He is not supposed to be here. Not now. Not after all this. Lewis La Medica is a star.
Perhaps not a superstar, in the Barbra Streisand or Elton John mold. But a star, nonetheless.
How many people do you know who sing the theme to one of TV's biggest hits?
Whose voice has been heard by millions upon millions of listeners, and will be heard by
millions upon millions more?
Yet, on a frigid windy Wednesday night in November, at the same time Streisand and
John are surely kicking back in their mansions, La Medica is standing inside
Temple Emanu-El in Closter, N.J., performing at the wedding reception of Ilana Bloch and
Joey Kipnis. As La Medica's band, The Projekt, lets loose a rousing rendition of Edwin
McCain's "I Could Not Ask for More," a small part of you wants to scream at Ilana, Joey and
their 225 guests - "Do you know who this guy is?!" But you don't, and like an invisible man,
La Medica blends in as part of the scenery, a backdrop alongside the pink three-tier cake
and white tablecloths.
"I'm OK with my anonymity," he says, shrugging his wide shoulders. "I don't do this for fame."
Indeed, after nearly four decades in the music business, La Medica, a 49-year-old
New Rochelle resident with spiked brown hair and a silver hoop earring, is 99.9 percent
content with his status. But there is that part - that small, small part - that wants more. Nearly
two years ago, in a normally life-altering sort of moment, La Medica was chosen by MTV to
sing the theme to a new reality series titled "The Osbournes." The gig opened up when
Pat Boone, who had once recorded a swing version of Osbourne's metal hit, "Crazy Train,"
refused to license his version of the tune to the show. "We wanted someone able to duplicate
the crooner Sinatra sound," says Melinda Gedman, MTV's music supervisor. "We heard Lewis
sing on a tape in a music library, and his voice was just perfect. When he sings, you can tell it
comes from the heart."
Unaware that "The Osbournes" would become one of the highest-rated cable series in TV
history, La Medica flew out to Los Angeles and recorded "Crazy Train." A few weeks later, the
show debuted, drawing as many as 8 million viewers per episode. (The show's third season
begins early next year.) Yet while "The Osbournes" sparked daughter Kelly's career as a pop
singer and mother Sharon's as a talk-show host, La Medica found nada. His name appeared in
the credits a grand total of two times that first season, and he never even met the legendary
Ozzy. When MTV released a CD, "The Osbourne Family Album," it opted for Boone's
"Crazy Train" rendition, even labeling it, "Pat Boone Theme from TV Show" on the jacket.
Chalk it up to name recognition and marketing.
La Medica hardly understands the slights from the network (MTV's public relations
department failed to return calls concerning La Medica), and he hardly cares. From the time he
formed his first rock band as an 11-year-old in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., La Medica dreamed not of
superstardom, but simply of making music his life. His sound is of the Tony Bennett - Frank Sinatra
groove, an ode to the records he repeatedly embraced as a lad. Lewis' mother, Grace Dell, was a
big-band singer who performed with Tommy Dorsey, and sing-alongs were everyday occurrences
in the La Medica household. "It was a beautiful thing," he says. "We'd just sit around and go off.
That's where my love began." At age 21, after leading a handful of bands with names like
Love Special Delivery and Joint Effort, La Medica took a job with the Frank Terris Orchestras,
which stitched together wedding bands. At the time, he justified any feelings of disloyalty to
original, hard rock and roll by looking at his wallet, which was usually empty. Wedding singing
paid the bills, and that's what counted. Eventually, he thought, the big gigs will come. Yet 28
years later, he's still here, happily fronting The Projekt at 100 to 150 weddings a year.
In his capacity as singer to the newly betrothed, La Medica, who has been married to his
wife, Laura, for 17 years, sees everything. Grooms ducking the shindig to catch the Mets - Padres
game. Brides making out with the best man. "Here's the wildest one ever," says La Medica,
grinning. "It was a Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, at a Knights of Columbus. We're playing the
wedding song, and as the bride and groom are dancing, we invite the bride's parents to the floor.
Everything's going smoothly and nicely and - POP! - the bride's father just grabs the bride's
mother by the hair and coldcocks her in the face, right on the dance floor. The wedding ended
right there. That kind of thing makes you wonder if it's all worth it."
It is. Though he likely will never get rich off music, La Medica, whose license plate reads
LV TO SING, has had his moments. Along with "The Osbournes," songs he has recorded have
been used in shows including "Ed," "Melrose Place," "Judging Amy" and the 2001
Miss USA Pageant.
Better yet, there are those highs that keep him floating. Every so often, La Medica's
14-year-old daughter, Danielle, will bring over a friend who will inevitably ask, "Do you really
do the theme to 'The Osbournes'?"
It's a sign, La Medica insists, that his kid is proud. "I know she brags about me," he
says. "And that's all an old singer like me needs to get by."
