Fact #146428
When:
Short story:
Kind Of A Drag by The Buckinghams, on USA Records, enters the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the USA at No90. It will peak at No1.
Full article:
Dennis Tufano (lead singer) : Jon Poulos [drums] and I knew each other from the neighborhood and we were the first in the band. Originally, we were called the Pulsations. We went through several players before finding Carl Giammarese [guitar] and Nick Fortune [bass]. Dennis Miccoli was our fist keyboard player, and he is the one playing on Kind Of A Drag, but music was more of a hobby for him.
We won a Battle of the Bands for a local TV show, All Time Hits, and we became regulars on the show for 14 weeks. The British invasion was happening at that time and the TV show wanted us to use a more British sounding name. A security guard that worked for the TV station actually came up with the name The Buckinghams.
Jim Holvay (of Chicago band, The Mob) approached us and said he had some original songs that his band was not going to do and that maybe we could do something with them. He gave us a tape that contained his songs Kind of A Drag, Don't You Care, Hey! Baby (They're Playing Our Song), and Susan. We took the tape home, liked Kind Of A Drag, and rearranged it a bit differently, added horns.
Kind of a Drag was not released right away. USA (record company) thought it was too slow. Instead, they choose to release the more up, R'n'B sounding sides, such as Lawdy Miss Clawdy. The band had done a deal with USA for about 12 sides. There were no options. After they released Kind Of A Drag, the contract was up. USA did not push the song. However, the local station, WLS radio, got on it heavy. Within a month, it was in the top 10 in the Midwest. After that, the brass we used became known as the 'Chicago Sound.
It was ironic. For six months we had no label, no manager, no keyboard player, and we opened up Billboard magazine and Kind Of A Drag was number one. A friend of ours from Chicago was the cousin of Jim Guercio. Guercio was playing bass for Chad And Jeremy at the time. His motivation was to be a producer. However, Columbia would not let him produce Chad And Jeremy because he did not have a name.
We were his calling card to be a producer for Columbia. He went to Columbia and said 'I've got the group with the number one record. They are yours, but I produce.' That was the deal that was cut.
(Source : not known)
Tweet this Fact
We won a Battle of the Bands for a local TV show, All Time Hits, and we became regulars on the show for 14 weeks. The British invasion was happening at that time and the TV show wanted us to use a more British sounding name. A security guard that worked for the TV station actually came up with the name The Buckinghams.
Jim Holvay (of Chicago band, The Mob) approached us and said he had some original songs that his band was not going to do and that maybe we could do something with them. He gave us a tape that contained his songs Kind of A Drag, Don't You Care, Hey! Baby (They're Playing Our Song), and Susan. We took the tape home, liked Kind Of A Drag, and rearranged it a bit differently, added horns.
Kind of a Drag was not released right away. USA (record company) thought it was too slow. Instead, they choose to release the more up, R'n'B sounding sides, such as Lawdy Miss Clawdy. The band had done a deal with USA for about 12 sides. There were no options. After they released Kind Of A Drag, the contract was up. USA did not push the song. However, the local station, WLS radio, got on it heavy. Within a month, it was in the top 10 in the Midwest. After that, the brass we used became known as the 'Chicago Sound.
It was ironic. For six months we had no label, no manager, no keyboard player, and we opened up Billboard magazine and Kind Of A Drag was number one. A friend of ours from Chicago was the cousin of Jim Guercio. Guercio was playing bass for Chad And Jeremy at the time. His motivation was to be a producer. However, Columbia would not let him produce Chad And Jeremy because he did not have a name.
We were his calling card to be a producer for Columbia. He went to Columbia and said 'I've got the group with the number one record. They are yours, but I produce.' That was the deal that was cut.
(Source : not known)