Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis tap into 16 No. 1 hits for Las Vegas Strip show

It’s a Monday afternoon and you’re walking into Voltaire at The Venetian during off-hours. This is not a time for Champagne, or a Strip hot spot designed as a glass of bubbly. You are there for business. The first person you encounter is a guy leaning on the host station near the entrance. He’s wearing a black suit, black shades and a black fedora.

You breeze past, catch a glance and think, “He seems like somebody.”

Minutes later, inside the club, the same person is seated next to a gentleman dressed in a similar outfit. “I just saw you!” he smiles.

“We could have done this out there!” you say, referring to an interview previewing Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis’ “Nothing But Hits” residency opening at Voltaire on Friday and Saturday, and continuing Wednesday and April 24 to 26.

These stylish guys know how to package the vibe in a room built for glam. Burlesque queen and showgirl devotee Dita Von Teese is the main resident headliner. Jimmy Jam (born James Samuel Harris III) and Lewis have seen a full show, Ashlee Simpson’s, at Voltaire.

“We feel very much at home here,” Jam says, sitting in a burgundy booth.

Jam and Lewis, 40-year production partners and R&B pioneers, believe they can deliver a special show. They’ve had a hand in more hits than most music fans can imagine.

“I think we’ve had — I don’t know — 29 or 30 big hits,” Lewis says. “So expect those to be in the show. We’re going to try to squeeze as much into it as we possibly can.”

Lewis describes the menu of music.

“Some of it will be a full meal,” he says. “Some of it will be a tasting menu, like a medley.”

Plenty of hits

Getting into the gents’ music catalog is like walking into a greatest hits buffet. They have co-produced 16 Billboard No. 1 singles and 41 top-10 hits on the U.S. charts.

Janet Jackson has been the most prolific of their partners, as they collaborated on nine of Jackson’s 10 No. 1 singles, among them “When I Think of You,” “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” “Nasty” and “That’s the Way Love Goes.”

The hit parade extends to “Human” by the Human League, “Monkey” by George Michael, “Romantic” by Karyn White, “On Bended Knee” and “4 Seasons of Loneliness” by Boyz II Men,” “Thank God I Found You” (featuring Joe and 98 Degrees) by Mariah Carey and “U Remind Me” by Usher.

Jam and Lewis have an ear for sound and are themselves multi-instrumentalists. For this production, Lewis plays bass and Jam jams on the keys in a tight five-piece band.

“Basically, we can re-create all the rhythm sections and all that stuff on stage,” Jam says. “Everything we’ve done, we can do on stage.”

The vast catalog gives the guys many options.

“You’re going to get things from all the different eras of music. Obviously, we go back to the ’80s, so you’re going to get a good dose of ’80s, a good dose of ’90s, a good dose of 2000s,” Lewis says. “Every night will be a little bit different. We’ll have kind of a set list of what we’ll do, but then we’re planning on our friends showing up. We’ll grab a few out of the audience and call on stage to sing some things. So it’ll be a lot of fun, and we say, you never know who will show up.”

Music is what matters

R&B has experienced a renaissance over the past few years in Las Vegas, led by many of the artists who have recorded with Jam and Lewis. Nostalgia and familiarity is a proven formula for Las Vegas production shows, touring artists and resident headliners.

But Jam says he’s not in a pure nostalgia project. The feeling generated from their music is current, regardless of its born-on date.

“I don’t think we really ever left. I think it’s nostalgic because it’s what felt good to us, and it still continues to feel good,” the 66-year-old recording star says. “Now, I think we can say that and be OK with saying that. Before, when you started to talk about what music used to be, you sounded old. But I don’t think people really care about sounding old anymore. If it feels good to you, that’s what matters, and there is great music in every era.”

Lewis says that for all the duo’s studio success, their primary passion has been creating and playing.

“The studio has been our home for — what? — 40 years. But where we started was live performance,” the 59-year-old Lewis says. ‘We’re musicians first, songwriters second, producers third. Production falls in the third category for us, because before we were even thinking about production, we were musicians. Production came out of necessity.”

Lewis refers to Las Vegas as “the perfect melting pot” for what this show wants to achieve. The partners look to lead a trip to a location insulated from stress, not an easy mission for any performer.

“There will be people in this room that might not have anything in common other than the memory of these songs,” Lewis says. “They all like the same music. So, for the time that we’re on stage, this room is together. That’s the thing we want to do, and the point of what we do here.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.