Apart from being instinctively excellent on goofy and slapstick kind of comedy, Jerry Lewis had also the ability to sing. In 1956 when his partnership as a duo with Dean Martin had already ended, Jerry was asked by Judy Garland's husband and manager, Sid Luft, to fill in for her in Vegas because she wasn't able to perform due to strep throat. Jerry took the challenge even though he had never sung on stage before in his professional career that far.
He sung a couple of old standards, Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody and Arlen and Mercer's Come Rain Or Come Shine, and the crowd loved his performance. The audience's reaction fed Lewis with enough confidence to continue with his newfound freedom and embark on a solo career with firmness and determination.
Both those song's were included in his debut album, Jerry Lewis Just Sings which Capitol Records insisted he'd make. It was a commercial success, it reached #3 on the Billboard chart and became the flourishing start to Lewis' catapult into the mainstream, and a full life and career comprised of countless films, TV shows and more records, a remarkable body of work which established him as one of the greatest and most influential figures of all time in comedy.
Jerry Lewis died at his home in Las Vega on August 20th 2017, at the age of 91.
ZR