Biography

Pat Lewis was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, west-southwest of Altoona, Pennsylvania and east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County...

 and moved to Detroit, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 in 1951. In the early 60s, Pat, her sister Dianne, and two friends (Betty and Jackie Winston) formed the group, The Adorables, who recorded a record and began singing backing vocals for Golden World Records

Golden World Records

Golden World Records was a record label owned by Ed Wingate and Joanne Bratton . The recording studio was located in Detroit, MI., first on 11801 12th Street , and then on 3246 West Davison, within the area of the present-day Davison Freeway...

. Pat herself debuted as a solo artist in 1966 with Can't Shake It Loose while also beginning to do outside backing vocals sessions. She met Motown Records

Motown Records

Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...

' in-house backing group The Andantes

The Andantes

The Andantes were a prolific female sessions group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Temptations, Stevie...

, and one day when one of the girls couldn't make the session for Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

's Up-Tight

Up-Tight

Uptight is a 1966 album by US singer Stevie Wonder. It was his fifth studio release.- Background :Uptight was the breakthrough album for Stevie Wonder, released in 1966 on Motown Records' Tamla label. The album features the U.S...

, Pat stepped in and did it as well as several other Motown sessions. She signed to Solid Hit Bound Records and released a string of singles, including "Look At What I Almost Missed", "Warning", "No One to Love", "No Baby No", and "The Loser". From the late 60s on, she became a permanent backing singer for Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

, Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes

Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...

 and later on George Clinton

George Clinton (funk musician)

George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...

 too. She wrote several songs for Isaac Hayes.

In 1989, Pat as well as The Andantes were among the invited artists to join UK producer Ian Levine

Ian Levine

Ian Levine is an English songwriter, producer, and DJ. He is also a well-known fan of the long-running television show Doctor Who.Levine attended Arnold School in Blackpool from 1963 to 1970...

's mega-project Motorcity Records

Motorcity Records

Motorcity Records is a British record label formed by producer Ian Levine in 1989. The label aimed to record new material with former Motown artists.-History:...

, a label formed to record new material on former Motown artists. Pat became the main backing vocals co-ordinator for the label and did several hundred arrangements while she recorded more than 50 tracks with herself and as a lead singer for the re-formed Andantes. Her single Separation (1991) (co-written by Levine and Billy Griffin

Billy Griffin

Billy Griffin is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known for replacing Smokey Robinson as lead singer of The Miracles in 1972.-Biography:...

) was Single of the Week when reviewed in British soul magazine Blues & Soul. After the label's demise in 1992, Pat continued to work with Ian Levine on a regular basis. In 1997, she recorded 50 cover versions of selected Motown and Northern Soul

Northern soul

Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...

 classics although only a handful of tracks have been released on various artists compilations. In 1999, she recorded 76 gospel tracks with Levine for K-Tel

K-tel

K-tel International is an "As-Seen-On-TV" company, which is most noted for its compilation music albums, such as "The Super Hits" series, "The Dynamic Hits" series and "The Number One Hits" series...

.
As for the present, Pat occasionally tours with Martha Reeves

Martha Reeves

Martha Rose Reeves is an American R&B and Pop singer and former politician, and was the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. During her tenure with The Vandellas, they scored over a dozen hit singles, including "Jimmy Mack", "Dancing in the Street" and "Nowhere to Run"...

's original backing group The Vandellas

Martha and the Vandellas

Martha and the Vandellas were among the most successful groups of the Motown roster during the period 1963–1967...

 and most recently performed in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in October 2007 where she had also been scheduled to record a new track for Levine's latest album Disco 2008, an engagement she had to cancel due to health problems. Pat is currently working for a small rental company in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Albums

• Separation (Motorcity, 1991)
• The Best of Pat Lewis (Motorcity, 1996)
• This Is Gospel (103rd Street Gospel Choir with Pat Lewis - 2CD - K-Tel, 2000)
• A Gospel Christmas (K-Tel, 2000)

Singles

• "Can't Shake It Loose" (1966)
• "Look at What I Almost Missed" (1966)
• "Warning" (1967)
• "No One to Love" (1967)
• "No Baby No" (1967)
• "The Loser" (1967)
• "Separation" (1991)
• "No Right Turn" (1991)

External links

• http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:ydgTI-k0VtAJ:faac.us/adf/messages/18755/32910.html%3F1115474576+%22hot+buttered+soul%22+%22pat+lewis%22&hl=da&gl=dk&ct=clnk&cd=2
• http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/pat_lewis
• http://www.myspace.com/theoneandonlypatlewis