The Buckinghams

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Never thought about them too much before, writing them off as an enjoyable second-line oldies act who had only one or two hits but, as Joseph McCombs points out on another thread, they had five top twenty hits in the space of about a year. Anyway, just listened to the comp Mercy Mercy Mercy and realized their deep-voiced blue-eyed soul vocal stylings give the Box Tops a run for their money, if not the Rascals. As an added bonus, you get some of the busiest drumming you've ever heard on an old AM radio hit, if not outside of a high school battle of the bands or a Who record. So I say classic.

My favorite track of theirs remains "Susan."

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 16 September 2005 13:05 (twenty years ago)

classic, though I mostly only know(and love) the hits, especially Don't You Care, at some point I downloaded something somewhere that was live or low-fi at least and it's raw as hell, like something off Nuggets.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 16 September 2005 13:11 (twenty years ago)

ALL OF THEIR 60's ALBUMS ARE GREAT. I can't stress that enough. Buy them all. Great songs, AMAZING arrangements, just a seriously great band. I don't know if they are underrated or what, but if you have never heard the albums and you love 60's rock & pop, you are missing out on some great stuff. sundazed put time & changes and portraits on one cd. i would go for that. none of the vinyl is very expensive though. all the original vinyl sounds great.even the first album, kind of a drag, on whatever label that thing was originally on.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 16 September 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

This is all we got on this thread?

I'm gonna have to check out that twofer. I am even enjoying their cover of "I'll Go Crazy."

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 16 September 2005 19:37 (twenty years ago)

What's the deal with the unedited version of "Susan?" There's a long musiqe concrete part in it or something? I don't know if I've ever heard it.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 16 September 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

"Kind of a Drag" isn't very good, but I do love "Don't You Care" and "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy"

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Friday, 16 September 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

I also like the one other big hit that hasn't been mentioned yet- "Hey Baby (They're Playing Our Song)"

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 16 September 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

The version of "Susan" I got has the middle part you're describing, Tim. I don't remember hearing it on the radio, but maybe I just tuned it out. Liner notes seem to indicate it was there in the hit version.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 16 September 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

Maybe. I do think there's an edited version, though.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 16 September 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

Maybe it came out that way at the time but it was edited for later oldies consumption?

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 16 September 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

Google hits on various music forums seemed to indicate it shipped both ways and may have been aired both ways as well.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 16 September 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

It's also worth noting that the musique concrete thing in the middle of Sagittarius' "My World Fell Down" is only on the 45 version -- it's the album cut that's edited!

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 16 September 2005 22:36 (twenty years ago)

Wasn't some of the Buckinghams stuff produced by James William Guercio, the guy who went on to produce 'Chicago'?

― SoHoLa (SoHoLa), Saturday, 17 September 2005 14:11 (twenty years ago)

As far as the psychedelic interlude that appears toward the end of "Susan" - I was always led to believe that the radio stations spliced it out themselves.

Now, about the Buckinghams...for a real surprise, get the PORTRAITS album, where they go whole-hog psychedelic, so much so that the two hit singles ("Susan" and "Hey Baby, They're Playing Our Song") sound wildly out of place. The album that followed (IN ONE EAR & GONE TOMORROW) has a similar balance, like they were aiming for the hippies, but had to throw in a couple of teenybopper love songs to please their old fans or something.

1967's TIME & CHARGES is more straight-ahead pop-rock, but they make a mild attempt at being progressive with "Foreign Policy" (featuring soundbites from a JFK speech). The first album, KIND OF A DRAG, has all or most of the early singles, and is a lot more garagey than you'd expect (especially the skull-crushing "Don't Want To Cry").

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Saturday, 17 September 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

Yes, SoHoLa, that's the same guy. I think he tried to make the Buckinghams go in a more Chicago direction, but they rebelled, so he went and formed Chicago instead. I believe there was also one guy who was in the Buckinghams at one point and later went on to join Chicago.

― k/l (Ken L), Sunday, 18 September 2005 00:12 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, the "Portraits" album blew me away when I bought it used sometime in the 80s. Friends would look at me with that WTF look when I played it. And even though those two chart busters do seem misplaced to say the least, it's still one of my favorite pieces of vinyl.

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 18 September 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

I was a trumpet player in high school back then; don't remember any albums at all, or buying (much less studying)the singles. I think we just (basically)*knew* all their hits, from hearing them on the radio so damn much (not a complaint, in this case). Years later, read that a couple of 'em were co-leading Tuffano-Giamanese, or something like that. I'll have to check out the albums. (At the time, I did really like the first albums by Electric Flag, Blood Sweat & Tears [pre-Clayton Thomas], and Chicago.Recently heard some later material by the Flag, man, which was mostly cookin', but later for later BS&T and Chicago [for the most part].)

― don, Sunday, 18 September 2005 03:02 (twenty years ago)

Did they ever do anything as bridging-the-psychedelic-with-the-bubblegum successful as the Box Tops' "Neon Rainbow"? I think "Susan" was a little too self-consciously trying to be different, would have been a solid pop song without the musique concrete but just became confused. (Same goes for the Monkees' "Listen to the Band," actually.)

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Sunday, 18 September 2005 03:13 (twenty years ago)

J. McCombs: "Did they ever do anything as bridging-the-psychedelic-with-the-bubblegum successful as the Box Tops''Neon Rainbow?'"

Going by what I've heard, the Buckinghams either did one (psych) or the other (AM radio pop music); they didn't toe the line.

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Sunday, 18 September 2005 06:07 (twenty years ago)

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The Buckinghams - C/D?