Not a concert goes by without Gary Puckett paying tribute to our nation’s heroes.
“It’s just not a complete show anymore without me being able to say thank you to the vets and play a song for them,” Puckett said.
He started the tradition in the early 1980s, playing the song “Home” from “The New Gary Puckett & the Union Gap Album.” He’s been doing so ever since.
“I’m really glad that it caught on, because the Vietnam guys particularly, did not get a welcome home,” he said.
He also tells veterans about the “Aid and Attendance Pension” offered through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Puckett first learned of the program from neighbor and wounded veteran, Robert Maggi, who created Maggi Veterans Solutions to help connect veterans to the possible funds.
“Only about 23 or 24 percent of the veterans are aware of the program. I’m still trying to spread the word and help the vets get to Robert Maggi so they can go through the process and see if they qualify,” he said.
Puckett will pay tribute to all veterans when he and the Union Gap perform July 4 at Festival Park at Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin. Also performing are Herman’s Hermits featuring Peter Noone and Gary Lewis & the Playboys. The concert begins at 5:30 p.m., and gates open at 4:30 p.m.
“It will be a fun show, I’ve worked with these guys a lot over the last many years. Gary Lewis has so many fun great hits. He and I were together on the Happy Together Tour in 2013 … I got to know Gary well on that tour, particularly, although we’ve known each other over the years.
“And Peter, of course, he’s the wacky Englishman that he is, and we’ve known him for many years and worked with him many, many times. He’s got a great show, an absolutely great show and excellent band. And we all get along very, very well.
“It’s going to be fun for us,” he said. “It’s almost like Old Home Week when we get together.”
During the 1960s, Gary Puckett & the Union Gap had several Top Ten Billboard Hits including “Young Girl,” “Woman, Woman” and “Lady Willpower.”
Growing up, music was an important part of Puckett’s childhood. His mother played piano and his father played saxophone. While they didn’t choose music for their careers, they played in a big band and sang in barbershop quartets.
“My dad was in a barbershop quartet, and the barbershop quartets would come to the house to sing and I would sit and listen and be amazed with the harmonies,” Puckett said. “And oftentimes my mom would play piano with them. And she was a part of what they called the Sweet Adelines, which was the ladies version. So music was always there.”
When he was 6 years old, his parents signed him up for piano lessons. While he would have rather been playing outside, they persisted, and music became an even bigger presence in his life.
“And then along came rock ‘n’ roll, and I was ripe for that sort of picking, if you want to call it that. Because rock ‘n’ roll to me was just an exciting new thing. I saw that movie “Blackboard Jungle” and I heard Bill Haley and the Comets,” Puckett said. “And of course Elvis Presley became a big thing to me along with so many other artists from Fats Domino to Little Richard to the Everly Brothers, the Coasters, the Platters and so many others that were just a big part of that rock ‘n’ roll era.”
When he was 15, Puckett found a guitar in his grandparents’ attic. Soon he was playing honky-tonk and then joined a band, he said. His parents wanted him to pursue higher education, and he attended college for a couple of years.
“As time went by I found myself more and more involved in the local music scene. Pretty soon I just went into it wholeheartedly,” he said. “And fortunately I was able to make it work.”
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With radio stations at the time receiving up to 500 records every month, getting a chance at airplay was very competitive, Puckett said.
“Oftentimes the records were released with just a little brown or black or red or gray or white sleeve. There was nothing to indicate what that group looked like, unless they were already a success. Then you’d see a picture of Paul Revere and the Raiders, for instance, or whoever it might have been,” he said. “I thought if we could make a great record, that’d be a great start, but also thought it might be a helpful if we had a picture on the sleeve that might stop somebody and they might think ‘I wonder what this record sounds like, look at this picture, it’s pretty cool.'”
Since he had a strong interest in the Civil War period and grew up near Washington’s Yakima Valley — where Union Gap is located — Puckett came up with the idea of the band dressing in uniforms of the Union soldiers. The idea contributed to the success of the group, with a program director/disc jockey in Columbus, Ohio, noticing the photo and wondering what the record sounded like.
“So he auditioned it, and it went to No. 1 on his station,” Puckett said.
Over the years Gary Puckett & the Union Gap went on to release several albums. In June the band released its latest, “Gary Puckett & the Union Gap Live in Las Vegas.”
Puckett said he hopes to do more recording in the fall, possibly music from the Big Band era.
“Plus, my brother and I years ago wrote a whole passel of Christian/spiritual songs that I think I may find the ability to get done pretty soon,” he said. “So we’re going to do that as well, and who knows what the future will bring.”
Kathy Cichon is a freelance writer.
Herman’s Hermits with Peter Noone, Gary Puckett & the Union Gap and Gary Lewis & the Playboys
When: July 4
Where: Festival Park at Grand Victoria Casino, 250 Grove Ave., Elgin
Tickets: $5 lawn, $29.50-$39.50 reserved
Information: 847-468-7000 or http://www.grandvictoriacasino.com/events/gvc-summer-concert-series/