jerry Lee, but later, as the era of rock'n'roll came into play, she also tuned into the sounds of Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, and Lavern Baker. Like her famed elder brother, she was married many times, and her first marriages were at ages 14 and 15.
Toured with Brother
Lewis's official recording debut came when she performed as Jerry Lee's duet partner for Sun Records in 1963, where her defiantly off-key vocals turned their rendition of George Jones's "Seasons Of My Heart" into one of the worst records ever made. "I've gotten a lot of criticism for the vocals I did early on," Linda Gail said in an interview. "I hate to say it was a mistake to do it, because it is a part of history and something I remember in a fond way, but I wish I could've sung that song a little bit better."
As a teenager Lewis joined her brother on the road, playing in numerous tank towns and dives. Yet according to Lewis, her brother shielded her from the late night parties and exploits that were common to a touring rock'n'roll band. "Oh yeah, he did take care of me," she remarked. "He protected me.... I knew that after the gigs I wasn't welcome to be at these parties. I knew I was just going to be watching the late, late show if I was lucky enough for one to be on in my motel room."
Wolverton Mountain
The near-constant touring provided Lewis with valuable experience and a chance to sharpen her vocal skills, and resulted in a unique opportunity---a steady gig with the road company of ABC-TV's mid-1960s teenfest Shindig.
Don't Be Cruel (1965)
"It was great," remembered Lewis. "Jack Good [Shindig's producer] actually asked for me. My brother didn't have to give them the hard-sell and say 'Would you please have my sister on too?'"
Recorded with Jerry Lee Lewis
Lewis's first solo release, the ABC-Paramount single "Small Red Diary," sank into obscurity, as did a lone single for Columbia, a remake of LaVern Baker's "Jim Dandy." Meanwhile, Lewis made several duet appearances on her brother's b-sides and albums for Smash records. It was only after Jerry Lee mounted his late-1960s comeback via country music that Lewis was finally able to ride his coattails onto the charts. Recording with her brother, she scored her lone top ten country hit with a version of Carl and Pearl Butler's "Don't Let Me Cross Over. " A rousing duet remake of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven," a staple of her act, followed it onto the lower chart regions. The Lewis duo's 1969 Smash LP Together featured their rowdy duet style on a variety of country standards and rockers.
when you wore a tulip [duet w/jll]
This led to Lewis's debut solo album for the label, The Two Sides Of Linda Gail Lewis, a hard sung but poor-selling country album.
Son of a Preacher Man (1969)
In addition to composing material for her brother's top-selling Smash and Mercury discs, Lewis also garnered an ASCAP award for her song "Smile, Somebody Loves You," her only solo top 40 country hit. She was growing artistically, but her label did not seem to notice. "Nobody was really serious about my career," declared Lewis. The best pure country singles of her career, 1970's "Before The Snow Flies," which featured a rare appearance by brother Jerry Lee on rhythm guitar, and 1973's "I Wanna Be a Sensuous Woman," which she debuted on ABC-TV's In Concert, received no meaningful push from the label.
Mercury 73463
Linda Gail Lewis:
I Wanna Be A Sensuous Woman
While her recording career languished, Lewis toured almost non-stop as part of her brother's show. She twice married and divorced his best friend and road manager, Cecil Harrelson, and then married Jerry Lee's guitarist/fiddle player Kenny Lovelace, with whom she often wrote songs. The constant touring wreaked havoc on her relationship with her two children, and her drug use took a toll on her health. The drugs were prescribed by several physicians, none of whom knew she was under treatment by others. Lewis recalled that a mistake may have saved her life. "I slipped up by calling one doctor who found out about the other doctors---about three or four of 'em were giving me these things." Lewis was hospitalized as a result of her drug habit, and Jerry Lee picked up the tab, but her efforts to stay clean and sober alienated her from her brother. By 1977 she had had enough---she quit the act, married a man outside the music industry and started a new family.
Returned in the Late 1980s
After a hiatus of nearly ten years, Lewis returned to music in the late 1980s, touring briefly with Jerry Lee before belatedly going solo at age 39. Realizing that her brother's piano was an important facet of her public identity, Lewis taught herself to pound the keys in his style. The return to show business ended her marriage to her sixth husband and threw her into the arms of Robert Ellis (aka Bobby Memphis), a professional Elvis impersonator. The two played clubs throughout the mid-South before they bitterly parted company, and she then married former Stax promotion man Eddie Braddock.
Lewis finally caught a career break when the New Rose label in France released International Affair, her first solo album in 23 years . Well regarded by critics for its raw, openly country sound, the album did not get much distribution in the United States, but put the European rock community on notice that she was available for shows. Returning to Memphis in 1996, she recorded a strong mix of country songs tinged with rock 'n' roll for Icehouse, titled Love Makes the Difference, although few outside the south had access to the disc.hey baby
Lewis made her biggest splash outside the recording studio when she entertainingly chronicled her years on the road in a 1998 autobiography titled The Devil, Me, and Jerry Lee. The book showcases Lewis's genuine voice an d attitude, which is by turns catty, philosophic, salacious, and funny. Characterizing herself as a "spoiled little b***h," Lewis reveals sordid details of her eight marriages and dealings with her estranged children, few of whom describe her in a positive light. However, her memories of Jerry Lee provide the slim volume's high points. At the book's end, she poignantly portrays her brother as an aging rocker suffering the whims and financial machinations of his then-current wife, with the threatened removal of his only surviving son being a whip that was used to keep him in line.
