Robert Alan Lewis (February 9, 1925 – April 28, 2020) was an American
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
and
rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
singer, best known for his 1961 hit singles "
Tossin' and Turnin'
"Tossin' and Turnin'" is a song written by Ritchie Adams and Malou René, and originally recorded by Bobby Lewis in the fall of 1960. The record was released on the Beltone label in December 1960. It reached number one on both the ''Billboard' ...
" and "One Track Mind".
Biography
Lewis was born in
Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
and was raised in an
orphanage
An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...
. He learned to play the
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
by age six, despite very poor eyesight. Adopted at age twelve, he moved to a
foster home
Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family mem ...
in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
musicians until the advent of
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
, Lewis began to build a musical career in the 1950s, initially working in carnival shows, and then as a singer with the Leo Hines Orchestra in Indianapolis. He made his first recordings for the Spotlight label, and then recorded "Mumbles Blues" for
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll ...
in 1952. At one stage he was managed by
Nat Tarnopol
Nat Tarnopol (January 26, 1931 – December 25, 1987) was an American record producer. He played a vital role in producing and shaping R&B music throughout the 1960s and 1970s as the president of Brunswick Records, a subsidiary label of Decca Re ...
, who also managed
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy Wilson Jr. (June 9, 1934 – January 21, 1984) was an American singer and performer of the 1950s and 60s. He was a prominent figure in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. Nicknamed "Mr. Excitement", he was considered a mas ...
.
Lewis moved to New York City, and his 1960
recording
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, ...
of "
Tossin' and Turnin'
"Tossin' and Turnin'" is a song written by Ritchie Adams and Malou René, and originally recorded by Bobby Lewis in the fall of 1960. The record was released on the Beltone label in December 1960. It reached number one on both the ''Billboard' ...
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
in summer 1961. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a
gold disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
. Later in 1961, Lewis had a second Top Ten song, "One Track Mind", his only other major hit record (again on Beltone), charting at No. 9. Subsequent records were less successful. Beltone Records itself went out of business in 1963, and later recordings for
ABC-Paramount
ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels bef ...
and other labels were also commercial failures.
In a 2011 interview, Lewis said that he had lived in