The music of the 1960s comes alive again at Rahway, NJ’s Union County Performing Arts Center at 8pm on Sat. December 9, 2017 with Stars of the ‘60s live in concert!
This magical evening of classic ‘60’s songs features five memorable acts from one of the greatest eras in pop music history: The Lovin’ Spoonful, Jay and the Americans, The Vogues, Terry Sylvester of The Hollies, and the former lead singer of The Buckinghams, Dennis Tufano.
In Stars of the ‘60s, The Lovin’ Spoonful will perform their biggest hits including “Summer in the City,” “Do You Believe in Magic,” “Daydream,” and more. Jay and the Americans will wow the crowd with such great tunes as “This Magic Moment,” “Come a Little Bit Closer,” and “Cara Mia.”
The Vogues — known for such songs as “Turn Around, Look at Me,” “My Special Angel,” and “5 O’Clock World” — will bring their special form of vocal magic to the UCPAC stage. The Hollies’ Terry Sylvester will perform such ‘60's smashes as “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” “The Air that I Breathe,” and “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress.”
Lastly, Dennis Tufano, the voice behind The Buckinghams, will sing the group’s biggest hits including “Hey Baby (They’re Playing Our Song),” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” “Don’t You Care,” and the band’s 1967 #1 chart-topper, “Kind of a Drag.”
Spotlight Central recently had an opportunity to chat with Dennis Tufano, who talked about his early days with The Buckinghams, his acting career, the time he spent working with Olivia Newton John, and his thoughts regarding the upcoming Stars of the ‘60s show at UCPAC.
Spotlight Central: We understand that growing up in Chicago, you listened to groups like The Everly Brothers and The Zombies. How did these groups influence you as you were developing into a professional singer and musician?
Dennis Tufano: Those groups were unique in terms of their sound. In those days, there were a lot of good records and a lot of good groups, but certain groups stood out. The Zombies definitely stood out for me because they had a jazz easiness to them that was very interesting — because, instead of singing, most people were shouting at you back then [laughs]! And here comes The Zombies’ lead singer, Colin Blunstone, with this unbelievable voice, and he’s hardly emoting at all — it’s all coming out from his heart — and I just went, “Oh, my God!” It gave me a lot of inspiration to learn that I didn’t have to scream to make it in the rock and roll business.
And The Everly Brothers, of course, sounded beautiful together without screaming, and they had very unique harmonies — their harmonies were not typical two-part harmonies in that they had a really great orchestration to their voices. So that really stuck out for me. I really got hooked on them and they became a guiding light for me.
Spotlight Central: You were a member of a band called The Pulsations which was the house band at WGN-TV for a variety show called All Time Hits. How did that group go on to become The Buckinghams?
Dennis Tufano: The Pulsations contained the original bits and pieces of what was to become The Buckinghams. We competed in a battle of the bands to play on this local TV show on WGN in Chicago; they needed a rock and roll band for their all-time hits segment for the rock stuff — they had all this other music: Broadway music, standards, and all kinds of stuff — but we won the competition and got on the show. And during rehearsals they came up to us and asked, “Would you mind changing your name to sound a little bit more British?” — because this was 1965, the time of the British invasion. And we thought, “We’re a local band, but we’ll think about it.”
The next day at rehearsal, a security guard came up to us [laughs] — one who had suspiciously long hair for 1965 — and he handed us a note and said, “Look, I heard what they asked you yesterday, and I wrote down some names.”
So we looked at the list and there were some great names on there, but The Buckinghams jumped out to us first because it sounded British — due to the palace, of course — and then, secondly, Chicago has an amazing landmark in Grant Park called Buckingham Fountain — a gigantic fountain that shoots colored water in the air, which is just beautiful. And we said, “Well, The Buckinghams is perfect because it sounds English, and we can still keep our foot in Chicago with the connection to the fountain, so we’ll use The Buckinghams.” And that’s how The Pulsations became The Buckinghams.
Spotlight Central: And The Buckinghams went on to become one of the biggest acts of 1967 with five Top 40 hits that year, all featuring a brass-rock sound that many people went on to associate with other groups like Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago — both of which got started in 1967! So who was the first to have that sound?
Dennis Tufano: Actually, to be perfectly honest, there was a group in Chicago called The Mob, and the guitar player in The Mob was Jim Holvey. He wrote “Kind of a Drag,” “Susan,” “Hey Baby (They’re Playing Our Song)” and “Don’t You Care.” And that was the first horn band I had ever heard in Chicago. They were like a regular horn band — they did instrumentals, and they did a lot of R&B.
But then The Buckinghams came out and we were the first pop group in Chicago to use the brass, I believe — and, since then, the other groups followed. When we were released from USA Records and went to Columbia Records, we got Jim Guercio as our producer. And after us, Jim Guercio went on to produce both Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago.
And, as a matter of fact, there was an article about Blood, Sweat and Tears, and in it, they said they were inspired by listening to our first album, Time and Charges. They said that when they heard that album, they realized that you could actually put the sound of a big band and a rock band together — because that’s what they were doing, but nobody was picking up on it.
So they were second — and then Chicago, of course, was there, too — so that would be the evolution of it where we were, kind of, the first to introduce the sound of the horns.
