The hits continued through 1966. “Count Me In” reached number two, as did “Save Your Heart for Me.” “Everybody Loves a Clown” reached number four. “She’s Just My Style” reached number three. “Sure Gonna Miss Her” and “Green Grass” both hit the top ten. The band’s run of chart success in 1965 and 1966 was remarkable by any standard, and it established Gary Lewis as a genuine pop star in his own right, not merely the son of a famous comedian.
His father’s involvement with the band’s launch was not a secret, but Gary’s success was demonstrably his own. The hits had to earn their chart positions, the performances had to work on stages and on radio, and the audience response had nothing to do with who Gary’s father was.
In early 1967, Gary Lewis was drafted into the United States Army. He had played his last “Ed Sullivan Show” appearance before entering military service, beginning with Fort Jackson in South Carolina and then serving with the Eighth Army in Seoul, South Korea. Songs recorded before he left continued to chart during his absence, including “Sealed With a Kiss” and “Girls in Love.”
He was discharged from the Army in 1968 and returned to music, though the pop landscape had shifted substantially during his time away, and the band did not recapture its mid-sixties commercial peak. Gary opened a music store in the San Fernando Valley in 1971 and pursued other ventures before returning to performing. He eventually revived Gary Lewis and the Playboys and continued to tour, still performing under that name decades later.