“Kind of a Drag” was the song that propelled the Buckinghams into rock stardom back in the late ‘60s. The song would see them top The Monkees for #1 on the charts. Over the next two years they would follow that up with more Top 10 hits – “Don’t You Care,” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” “Hey Baby (They’re Playing Our Song)” and “Susan.” Heading into the ‘70s as the music scene changed and Sunshine Pop no longer in vogue, no longer were the Buckinghams. They had run their course, both musically and business-wise having been a bunch of teenagers spoiled by their instantaneous success although youth enough that they did not fully realizing what they had accomplished. In the end those hits did not pay the bills, bad management leaving them piled in debt. By 1970 they would go their separate ways.
It didn’t take longer for the band’s two front men – Dennis Tufano and Carl Giammarese – to put together a new band. They simply called it Tufano and Giammarese. Catching the ear of legendary music producer Lou Adler who had started up a new label Ode Records. As Adler had previously launched the careers of Jan and Dean along with the Mamas and Papas, he was known for providing full support for the artists he believed in.
Surprisingly, the group didn’t seem to have much success in their home town but around the country they were headlining and selling out concert halls and they were selling more albums than other known acts of their genre such as Seals and Crofts.
The album was successful, yet six months after its release the label deleted the album from the catalog. The band was going through internal problems as half the group was based in Chicago and half in Los Angeles and couldn’t even get together to practice. As was noted in a 1975 article, “When things boiled to a head, the band had to either break-up or break-down. The band broke-up on June 29, 1974.” The article goes on to note, “Coincidentally, the band reformed on June 29, 1974.”
This time Chicago based. Both Tufano and Giammarese had been busy writing new songs with the new lineup tightening their chops with gigs locally while they shopped for a new label. Ironically, they would return to Ode, “because the company had been more kind to them in the past and neither had hostility against the other.”
Surprisingly, even though they had shunned doing Buckinghams songs as their audiences had called out for, pressed by producer Jack Richardson they reprised “Kind of a Drag” https://youtu.be/y8OXup7PKMY with an updated soft-rock arrangement on their second album The Tufano & Giammarese Band. The new version failed to win back their faithful Buckinghams fans, nor did it win over any new followers.
Ode would give Tufano and Giammarese one more shot with The Other Side, but by that time the label itself was going through changes. Distribution was being moved from A&M to CBS Records, and as CBS took over the catalog, they were replacing Ode logos on re-issues causing confusion to record retailers and dropping key promotional support for the artists. That was like reading the last rites for a band.
In 1980, Chicago’s WLS radio programming executive John Gehron called Giammarese with an invitation to reunite the Buckinghams for an appearance at ChicagoFest. For the next two years the trio of original members performed at selected concerts in Chicago. When Tufano decided to return to California to resume a career in film voice work in early 1983, Giammarese and Fortuna committed to tour full-time as The Buckinghams. They have done so ever since. Giammarese released a solo album of his own material in 2017 with Living in the Moment (24/7 Records).
Heading to the west coast, Tufano would continue his musical career along with involvement in the television industry as an actor, voiceover artists and even a stuntman.
In 1979 he joined up with a disco assemblage of musicians under the direction of Jim Taylor on the album Bernadette (Butterfly) credited as the J.T. Connection featuring Dennis Tufano.
By 1983, he was back on the road touring, this time supporting Olivia Newton-John including duets on her hits “Suddenly” and “You’re the One That I Want.” As a composer he would work with Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin on his album He Who Rides the Tiger (Asylum).
Tufano was also one of the founding members of an improvisational voice-ensemble called the LA MadDogs. In 1992, this group of actors began performing in hundreds of movies and numerous television shows. They have produced and performed seven “live” radio dramas, three of which Tufano directed, for KMPC Radio Theater in Los Angeles.
In recent years Tufano has continued to perform his tribute to Bobby Darin, releasing I Remember Darin in 2007 and is often included as part of various artists “oldies” rock shows performing the hits of the Buckinghams.
Discography
ALBUMS
1973 Tufano-Giammarese (Ode 77017)
1975 The Tufano & Giammarese Band (Ode 77032)
1977 The Other Side (Ode/Epic 34969)
SINGLES
1973 Music Everywhere b/w Just a Dream Away (Ode 66033)
1973 Rise Up b/w Give Yourself a Dream (Ode 66036)
1975 Kind of a Drag b/w Sweet Delight (Ode 66114)
1975 Times Change b/w Let in the Light (Ode 66122)