In 1967, KInd of a Drag was all over Canadian radio. I had saved up my 79 cents to buy the single and my older sister, who was going to the shopping mall, was delegated to buy it for me. The mall had a department store that had a record section. Anyway, when she got back, she told me that Kind of a Drag was sold out so she bought me Penny Lane instead. I was disappointed. Fifty-seven years later, we are still listening to Penny Lane, and KOAD has almost been relegated to the dustbin of pop history along with the Buckinhams` output. They deserve better. Good salvage job Matt, You are a true pop archaeologist.
The transistor era was the coolest thing. DJ’s that had wacky personalities. All kinds of cool music. Middle of the night listening when you were supposed to be sleeping. It was a gas.
The group's sound is a breath of fresh air. Smooth and perfectly crafted pop music. The hits never did justice to their catalog, which included some of the best material of the late 60s.
I agree. It seems funny that a band can produce the right music in the right way at the right time yet still not get the recognition in the market. Perhaps because this was a time of innovation and change with lots of great ideas so the smooth sound might have been perceived as passe’ and even boring. I was there and this seems likely. Time seemed to move much more slowly than it does now so a year was a long time back then. Things changed a lot from year to year in the ‘60s.
Fun fact: there was an actual British (UK) band called The Buckinghams. They were from Islington, North London and released two singles in 1965 (I’ll never hurt you no more / She Lied on Pye 7N 15848) and (To be or not to be / I was your first guy on Pye 7N 15921). Shout out to Vernon Joynson author of “Tapestry of Delights” for the specifics.
I’ve Been Wrong by the Buckinghams was one of my first 45 records that I ever bought. That song and Susan are my favorite sentimental songs of all time! Excellent addition to your catalog of videos Matt!
I saw them live in 1967 and they were tight as a band and was a concert I shared my first girlfriend when we were both only 14 years old, in fact it was at the Gene Pitney Summer Tour promo that you displayed during this episode, and yes, all the other bands were also there at that concert. But after Susan, it was the last national hit that I remember I purchased of their 45s. Matt, thanks for this cover of the Buckinghams, it also took me back to some of the best listening memories in my life!
@@popgoesthe60s52 Gene and the Buckinghams were just the start, On the same bill were The Happenings, Music Explosion, Five Americans, Easybeats and Freddy (boom-boom) Cannon, quite a lineup of the stars of the that year.
Great video. Did you ever consider the parallels with that other big Chicago band, Chicago. First they were both managed by the same guy, James William Guercia. Both were horn oriented, rock bands. Both were from the city of Chicago and their identity rested on being from Chicago. They both played at the same clubs, and I believe Chicago when they were called the big thing opened for the Buckingham.
Chicago's debut is a desert island album for me...I listen to it a lot. Both are from Chicago, both have the Guercio connection...IMO, that's pretty much where it ends. Chicago is a self-contained powerhouse (with Kath). I don't mean to diminish The Buckinghams. Love them!
Enjoyable review Matt. Even though I was a kid in the 60s, I do actually remember a few of these songs from then. At least when the band joined the oldie curcuit they had some actual hits to play, and amazingly are still touring today and making a living. Cheers!
I just saw the Buckinghams on Long Island (the Westbury Music Fair, for those who know the area) a couple of months ago. Carl Giammarese and Nick Fortuna still tour as original band members, and they do a great job recreating that Buckinghams sound with talented sidemen in their live show. P.S. In case you're wondering, they and Gary Puckett (of the Union Gap, of course) opened for Peter Noone (of Herman's Hermits, of course).
left Long Island in 1976, glad to hear Westbury Music Fair is still there! I imagine the mechanics turning the stage have improved, saw many a show in the 60s where I ended up behind a wall of amps :).
Now I understand why I sometimes get The Buckinghams and Gary Puckett and The Union Gap mixed up. I really liked this deep dive into the Buckinghams because I had the Mercy Mercy Mercy single as a kid. Still love the song to this day. Thanks Matt for this interesting bio.
Great video Matt.... Nice job - as usual.... I grew up in Chi..... Saw Buckinghams (w/ Cryin Shames or Shadows of Knight, New Colony Six and others) several times in schools at sock hops , local bars, and other venues.... It was fun watching them grow up - as was I.... They are a nice bunch of guys..... They had a nice set of hits and seconds.... Had many of their albums and singles/45's...... All the best to you ......
