A Session With – GARY LEWIS & THE PLAYBOYS***

Count Me In/Travellin’ Man/Concrete & Clay/Walk Right Back/For Your Love/Save Your Heart For Me/Palisades Park/Without A Word Of Warning/Voodoo Woman/Free Like Me/Little Miss Go-Go/Runaway

American pop group Gary Lewis & The Playboys achieved their highest US album placing for new material with Session. Contains the US No. 2 hit singles Count Me In and Save You Heart For Me. Little known in the UK this group is best sampled through compilation albums containing all their many US hit singles. Their melodic sixties mainstream pop sound was appreciated more by the record buying public than the rather sniffy critics of the time and since. (US:18)

"Rather ironically, the album also embodies the essence and the contradictions underlying Lewis' success and career. A Session With Gary Lewis & The Playboys may be his best album, a statement that requires several caveats. The number two hit at its core, Save Your Heart For Me is beyond pop/rock. It's wimp-rock at its worst It could only have gotten as high up on the charts as it did by virtue of its sheer sappiness and safety. Slotting in between Herman's Hermits releases, it probably had DJs and program directors flocking to it in lieu of the more daring sounds of The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and others."

"They have never been taken too seriously by rock historians, which is somewhat a matter of prejudice, growing out of the idea (only partly true) that Lewis had a free ride, thanks to the help of his then superstar entertainer father - and their status as mid-'60s pop/rock entertainers, without a resident songwriter or a philosophy behind their work."

"Their sound is crisp, upbeat even when singing of the lows in life, and always full of youthful naivety that makes you want to embrace them as well as their music, the song Count Me In, for example. There is also great nostalgia in such songs as Little Miss Go-Go."

"It is undeniable that Gary's music is a lot like that made by those fun-loving Monkees. And a few of these songs are really nice-sounding, such as Count Me In and Save Your Heart For Me."

"It is delightfully dated, taking us back to a time of relative innocence."