The Buckinghams in Concert

It's always a nice surprise when you have fellow musicians drop by backstage after the show to say hello and catch up for a few minutes. After the Happy Together concert at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey, multitalented musician Paul Shaffer came by to visit many of his friends. It's always great to see Paul. What an amazing collection of music he is responsible for! Of course you watched him for years every night on the "Late Show with David Letterman" as he conducted his "World's Most Dangerous Band." His book, "We'll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives," is, as he subtitled it, "A Swingin' Show-biz Saga Book." He talks about his years leading the Saturday Night Live Band, leading the Blues Brothers Band, and then the Late Show band and TV personality. Get the book here . Do you have a CD of their cover songs? (Find one here: https://theshaffershop.bigcartel.com/ ). Here's a photo of Nick

Looking at the set list of the Happy Together Tour, it's easy to see all the titles and immediately know the artists who brought these songs to life on the radio and, if you were lucky enough to see them, in concert. Yet, for so many of the hits of the Happy Together Tour, none of the artists really are responsible for writing any of the songs that they made iconic. It is true, though, that the versions that American teenagers fell in love to hearing on the radio were not the versions recorded by the composers who wrote them. Imagine the joy of having written an amazing hit song, but never being the one to take it to the top of the charts? But when someone else breathes new life into your song, the product can be simply amazing. Sometimes you just have to know when to let go of a song so that someone else can make you a hit songwriter. Twenty years ago, when Hoyt Axton passed away in 1999 at the age of 61, in an interview for the Los Angeles Times , it was written "Chuck Negr

As of this date, there are 53 Happy Together Concert performances for the 2019. First up is State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on Wednesday, May 29th, but before the tour begins, you're looking at six different musical acts, a single backing band to keep up with all their songs, and then introductions of each group plus the evening's finale where everyone is on stage to sing. And you need the show producer who puts all these details together bringing the shows to your hometown. The producers are formally known as Flower Power Concerts, Inc., but that's actually the brainchild of Toby Ludwig and Ron Hausfeld. They're the same fellas who are behind several nationally popular tours, including "Hippiefest," "Rock the Yacht" Tour, "Happy Together" Tour and the soon-to-launch "It Was Fifty Years Ago Today" Tour. Although many of these artists have been on tour together before in previous tour configurations, the magic just do

Travel plans for the Happy Together Tour are "almost" as complex as those at Mission Control at NASA. You go here, here, there, there, here, there, and back to here, but over there, then take a left and...well, you get the idea. When a concert promoter comes up with a concept for a musical tour, they're relying on knowing what audiences are in what cities that love classic rock music. That's step one. Then, you have many venues that either are brand new and can't wait to book the tour, or they're longtime venues where you've booked shows before, and every year the tour is extremely likely to perform in the venue, because they can always count on selling tickets to happy audiences. Happy audiences mean happy ticket buyers who are loyal each year the show comes to your town. In some cases, like Florida , you'll find four dates within a week's time. In the northeast, you'll see many shows booked in almost a triangular fashion in different cities

When the Happy Together Tour was being planned for 2019, executives reached out to Carl Giammarese earlier this year to gauge interest availability for what was described as the 10th Anniversary Tour for the annual summer trek around the United States, bringing a veritable group of traveling classic rock stars to favorite venues they visit annual as well as some new places on the map for the typical 90 minute time travel machine filled with music and memories. The funny thing was that yes, this is the 10th anniversary of the Happy Together Tour, but it's actually the 10th year of the Happy Together REUNION tour. You see, the very first Happy Together Tour was launched in 1984 , and the lead group, who performed the eponymous hit, was of course The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie. Joining them that year were Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, Spanky & Our Gang, and The Association. Here's the cover of that first year's tour book designed by Reiner Design Consultants. M

Recently Warren Kurtz, a Contributing Editor at Goldmine, interviewed Carl Giammarese for his column: “Warren’s Fabulous Flip Sides.” You can also catch Warren most Saturday mornings, in the 9 a.m. hour, EST, as part of “Moments to Remember” at wvcr.com or iHeart Radio – search WVCR. Mr. Kurtz spoke with vocalist and guitarist Carl Giammarese about The Buckinghams, his post-Buckinghams ‘70s duo Tufano & Giammarese, his solo work, The Beatles concert Abbey Road on the River, the Happy Together Tour 2019, The Chicago Cubs, and rescue dogs. Read the entire article here: https://www.goldminemag.com/articles/fabulous-flip-sides/fabulous-flip-sides-the-buckinghams-carl-giammarese-interview?fbclid=IwAR2vzjVusCESi4beSS0KZQXneof4sjaXxjd_Q0155P4BP9msbP7alnYe_cY

Everyone who is a fan of the band The Buckinghams can easily name all the songs that were Top 10 hits, Top 20 hits, and Billboard Top 100 chartmakers. You have several songs that have personal, special meaning for you. But the song that took the native Chicagoans out of the basements of the band members' homes was the one USA Records released last, almost as an afterthought. "Kind of a Drag" has the distinction of being the song that took this band to the national level. Many wonderful bands are part of Chicago history, and they are as beloved today as they were in their time. But this one song, "Kind of a Drag" took flight and went to #1 on Billboard 50 years ago today, February 18, 1967. Imagine what it was like for five young men to hold a copy of "Billboard" in their hands. For a few years, Carl and Jon-Jon had gone to the newsstand each week, buying a single copy of "Billboard" and reading it cover to cover. These days you hear about