1967 began with a bang. The Monkees controlled the top spot for six straight weeks before relinquishing the number one spot to the Buckinghams. Even with holding the spot for six weeks, the Monkees do not hold the number one song of the entire year, 1967. That honor goes to a British lady which we will get to later in the year.

Meanwhile, the Buckinghams were fighting to take over the number one position and, finally, on February 18, they did. The Buckinghams were a five man group from Chicago. Their have been at least 18 different guys who were Buckinghams, but when they recorded “Kind of a Drag,” they consisted of Dennis Tufano as lead singer, Carl Giammarese on guitar, Nicholas Fortuna (who later briefly changed his name to Nicky Fortune) on bass, Dennis Miccoli on keyboards and Jon Paulos on drums. The Buckinghams are classified into a genre of music called “Sunshine Pop.” This was a light a breezy style of music that celebrated the earth, singing of flowers and such.. 1967 was the year of the Summer of Love. Other groups that could be called sunshine pop were The Mamas and the Papas and the 5th Dimension. The Beach Boys, too, were borderline sunshine pop.

The Buckinghams started out as a local Chicago band called the Pulsations, but decided to change their name to try to pick up some influence from the British invasion. The name Buckinghams sounds British and, I believe, back in 1967, when I was listening to music on the radio, I did think that the Buckinghams were British.

Working the clubs in 1966, they signed on to a local small record label called USA Records who had distribution only in Chicago. They recorded twelve records in 1966 and 1967 for USA, but most of them were covers of other people’s songs.

Then a pair of song writers, Jim Holvay and Gary Beisber gave them a demo tape which included “Kind of a Drag.” They liked it and decided to record it on USA Records. It got immediate attention and pretty soon, it was being played all over the country. For a record company with local ties and without national distribution, it’s amazing that the song went to number on the national charts. This, of course, brought national attention and soon, Columbia Records was knocking on the door. They could offer the Buckinghams much more in the way of money and exposure than USA could and so, the Buckinghams bailed on USA and signed on to Columbia.

Fame didn’t last long, however. They would have four Top 40 hits with Columbia and then fade from sight. The Buckinghams started breaking up as early as 1968 and two years later, they disbanded completely. They have been known to reunite for oldies concerts and reunions.

“Kind of a Drag” entered the pop charts on December 31, 1966 and took seven weeks to get to number one (probably because the Monkees were keeping them out.) It spent two weeks at number one and was the only number one hit the Buckinghams would ever have.