The attention garnered by the book led to Lewis's self-titled 1999 album on Sire. Boasting higher production values than her previous discs, and including songs written by Motown legend Smokey Robinson, Sam Phillips's son Jerry Phillips, and Nashville firebrand Tim Krekel, the album represented Lewis's best solo work. However, the disc has yet to be released in America. "I don't know if they're ever going to release it in the states," said Lewis.
Linda Gail Lewis' Career
Professional country and rock 'n' roll singer and composer, best known for her work with brother Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records, 1963, and Smash and Mercury Records, 1964-74; recording debut, "Seasons of My Heart," with Jerry Lee Lewis, Sun Records, 1963; recorded single for ABC-Paramount, 1965, and for Columbia Records, 1967; took hiatus from record business, 1977-86; became solo artist, 1987; recorded for New Rose, Icehouse, and Sire, 1991-99; co-wrote autobiography, The Devil, Me, and Jerry Lee, 1998; recorded for Lantassi label, 2000-03; recorded album You Win Again with Van Morrison, 2000; with brother and as solo artist, guested on various television programs in U.S. and U.K.
Linda Gail Lewis's Awards
ASCAP Airplay Award for "Smile, Somebody Loves You," 1972;
inducted into Rockabilly Hall of Fame, 1998.
Famous
Works
ALBUMS
Cat No. Title Date Smash 67071 Country Songs For City Folks (JLL) - Linda on "North To Alaska" 1966 Smash 67104 Another Place, Another Time (JLL) - Linda on "We Live In Two Different Worlds" Apr-68 Smash 67117 Jerry Lee Lewis Sings The Country Music Hall of Fame Hits Vol 1. (JLL) - Linda on "Jackson" Apr-69 Smash 67118 Jerry Lee Lewis Sings The Country Music Hall of Fame Hits Vol 2. (JLL) - Linda on "Sweet Thang" Apr-69
LPSmash 67119 The Two Sides of Linda Gail Lewis Apr-69
LPSmash 67126 Together (Duet Album with JLL) Sun International LP-108 The Golden Cream of the Country (JLL) - Linda on "Seasons Of My Heart" 1969 Mercury 134.204 I'm On Fire (JLL) - Linda on "Baby You've Got What It Takes (France) 1969 LP BFX 15228 Live at the International Hotel, Las Vegas (JLL) - Linda duet on Down The Line/I'm Movin' On 1970 LP BFX 15228(5) Live at the International Hotel, Las Vegas (JLL) - Linda duet on Jackson 1970
LPMercury SR 61278 Live At The International Hotel, Las Vegas (JLL) - Linda duet on "When You Wore A Tulip" and "Take These Chains From My Heart" 1970
LPMercury SR 61318 In Loving Memories (JLL) - Linda on "I Know That Jesus Will Be There" (LP Co-Produced by JLL and LGL) 1971 Mercury 6338.496 Fan Club Choice (JLL) - Linda on "Me and Jesus" and "Handwriting On The Wall" 1975 Charly CR-300.007 Rare Jerry Lee Lewis Vol. 2 - Linda on "Nothin' Shakin'" (England) 1975 LP BFX 15228(4) Duet with Jerry Lee Lewis - Cheater Pretend 1986
CDCDMF 071 Jerry Lee Lewis Live In Italy 1987
EPNew Rose ROSE 175 Every Day Is A Holly Day (VA) - Linda on "Oh Boy" (France - Double 10") 1987 Magnum Force 071 Live In Italy (JLL) - Linda on "Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms" and "Jackson" (Also CD) 1988 Emergo EMD9465 Every Day Is A Holly Day (VA) - Linda on "Oh Boy" 1989
New Rose ROSE 238
(France)International Affair
The Village VoiceRobert Christgau:
Consumer Guide........ 59
To keep my bearings, I often review records in bunches, by stylistic affinity. So I've reached back to 1990 yet againg to cathc up with Africa and, er, jazz-rock. Gad-no lyrics to steal jokes from. But the 1991 picks were undeniable.PICK HIT:Linda Gail Lewis: International Affair (New Rose import): The long-ago costar of the lowbrow gem Together registers more twang per syllable than prime Duane Eddy, belting and screeching like a flat-out hillbilly-Jeannie C. Riley, say. But though I'd love to hear her "Harper Valley P.T.A." (or "Fist City," or"9 to 5"), she's Jerry Lee's sister, wildass before she's anything else. She doesn't ignore country on this band-centered studio job, but except for Billy Swan's "I Can Help" ("If your child needs a mama we can discuss that too"), the standouts are from Wolf-Justman, Dave Edmunds, Bob Dylan, all of whom should be damn proud. Covering "They Called It Rock," she gets up to "Someone in the newspaper said it was shit," and instead of rushing discreetly on to the next line she draws out that last word with the relish of a gal who's waited to sing it all her life. Pretty great. A MINUS1990
