Overton Amos Lemons, known professionally as Smiley Lewis, was a New Orleans rhythm and blues singer and guitarist whose powerful voice and driving style helped define the city’s early R&B sound. Music journalist Tony Russell once wrote that “Lewis was the unluckiest man in New Orleans,” noting that although he pioneered the slow-rocking, small-band formula behind songs like “The Bells Are Ringing” and “I Hear You Knocking,” other artists—most notably Fats Domino—often achieved greater commercial success with similar material.

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Born in DeQuincy, Louisiana, near Lake Charles, Lewis lost his mother at a young age and later honored her by naming a song and several cars after her. In his mid-teens, he hopped a freight train with friends; when the train sped up, the others bailed out, but Lewis stayed aboard until it reached New Orleans. There, he boarded with a family in the Irish Channel neighborhood and adopted their surname, becoming “Lewis.”

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He began performing in French Quarter clubs and Seventh Ward “tan bars,” sometimes billed as Smiling Lewis—a nod to his missing front teeth. During World War II, he joined Kid Ernest Molière’s band, entertaining troops at Fort Polk and serving as the house band at the Boogie Woogie Club.

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Lewis’ debut record, “Here Comes Smiley” backed with “Turn On Your Volume Baby” (1947), became a regional jukebox favorite, though his label DeLuxe declined to release further material. His fortunes shifted when fellow New Orleanian Dave Bartholomew—then beginning his producing career with Imperial Records—invited him to record. Their 1950 session produced “Tee Nah Nah.” Lewis scored his first national hit with “The Bells Are Ringing” (1952) and was the first to record Bartholomew’s “Blue Monday” in 1954, though Fats Domino would later turn it into a major hit. In 1955, Lewis achieved his biggest sales with “I Hear You Knocking,” the song’s first recording.

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In 1965, Lewis was hospitalized for what was thought to be an ulcer; surgery revealed terminal stomach cancer. Bartholomew organized a benefit concert for him at La Ray’s on Dryades Street, but Lewis died on October 7, 1966—three days before the event—in the arms of his second wife, Dorothy Ester Lemons, whom he had married just six months earlier.

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Although none of Lewis’s Imperial singles sold more than 100,000 copies, other artists’ versions of his songs achieved enormous success. Gale Storm’s pop rendition of “I Hear You Knocking” reached the Top 5; Elvis Presley’s cover of “One Night” reached No. 4 in the U.S. and No. 1 in the U.K.; and Dave Edmunds’ 1970 rock version of “I Hear You Knocking” topped the U.K. charts and reached No. 4 in the U.S., name-checking Lewis in the lyrics. Lewis’ “Shame, Shame, Shame” appeared in the soundtrack of Baby Doll (1956) and was later recorded by The Merseybeats (1964) and Aerosmith on their 2004 blues album Honkin’ on Bobo.

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Smiley Lewis never enjoyed the mass success of the artists he influenced, but his songs have become R&B standards, ensuring his legacy as a foundational voice in New Orleans rhythm and blues.