Lewis had not sung alone on stage since he was five years old, twenty-five years before, but he appeared before the audience of a thousand, nonetheless, delivering jokes and clowning with the audience, while Garland sat off-stage, watching. He then sang a rendition of a song he'd learned as a child, "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" along with "Come Rain or Come Shine". Lewis recalled, "When I was done, the place exploded. I walked off the stage knowing I could make it on my own".