As a teen I went frequently to NY Mets games at Shea Stadium in the late 1980s. When the Mets would lose the PA always played "Kind of a Drag". That was my into to The Buckingham's. Great video as always!
Matt you are an American treasure. Thank you so much for all of the rich high quality content you’ve given us. If there was still an MTV you’d be the best host for the history segments. I’m going to get into your patreon. Thanks again!
G’day from Australia, not a big Buckinghams fan , they were ok , but love your love of sixties & seventies music and watch all and everything you post! 🎉
I thought I knew a lot about 1960's music, but Matt never fails to amaze me with the details he comes up with about these bands. Gail Fisher writing lyrics for "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" floors me. I didn't think she had anything else on her resume besides Mannix! I was one of those young pre-teen fans that bought a lot of Buckinghams 45's (Couldn't afford many albums at that time). I loved all of their singles that I heard including the ones that didn't chart real high. I think the last single I bought was "Back In Love Again". I assumed it made the top 40, but I guess not. It did get a lot of radio play on local radio stations I grew up with. Of all the singles, "Susan" was definitely the strangest. I really loved the song, but that freak-out middle seems so out of place though it cleverly returns to the melody with a cool fade-out ending. I can see why Guercio wanted a middle section to transition to the ending, but something a little more traditional might have worked better.
You did it again Matt!! Excellent band to review. It brings back so many memories with that different soft sound they had. I remember listening to them with my parents in the back seat of their new Monte Carlo. Yes I admit it, 1974 New Monte Carlo.😅😅😅
I was one of those who requested The Buckinghams. Their 3 album run of "Time and Charges", "Portraits", and "In One Ear and Gone" rival any band's output in that era. Matt, you have done an excellent job explaining the arc of their career, especially the songwriting contribution of Jim Holvay and Gary Beisbier whose songs fit the band perfectly. I love Marty Grebb and the band writing and recording more original songs, I really like them a lot. However, like another band found out, once left to their own devices, the good material written by the band members and a break from management did not translate to greater sales. I recommend fans out there to listen to Tufano and Giammarese's rendition 1973 of "I'm A Loser".
Excellent Matt. As a kid growing up in Chicago in the 60s, I remember these guys well. The lead singer had such a distinctive voice. You didn't really go into their demise. I guess it was the bust. Those were the days....
“Susan” was The Buckinghams’ last harrah on the radio. The hits dried up as they do for all bands. What most people don’t know is there was an English band called The Buckinghams who had a US Laurie 45 called “Gonna Say Goodbye” which came out in 1964.
I remember listening to the Buckinghams on AM radio during the 70's when I was a kid I'm 59 now and I heard several of their songs on the radio over the years and on RU-vid as well and Thank You.🎶🎤🎸🎸🎹🥁🎶
Way to nail all the names with this one Matt! I would not say that there were unusual names in, and around, the group, but certainly ones that require a bit more detail. Excellent episode!
Another great look at a '60s band, Matt. I should mention that Song of the Breeze was not the first song that led off the album In One Ear, but rather came in the middle as the first song on Side 2. But thanks so much for the juicy details. Love the '60s innocence of the Buckinghams' hits.
Dear friend Matt. It's a great pleasure to talk with you again. Congratulations for one more marvelous video, this time about this great band called The Buckinghams. For me, "Portraits" is a album with a deep quality of compositions, arrangement and production, specially about tracks like "Just Because I've Fallen Down" (with its wonderful guitar solo) and "Any Place In Here" (with the special combination of the brass and the guitars, bass and drums). Thank you, my friend, for one more gift for us. All the best.
Another nice showcasing of one of my fave Chicago bands! I did liners for the last Cd shown of their singles. Grew up loving the band so much! Glad you mentioned their later non-hits, as those were just as good as most of their big hits. James Holvay was a great songwriter as well and his Mob band led to the bucks horn sound which in turn led to the horn rock of Chicago bands to come.
@@johnryan3913 2017 I believe. has some alternate pics from Sony vaults. It was on Now Sounds. There was also a bootleg singles collection, but lots of stereo, so not REALLY the singles on that boot.
