Catching up with a Buckingham

AN INTERVIEW WITH CARL GIAMMARESE OF THE ’60S POP GROUP, THE BUCKINGHAMS.

- TOM PRESTOPNIK

How many can remember the Summer of Love? Be-ins and love-ins, music in the parks, wear some flowers in your hair. Free love and the anti-Vietnam War movement were everywhere. It was just a mere 53 years ago. Still in recent memory for many. Others were not yet born, and just something to read about and wish you were there. Music wafted over the outdoor crowds, mixing eagerly with the sweet smell of marijuana. Tunes of a young generation were supplied by The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Box Tops, The Supremes, The Association, The Monkees and others.

The music of 1967 gave us many acts with Top 20 hits, among them, The Doors, Box Tops, The Rolling Stones, Supremes, The Beatles, The Young Rascals and Bee Gees. The only groups to score five Top 20 hits that year were The Monkees and The Buckinghams. All these years later, Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith of The Monkees are still active and getting it done. The other act, The Buckinghams, are still on the road and performing. Lead singer Dennis Tufano is touring as a solo act, and the other two surviving members of The Buckinghams, Carl Giammarese and Nick Fortuna, have been out on the road with The Buckinghams name well presented. Drummer Jon Poulos died in 1980, and Marty Grebb on keyboards died January of 2020. Billboard is quoted as saying that, “The Buckinghams were the most listened to band in America in 1967.” Originally scheduled for an interview aboard the 2020 Flower Power Cruise in the Caribbean, a telephone interview with Carl Giammarese took place after cruises were canceled.

GOLDMINE: The year of 1967 must have had your head spinning. You had a No. 1 record with “Kind of a Drag,” you toured extensively, you were on the major television variety shows, you had it all in one short period of time. Do you remember the moment when you realized that you had a gigantic hit on your hands and you were now in the major leagues?