Home / Birthday profiles / Rudy Lewis

Birthday profile

Rudy Lewis

Rudy Lewis, American R&B singer (died 1964)

Find birthday twinsOpen interactive profile
Born
August 23, 1936
Died
May 20, 1964
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1936

About Rudy Lewis

Rudy Lewis was an American rhythm and blues singer known for his work with the Drifters. In 1988, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On May 21, 1964, when the group was due to record "Under the Boardwalk," which had been written for Lewis, he was found dead in his Harlem hotel room, where he had died the previous night. The record was released the following month, but never reached the charts. Lewis sang lead on a string of hits, including "Please Stay", "Some Kind of Wonderful", "Up On The Roof" and "On Broadway". In April 1963, Lewis recorded his solo single "Baby I Dig Love" along with the B-side "I've Loved You So Long".

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Rudy Lewis timeline

  1. In April 1963, Lewis recorded his solo single "Baby I Dig Love" along with the B-side "I've Loved You So Long".
  2. On May 21, 1964, when the group was due to record "Under the Boardwalk," which had been written for Lewis, he was found dead in his Harlem hotel room, where he had died the previous night.

The world when Rudy Lewis was born

Rudy Lewis was born in 1936. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1936

  • #1 song"The Way You Look Tonight" – Fred Astaire
  • Top movieModern Times (Charlie Chaplin)
  • Top TV showBBC Television Service launches
  • Best-selling bookGone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentJesse Owens wins 4 gold medals at Berlin Olympics
  • Top headlineJesse Owens dominates the Berlin Olympics
  • Technology milestoneBBC launches the world's first regular television service
  • Defining fadSwing dancing
  • Notable inventionSun glasses (mass-produced)
  • World population2.26 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population128.1M

1936 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Rudy Lewis's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19362026
Gas$0.19$3.45/gal
Average home$5,100$435,000
Average income$2,900$67,500
Minimum wage$0.25$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population128.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.