I've heard "Don't You Care" and "Mercy Mercy Mercy"" on oldies radio, but I never connected them to the same band that recorded "Kind of a Drag," although the style is obviously the same. The Buckinghams belong to that period of the '60s which saw the meteoric rise and fall of other bands such as The Beau Brummels and The Outsiders, each of whom also had a few hits within a single calendar year and then stopped. The Buckinghams' sound is pleasant enough, and the songs are catchy but instantly forgettable--the kind of fodder you'd hear in the background of a '50s-themed restaurant while having lunch with your parents. (The songs would be right at home in the either decade.) They are a few steps behind The Association, who also couldn't keep up with the changes in music yet somehow had a more lasting impact. I do like the snippets of unreleased songs at the end of the video. They might have had a bigger impact if released.
@@DAVYMAC Sorry, dude. If you're going to call someone out for getting something wrong, it's incumbent upon you to tell them why. "Do your own research" is shorthand for "I don't like what you're saying, but I don't have any valid arguments.." :P
The fact that they really didn't evolve is probably the reason their time at the top was short-lived. The "freak outs" sound kind of creepy today, maybe they did back then too.
Very well done video, as always. These groups that you have been featuring were in our orbit at the time but we never knew much detail about them. Kind of a Drag really transports me back to being 4 years old and hearing it on my local top 40 station coming out of a transistor radio. The recently departed Greg Kihn had a line in his song, The Breakup Song, that I always associate with Kind of a Drag. He sang "It was the same old song with the melancholy sound". They truly don't write them like that anymore.
I’m 74 & my band played a gig with them in the mid 60s in Chicago, I think they were called the pulsations or something like that but their management had them change their name to sound more english because of the british invasion & beatlemania
Another superb rock doc, Matt. The Buckinghams actually had a popular live act in the late 80's-early 90's period, playing suburban summer fests around the Chicago area and always putting on a fine show.
I forgot how many Great Hits they had. The sound of AM radio. Pretty sure their Hits are still played on Oldies Radio everyday. Sundazed has done a great job with so much music form the past.
The Buckinghams have always been one of my favorites ever since I got into 60s music and was a band I requested on your channel I think there music still has a clean fresh sound especially with the horn section even some of their more avant -garde sounding cuts are great one them being my all time favorite Buckinghams song Big Business Advisor from Portraits.
Gotta add: The backing vocal lines on "Kind Of A Drag" are so cool. "Don't You Care" is a well-crafted Pop song, as well. Nice interpkay between the guitar & electric piano. Very mature playing for such young guys. 😊
Nice job covering one of the best bands of 60s pop. Dennis Tufano had the perfect voice for their chart hits. My favorite is, "Why Don't You Love Me" the B side of "Don't You Care." Always a pleasure to listen to. Great memories.
Thanks for putting this together. Between this one and your Rascals episodes, I'm starting to think more about the presence of Italian/American presence in mid 60s pop from the Northeast and Great Lakes area. They also show up on the early power pop of the Raspberries and Romantics.
1967. That was the Buckinghams' year. The universe decreed that this random band from Chicago would be omnipotent gods for one year, and that year was 1967. "Tell you what, Sidney Poitier can handle the movies, you guys can handle the pop charts. But when your time is up, it's up."
It's interesting that though the the Buckinghams only enjoyed a one year run as Top 40 hit makers the quality of the music they were turning out remained high even after their hit making days were behind them and they apparently didn't suffer from the internal strife that tore other bands apart.
Living in Milwaukee, we heard a lot from The Buckinghams. Kind of a Drag was huge on the radio here. The Buckinghams came to my local Kohl’s department store and autographed records. I remember the long line of kids, clutching on to their records, while waiting in line to meet the band and get their autographs. Unfortunately, I didn’t save enough allowance to buy an album.
@@popgoesthe60s52 The Kohl’s Department Store on 124th and North Avenue , which is actually In Brookfield. I believe that The Buckinghams performed in Milwaukee that evening. I lived in Brookfield at the time.
First heard of the Buckinghams when visiting a childhood friend, who would play me his Dad's 45s, one of which was "Kind Of A Drag". Always liked their sound! A number of really good bands have come from Chicago over the years!
Glad to see you doing another great Chicago band. Everyone liked them in 1967 and with five hits it looked like they'd be around a long time, but 1968 was a brutal year, almost like the British Invasion in the number of pop groups that were wiped away by the new "heavy" sounds. I think that's what happened to them, just no longer hip. The way Guercio took all the publishing and Holvay getting the composers royalties there was little left for them.
