From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Fri Jul 5, 2002  1:13 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Stan Lewis
 
STAN LEWIS

Born Stanley J. Lewis, 5 July 1927, Shreveport, Louisiana

Label owner / producer / songwriter / music entrepreneur.
Stan Lewis is the owner of the seminal blues/R&B/gospel/rock label
Jewel-Paula-Ronn-Records. In 1948, Lewis opened a record store,
Stan's Record Shop, on Texas Street in Shreveport, LA. A frequent
customer was a young performer on "The Louisiana Hayride" radio
program, Elvis Presley. Lewis became a one-stop operator (other record
stores would buy from him) and distributor of independent record labels:
Atlantic, Chess, Modern, Specialty, and Imperial. Lewis began a mail-order
operation, advertising on John R's (and others) nightly blues/R&B show on
Nashville's WLAC-AM, whose powerful clear channel nighttime signal was
heard in most parts of the country.
The record entrepreneur began to write and produce R&B and rock & roll acts.
Fellow Louisianan Dale Hawkins' 1957 # 27 pop hit on Chess, "Susie Q,"
was allegedly written about Lewis' daughter Susan. If this was justification
enough for Lewis' co-writer credit is open to dispute, but Lewis did (co-) write
several other early Hawkins tracks, like "La-Do-Dada", "Four Letter Word
Rock" and "Don't Treat Me This Way". His best known composition, however,
is "I'll Be Home" (Flamingos, Pat Boone), co-written with Ferdinand Washington.

In 1963, Lewis founded the Jewel label and soon after the Paula and Ronn
imprints. The roster included (among others) Big Joe Turner, John Lee Hooker,
Clifton Chenier, Charles Brown, Lowell Fulson, Bobby Charles, Ike & Tina
Turner, the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, Reverend C.L. Franklin, Memphis
Slim, the Violinaires, Lightinin' Hopkins, Bobby Rush, Roosevelt Sykes and
Toussaint McCall. Also in the Jewel catalog are recordings by Aretha Franklin,
Fats Domino, Redd Foxx, and B.B. King. In the late '60s, Lewis bought the
masters of the Chicago blues label Cobra Records, owned by Eli Toscano,
whose roster included Harold Burrage and "West Side" blues guitar stars
Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and Magic Slim.

Paula act John Fred & His Playboy Band held the number one pop position for
two weeks in January 1968 with the million-selling Beatles/"Lucy in the Sky With
Diamonds" parody "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)." The follow-up, "Hey Hey
Bunny" went to # 57 pop in February 1968. Chicago group Magnum Force
had a dance hit on Paula with "Cool Out," # 72 R&B in early 1985.

Lewis was still active in the music business in the '90s, working with Southern
soul singers Carl Sims and Vickie Baker. A Jewel Records boxed set was issued
by Capricorn Records in 1993. Tiring of the rigors of trying to run a
competitive
independent record label in a major-label dominated industry, Lewis decided to
offer Jewel for sale while still retaining control of his music publishing
companies
and the Susie Q and Gospel Jubilee labels (Doug Kershaw, Ace Cannon). Several
major labels and music companies expressed interest.

During the summer of 1999, EMusic.com purchased the master recording rights
of the Jewel family of labels from Lewis. One of the few remaining pioneers of
classic '40s, '50s, and '60s blues, R&B, and rock & roll, Stan Lewis plans to
act
as a consultant with a Redwood, CA-based Internet music merchant.