Skip to main content

Carl Giammarese and Lisa McClowry Debut New Version of Buckinghams’ Classic

Music lovers don’t always have time to reflect on this, but if they have fallen in love to, or with, a song, chances are good that all over the country, thousands of others have too. In the spring and summer of love, 1967, songs by The Buckinghams filled the airwaves and the Billboard charts. The renewal of Classic Rock via package tour vehicles such as Happy Together, Flower Power Cruises, Concerts at Sea, and others have kept the bands playing their signature hits all these years as well.

As of 2021, “Don’t You Care” has been heard all over the world regularly since 1967, over 2,000,000 times. Every teenager listening to 50,000 Watts of power broadcast from superstations to their transistor radios across the country has heard this one song that many times…in the past 54 years.

Thanks to Chicago-born vocalist and guitarist (and founding member of The Buckinghams) Carl Giammarese and Lisa McClowry, the popular versatile vocalist whose talents range from power-driven 80s ballads to sultry 60s song stylings, there’s a new version of “Don’t You Care” that is already generating quite a buzz among those who have loved the song for years!

The pair had known each other for years, but as Carl said, “I’d admired her beautiful voice more from a distance.” Mutual friends had recently been encouraging the two to combine their gifts on a song together and out of the blue, an opportunity arose.

Lisa McClowry

Carl had been writing several new songs during the stay-at-home pandemic we’ve all been on. He had one song in mind that he suggested would be a cool duet, but Lisa shared that a different arrangement of “Don’t You Care” had been on her mind. She had a new arrangement in mind. Trusting that, Carl agreed, and Lisa introduced acoustic guitarist Mike Aquino’s great playing to serve as backing.

Cover: Bugaloo Designs

The track came together quickly, and the pair had an instant blend that usually only comes with longevity as a duo. Rave reviews are already being shared with Giammarese and McClowry. Who knows? There could well be more where this song came from. Carl said, “Lisa is quite the gifted professional.” As you hear the song, it will sound like they’ve been singing together for many years.

The Giammarese/McClowry duet is now out for digital streaming and downloads. If you’d like to hear it on Spotify, click here: https://open.spotify.com/album/5qjyQDX5ztdRdx3Uew06EU?si=8OFrHNiMTOS9wFqlPAQ4gA&nd=1

If you’d like to hear it on Pandora, click here: https://open.spotify.com/album/5qjyQDX5ztdRdx3Uew06EU?si=8OFrHNiMTOS9wFqlPAQ4gA&nd=1

Please share your feedback (Follow, Heart, Like) wherever you listen on digital streaming, and perhaps share this story to tell your friends about how everything old is new again! Enjoy!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Memory of John Poulos, March 31, 1947 - March 26, 1980

Five days before his 33rd birthday, we lost John Poulos, a dear friend who was like a brother to us, as well as The Buckinghams’ drummer. Often described as the heartbeat of our band, he was known to most Buckinghams’ fans of the 60s simply as Jon-Jon. To know John was to love him. With his outgoing personality, he never met a stranger. His talent is remembered best in the style he displayed on drum fills and riffs on our hits, including “Don’t You Care,” “Hey Baby, They’re Playing Our Song,” and “Kind of a Drag.” It’s not surprising that Jon-Jon was included as one of the Top 10 drummers in Modern Drummer Magazine. Contemporary MySpace profiles of aspiring amateur and professional musicians today include the name John Poulos among their musical influences. That’s an honor both fitting and accurate for a musician who was truly one of a kind. Nick and I recall that one of John’s own musical influences was Bobby Elliot, drummer for The Hollies, whose signature beret and tossing of his he...
3 comments
Read more

Remembering Frank Tesinsky, Beloved Chicago Musician, Key to The Buckinghams' Characteristic Sound

Each time the opening notes to “Kind of a Drag” come on the air, whether it’s your car radio, your phone, or choice of streaming media, the first 23 notes you hear inform you immediately that not only are you hearing “Kind of a Drag,” but you are hearing The Buckinghams. That instant recognition, in turn, is thanks to the talent of musician Frank Tesinsky, who arranged the iconic tune for producers Dan Belloc and Carl Bonafede in a 1966 recording session in Chicago’s Chess Studios. The Buckinghams family was greatly saddened to learn of Frank’s passing on November 9. Catherine Johns, his wife of 32 years, was a beloved part of his life and part of Chicago radio as well. In February 1967 "Kind of a Drag" was #1 on the Billboard charts for two weeks, and it forever defined the sound of five young men from the northside of Chicago. Just 27 notes, right? And yet, it defined the magic of what would become known as “the horn sound” that The Buckinghams are b...
Post a Comment
Read more

In Memoriam — Martin Joseph Grebb

On the first day of a new year and a new decade, friends and family of Marty Grebb read a post on his Facebook page that sparked instant concern. The composition he shared had required much thought, and in it, Marty shared his love, regard, concern, and caring for virtually every person he’d worked with professionally, loved in his lifetime, and showed how deep his feelings ran for an earlier day and time when his body and mind were not wracked in pain by the five types of cancer he said he’d battled over time. The outpouring of love and support, expressions of concern, reminders of so many who had friended him on Facebook and felt as though they’d really known him, were nothing short of amazing. Offers of “please call me” or “we are worried about you” or “hang on, brother, we are here” filled the comments section. If there were a point in time when he was wavering in his attitude about what his plan was, everyone did whatever they could yesterday, New Year’s Day, to show their supp...
21 comments
Read more