The year 1967 was known for its “Summer of Love,” but it also warmly embraced the Buckinghams.
The Chicago band notched five hit singles that year, including the chart-topping “Kind of a Drag.”
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The Buckinghams will fire up memories of a buoyant era at the “Salute to the ’60s” show that is set for 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27 at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond.
The throwback concert had been a staple at Merrillville’s Star Plaza Theatre for nearly 30 years. The 3,400-seat structure will be razed this year as part of new development that includes hotel construction.
The scheduled demolition prompted the move of the annual ’60s tribute to The Venue at Horseshoe Casino.
Headlining will be Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone. With hit singles such as “I’m Into Something Good” and “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” Herman’s Hermits were one of the most successful “British Invasion” acts to storm America in 1964 and 1965.
The Horseshoe show likewise features the Grass Roots, whose hook-laden hit singles from the ’60s includes “Midnight Confessions” and “I’d Wait a Million Years.”
Utilizing a brassy sound, the Buckinghams molded its own string of hits that included the Top 10 singles “Don’t You Care” and “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.”
Buckinghams lead singer Carl Giammarese believes his band’s contribution to the rock ‘n’ roll genre lies in the fresh approach to recordings that it fashioned.
“I think we created a whole new sound in pop music, in a lot of ways,” Giammarese said in a phone interview this month. “We were the originators of the pop-rock horn sound. We came up with this kind of trombone-driven horn sound.”
The Star Plaza Theatre had welcomed and hosted the distinctive Windy City style of the Buckinghams for roughly three decades.
“We play a lot of dates over the course of the year, and the Star Plaza was my favorite venue,” said Giammarese, a resident of Chicago’s western suburbs. “When they decided to tear it down, it was very disappointing.”
However, Giammarese feels the long-running ’60s show has found a promising new home at Horseshoe Casino.
“I hear so many great things about that venue; it’s supposed to be really first class,” said the singer, a founding member of the Buckinghams.
Giammarese will be joined at the Horseshoe date by bassist Nick Fortuna, a fellow original Buckinghams member.
The pair brings a storied history with them.
The Buckinghams played “The Ed Sullivan Show,” a seminal television variety program. The Buckinghams also shared the bill with an impressive array of pop music standouts.
“We played dates with Three Dog Night,” Giammarese, 70, recalled.
He and his bandmates also logged dates with Neil Diamond, the Monkees and the Turtles.
Likewise racking up a notable pop reputation were the Grass Roots, who enjoyed a stream of 14 Top 40 hits from the mid ’60s through the early ’70s.
“‘Let’s Live For Today’ became a pop-rock anthem,” said Mark Dawson, the Grass Roots’ lead singer and bassist. “I love ‘Temptation Eyes’ because that’s really one that the crowd just always gets into.”
The 61-year-old resident of Orlando, Fla., thinks his band helped the United States reclaim some of the spotlight it had lost when artists from across the Atlantic Ocean turned the musical tide.
“I really believe that the Grass Roots were in that wave of American music making a big comeback after the British Invasion,” Dawson said.
Bob Kostanczuk is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
‘Salute to the ’60s’
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Where: Horseshoe Casino, 777 Casino Center Drive, Hammond
When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27
Tickets: $40, $45, $105; 21 and older only
Information: 219-473-7000, horseshoehammond.com