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The Buckinghams formed in 1965 in the Chicago area, consisting of Carl Giammarese, Nick Fortuna, Jon Jon Poulos, Dennis Tufano and Dennis Miccoli. Their break came when they won a "Battle of the Bands" contest sponsored by a Chicago TV show, "All Time Hits", and were awarded a 14-week gig on the show. This being the height of the "British invasion", the show wanted the band to have a more British-sounding name, and settled on The Buckinghams.
In 1966 the group signed a contract with USA Records, a Chicago label, Their first records were covers of hit songs: James Brown's "I'll Go Crazy", The Beatles' "I Call Your Name", The Hollies' "I've Been Wrong Before". They sold fairly well in the Chicago area, but the band needed a national hit to cement their reputation. They found it in "Kind of a Drag", which sold more than a million copies and went to #1 on the national pop charts.
The group soon left USA Records for the much larger Columbia Records, and had another hit with "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", which was previously a hit for Lloyd Price. Their next song was an even bigger hit, "Don't You Care", reaching #6 on the national charts. The band soon became a hot property on TV teen and variety shows, appearing on such programs as The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) and American Bandstand (1952). It was during this period that they came out with yet another hit, a remake of Cannonball Adderley's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", which got to #5 on the charts. In 1967 their string of hits continued with "Susan" and "Hey Baby, They're Playing Our Song", which reached #11 and #12, respectively.
Unfortunately, things began to decline in 1968. Their album, "In One Ear and Gone Tomorrow", didn't produce one hit single. They went through a string of personnel changes, which didn't help matters, and the next year they decided to disband. In 1980 the band--minus Jon Poulos, who had died of a drug overdose earlier that year--reunited for a reunion show sponsored by Chicago radio station WLS.
