Barbara Lewis

Barbara Ann Lewis (born February 9, 1943) is an American singer and songwriter whose smooth style influenced rhythm and blues.

She was writing and recording by her teens with record producer Ollie McLaughlin, a black DJ at Ann Arbor radio station WHRV, now WAAM. Lewis's first single release, the uptempo "My Heart Went Do Dat Da" in 1962, did not chart nationally, but was a local hit in the Detroit, Michigan area. She wrote all of the songs on her debut LP, including the hit "Hello Stranger" which reached No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and featured extensive use of the Hammond organ. Lewis had moderate follow-up hits with "Straighten Up Your Heart" (No. 43) and her original "Puppy Love" (No. 38) before Bert Berns produced her million-seller "Baby I'm Yours" (U.S. No. 11), written by Van McCoy. Berns also produced the followup "Make Me Your Baby" (U.S. No. 11) which had originally been recorded by the Pixies Three, and Lewis's final Top 40 hit "Make Me Belong to You" (No. 28 in 1966), written by Chip Taylor and Billy Vera.

At the end of the decade, she released a grittier-sounding album on Stax Records.

Over the next decade, a number of other artists had success with Lewis' songs. Her own composition "Hello Stranger"—which had been remade in 1966 by the Capitols—was a regional hit in 1973 as remade by Fire & Rain and in 1977 Yvonne Elliman's version reached the US Top 20 and the UK Singles Chart Top 30: Elliman's version also topped the US Easy Listening chart for four weeks. In 1985 Carrie Lucas's remake of "Hello Stranger" was a Top 20 R&B hit and in 2004 Queen Latifah remade "Hello Stranger" for her The Dana Owens Album.

Lewis had dropped out of public view for years after her career slowed in the 1960s. It was only after Elliman's hit in 1977 that she was tracked down by Casey Kasem for his AT40 show on June 4 of that year. According to Kasem, nobody knew where she had ended up, including her agent, who did not even know where to send her checks for the Elliman cover. According to Kasem, she was hoping to be rediscovered in Michigan when he found her.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.