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Critic's Review
Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
Gary Lewis's second LP, A Session With Gary Lewis & the Playboys is a decidedly mixed bag, consisting of the group's third single, "Save Your Heart for Me," and its livelier, higher-powered B-side, "Without a Word of Warning," and "Little Miss Go Go," which had appeared as the B-side of his previous single, "Count Me In," plus covers of then current hits, including "For Your Love," "Walk Right Back," "Runaway," and "Palisades Park." 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, and heard today one can safely conclude that its success was a fluke, a result of Lewis's appealingly nebbishy, almost adenoidal every-nerd persona and a singsong melody and moon/June lyric. 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 deejays and program directors flocking to it in lieu of the more daring sounds of the Beatles, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, and others. So there's the hit -- but alongside it are some pretty cool covers of better songs, done not half-bad by Lewis and his band with a lot of support from producers Snuff Garrett and Leon Russell. What's more, there's nothing here remotely as inappropriate as Lewis' attempt -- from his first album -- to cover a Kinks song; Graham Gouldman's songs work much better.
