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Critic's Review
Jo-Ann Greene, All Music Guide
The country was under attack, succumbing to a second British Invasion that was laying waste to the nation's own music scene. To the rescue rode a quartet of fresh-scrubbed American heroes led by the son of famed comedian Jerry Lewis. So devastating was Gary Lewis & the Playboys' counter-offensive, that they set three albums exploding into the U.S. chart in 1965 alone. This compilation brings together in their entirety two of those -- their debut This Diamond Ring and its follow-up A Session with Gary Lewis & the Playboys. The former's title track had already topped the singles chart by the time the album arrived in March. The entire set was comprised of covers, astutely chosen and spryly delivered, probably too much so for Chuck Berry's taste, but that didn't stop the Playboys from brightly barreling through his "Sweet Little Rock and Roller" regardless. From '50s standards to recent smashes, from the Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night" to the Searchers' "Needles and Pins," the group suavely offered up a host of other people's hits. A Session with Gary Lewis & the Playboys also kicks off with a hit, in this case their number two smash "Count Me In," while their third single, "Save Your Heart for Me," which also just missed the top of the charts, follows later in the set. Again this album was comprised strictly of covers; these however, were virtually all drawn from recent hits, from the Yardbirds' "For Your Love" to Freddy Cannon's "Palisades Park" The Playboys began their career playing at Disneyland, and their boy next door, non-threatening look and sound made them tweeny-scream idols, Lewis' sweet style, the cleanness of the records' production, and the slickness of the arrangements also found favor among adults wanting to still seem hip. Today they come across as bland and non-threatening, they did back then too, but you've got to fight the war with the weapons you've got, not the ones you wish you had.
