Hi Kent,
Nick and I would love to share with you and your loyal Forgotten Hits Readers two songs from The Buckinghams' latest CD, "Reaching Back." The cuts are "I'll Never Say Good Bye" and "Love Is You" and we'd love for you to feature these as part of your "Brand New Music From Some Of Your Old Favorites" website feature. “Reaching Back” is a gift back to the fans who’ve been loyal since the 60s. We began touring fulltime again back in 1982, and, at the suggestion of our road manager, Susan Rakis, we were the first classic rock artists to do “meet and greets” after concerts. Through the years, fans have asked, “can you record some new music but make it sound like the great songs you gave us in the 60s?”. With that as incentive, I wrote 8 new songs for “Reaching Back” and with Nick Fortuna on bass, Bob Abrams on lead guitar, Bruce Soboroff on keyboards, and Tom Scheckel on drums, “Reaching Back” takes you back to the sounds from the 60s. Life was easy, as every week America would tune in to Ed Sullivan’s “Really Big Show”, Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” and the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour to watch The Buckinghams.
We'll be performing some of our new songs from "Reaching Back" in and around Chicagoland next month. We're headlining The Chicago Hitmakers Show, which will consist of two concerts set for Friday, May 29th at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, and Saturday, May 30th at the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville, Indiana. We'll be joined on stage by our friends The Ides of March, featuring the exceptional Jim Peterik, and the Rock & Roll Live Wikipedia, Ronnie Rice, formerly of The New Colony Six. We're also set to play for the Multiple Sclerosis Society benefit, the North Shore Wine Tasting Festival, to be held at the Cuneo Museum on Sunday, May 3rd. More info on all of our upcoming shows is available at www.thebuckinghams.com
I also wanted to take a moment to share what two of the former Buckinghams are doing in May. Dennis Tufano is appearing in Las Vegas, May 17th, at the South Point Casino for a great cause — it’s the Bobby Darin Lifetime Event, benefiting the Children’s Heart Foundation, plus it’s the 50th anniversary of Mack the Knife. Marty Grebb is set to perform a concert of the group Chicago’s hits, three evenings in the Philippines, joined by Chris Pinnick, Kenny Cetera, and Tim Scott, with special concert opener, Anna Grebb, Marty’s daughter.
On behalf of all of The Buckinghams, we just wanted to say thanks, Kent, for your support of all the great Chicago musicians, and for the great memories daily on Forgotten Hits.
Carl Giammarese
The Buckinghams
Thanks, Carl ... and thanks for sharing these two new tracks. The "Reaching Back" album, in addition to recreating the sound of The Buckinghams of the '60's on some brand new material ALSO features newly recorded remakes of the band's biggest hits ... you'll find brand new versions of Kind Of A Drag, Don't You Care, Hey Baby, They're Playing Our Song, Susan and Mercy, Mercy, Mercy as "bonus tracks" on the new CD ... VERY faithful renditions of your favorite tunes, brought up to date in a contemporary way that still manages to pay homage to the sounds we all grew up loving back in the '60's.
(By the way, regarding those original recordings from the '60's ... rumor has it that the complete Buckinghams Columbia catalog is about to be released as Sony digital downloads in the not-too-distant future ... we'll keep you up to date on THESE developments, too!)
And, when you stop by The Buckinghams' website, be sure to check out Carl's new SOLO release, too.
Click here: The Buckinghams - Home Page
Very special thanks to Carl Giammarese and Nick Fortuna of The Buckinghams (as well as Dawn Lee Wakefield, their publicist) for their help in putting together today's special "Brand New Music From Some Of Your Old Favorites" feature.