Spotlight Central: And all three groups really changed the landscape of pop music! But after The Buckinghams, you went on to do some acting and TV commercials. Are there any memorable experiences from that time you can share with us?
Dennis Tufano: My time on camera as an actor was brief and fast and what they called “a spit and a cough” [laughs], where if you coughed, you would miss me. The most fun part, actually, was acting in the Cheech and Chong movie, Up in Smoke. Lou Adler directed that movie — and Lou Adler had produced many records and he also produced three albums for Carl Giammarese and myself in the ’70s when we were working as a duo.
So Lou knew I wanted to act and he invited me to be a part of the Cheech and Chong film and I became Tommy Chong’s stand-in. Then, he gave me a couple of walk-on parts to do, like playing a drug addict at a party over here, and a cop over there. And he would just throw these little bit parts at me all the time so, basically, I could get my feet wet.
Spotlight Central: [Laughs] Hmm….now we know what movie we’re going to rent this weekend!
Dennis Tufano: [Laughs] Well, what’s funny is: if you get the special edition DVD of Up in Smoke, they have commentary where Cheech Marin and Lou Adler are talking through the movie about the various scenes, and when they get to a scene I’m in, Cheech actually goes, “HEY! There’s Dennis Tufano!”
So that was fun — it was my first introduction to acting. But then I did about twelve or thirteen commercials — you know, all kinds of different products and stuff. And I did a few years of live theater out here on the West Coast, which was fun to do — and that, too [laughs] involved singing where you didn’t have to yell.
I also got involved with a group that did improvisation and voice-overs on movies and TV shows. I was doing the background parts — like if there was a busy restaurant scene, we would play the people in the restaurant. We would improvise what was going on in the back, so the scene would seem live — because when they shoot movies, when the dialogue is being recorded, everybody in the background can only move their mouths because they can’t leak into the principal dialogue. So they had groups like ours called “ADR looping groups” who specially create characters and put words in their mouths to make it all seem live.
Spotlight Central: And speaking of movies, we recently covered one of the stars of of the movie, Grease, Olivia Newton John. We understand that you worked with her for a time back in the early 80’s on her live stage show. Is that right?
Dennis Tufano: Yes, I toured with her show for three months where I did some duets with her including “You’re the One That I Want” from Grease and “Suddenly” from Xanadu — they’re now on YouTube, which is great. And I actually went to see Olivia last year at The Flamingo when she was playing there and we had a little 34-year reunion. She sounds better than ever and she looked great, and we had a wonderful time catching up together.
Spotlight Central: She really comes across as a very special human being.
Dennis Tufano: She is — she’s, like, salt of the earth. I was so apprehensive to work with her when I did, because at the time, she was at the peak of her career, and I was thinking I was going to meet a diva. But, instead, I found out that she’s exactly who she is — she’s just the girl next door, and she’s really professional. We had a great time working out our duets together. In fact, really, one of the highlights of my career was working with her.
Spotlight Central: We understand that, coming up on Dec. 9, you’re going to be singing at UCPAC in Rahway, NJ in a show called Stars of the ‘60s. Can you tell us what audiences can expect to experience at this performance?
Dennis Tufano: It’s probably one of the best shows that I’ve been involved with in awhile. I mean, you’ve got The Lovin’ Spoonful, you’ve got Jay and the Americans, The Vogues, and Terry Sylvester — it’s almost like jumping into a jukebox! When I saw the line-up for the show, I went, “Wait a second! I hope it’s a long show, because we all have a lot of material here to give you.”
Spotlight Central: Well, we have our own favorite Buckinghams’ songs that you’ll be doing that night that we’re looking forward to hearing. But do you have any favorite songs by any of those groups that you’re looking forward to hearing?
Dennis Tufano: Oh, gosh — “5 O’Clock World” by The Vogues has always been one of my favorites; they have a great combo of material. And, of course, Terry Sylvester with The Hollies — just pick any one of their songs. The Hollies were a group that The Buckinghams looked up to, and we actually covered one of their songs, “I’ve Been Wrong,” on our first album.
And The Lovin’ Spoonful is one of the first groups we worked with back in 1965 at the McCormick Place in Chicago. They were headlining with The Yardbirds and The Turtles, and lots of the local bands in Chicago got to open at that show, so it’s like coming full circle to be with them again.
Spotlight Central: We’re looking foward to it! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Dennis Tufano: Well, I think it’s gonna be a really exciting evening because we’ve all worked together before — and we’ve actually been talking to each other over the past month about our all getting back together again in New Jersey. So we’re all kinda jazzed to be playing together in this five-group configuration — it’s gonna be great show and everyone’s gonna have a ball!
Stars of the ’60s — featuring The Lovin’ Spoonful, Jay and the Americans, The Vogues, Terry Sylvester of The Hollies, and The Buckingham’s Dennis Tufano — will be presented on December 9, 2017 at 8pm at the Union County Performing Arts Center, 1601 Irving Street in Rahway, NJ. Tickets are $37, $49, $57, and $67 and can be purchased from http://www.ucpac.org. For more info, please call 732–499–8226.
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