Thanks Matt. These guys are so unknown today and no-one talks about them. I heard someone say they copied the Beatles because they also used orchestras but the sound they had was their own thing if you ask me.
The blonde guy suddenly has a twin on the cover of Conolization! I had to go look at my copy real quick to see if I was still lucid 😂 A fascinating watch as always.
Thank you! This is a very 60s band (that is a compliment) so it is appropriate they split up in 1970. When you cover bands, one thing I'm always curious about is how much they played the instruments on their own records. I keep hearing how studio musicians (like the Wrecking Crew) actually played the instruments heard on the record and sometimes had to teach the band musicians how to play the song so they could go on the road.
'Buckinghams' was floating out there in the pop-sphere way back but I couldn't have even told you 'Kind of a Drag," was their song. There's no one better to fill us in than you Matt. So thank you. -- BTW, it took me a moment to figure out why James Guercio's "freak out" you played seemed familiar to me somehow, more than simply crazy psychedelic sounds (I agree there is no good reason for them to be in their songs.) You mention that Guercio worked with the Mothers of Invention at some point. The "freak out" sounded very similar to some works of French composer/conductor Pierre Boulez. Boulez served as conductor on at least one album of Zappa's symphonic work. I'm not sure I've heard Zappa's symphonic work but I've heard a faire amount of Boulez. I could never have guessed there would be a Buckinghams connection to Boulez/Zappa style music. What a stretch.
Thank you, Matt. I loved their sound and "Kind Of A Drag" is in my top 20 favorite songs of all time. I thought these guys were British for decades! LoL. Great installment and another band that definitely had their moment in the sun.
Thanks for this. I never went beyond their soft rock hits, but your presentation reveals a chock full of good sounding deep cuts throughout their entire career. I'll be seeking out these albums.
You have a gift of taking bands I barely know (sometimes I barely care about) and making them interesting! I often buy songs from itunes after your episodes.
One of my favorite bands to come out of Chicago. To me, "Don't You Care" is one of the finest pop songs ever! I got to see them a few times in concert and got to meet Carl and Nick too. I would love to see you do a video (or some) about the Hollies. Keep up the Fab work! ✌️💙
I still love the '60s era Pop I grew up on...we only had AM Radio &, as some have mentioned, an AM transistor radio. Had The Greatest Hits cd for awhile...So, when I went on a Buckinghams' kick a few years ago, I hadda have all their '60 albums & began the hunt. Took some time, but mission accomplished. IN ONE EAR AND GONE TOMORROW was the toughest & last one I bought.
I recall the Mob. Being in Milwaukee we had a lot of visits from IL based bands. But it takes me back to the Wrest, Coachmen, Corporation, Skunks, Omaha, Soup and a few hundred more. Good memories.
Hi Matt, thank you again for another well produced, informative video. I was hoping you'd get to The Buckinghams eventually, and coincidentally was just listening to Portraits last weekend. They were, as you mentioned, yet another fine pop group who, like The Association, got swept away by the winds of change that hit the pop/rock world in '67-'68, not unlike the British Invasion of a couple of years prior. I have been a fan of The Buckinghams forever, but particularly since I moved into my first apartment in college in the mid-'70s, and found two lps in my new closet: Time and Charges, and Command Performance, Jan and Dean's live album. (Whoever lived there before me clearly had eclectic taste.) I still have them both, but guess which one I still listen to? Garry
Makes sense now that you said their first album was a bunch of single songs they just threw together. I remember buying it in the late 90s, some reissue cuz there was a garage rock revival going on then, and I dug the R&B stuff, and the garage rock stuff, but it def didn’t seem like an album from 1967. Another great one man
The Time Of My Life was a standout track and could have been huge if released as a single. Great job again. I hope in the future you can cover The Cryan Shames and American Breed.
DJs didn't have the edit out the psych bridge because Columbia sent a promo single with two versions of the song (with and without the psych section). I happen to prefer the psych bridge myself. Maybe because that is what I heard all of these years. But I also love psych.
James Guercio made 'Electroglide in Blue'. He's a hero for that alone. It was on that soundtrack that I first heard Song of the Sad Bottles by Mark Spoelstra. Upon hearing it, sitting in the Whittier Theater, in Whittier CA, I thought , wait a minute, maybe I do like country.
