The ’N Sync of the ’60s and ’70s

One of the major influences of the boy band phenomenon is the legendary group called The Lettermen. The boy band craze started some 46 years ago with the birth of the group, whose name, as one of its founding members would say, "was a wrong choice." I totally disagree. The Lettermen is one of the hottest bands still around. They have contributed numerous hits including The Way You Look Tonight, When I Fall in Love, Come Back Silly Girl, Goin’ Out Of My Head, Hurt So Bad among others. These songs are now cult classics.

The Lettermen started when Tony Butala, a young man from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania with a great passion for music, found the "three best-looking guys in Hollywood that could dance and sing and do solo as well as be a group singer." The guys came out in letter sweaters and became known as The Lettermen.

"And that was the philosophy," according to Butala in an interview in Oct. 2003. "It makes it much stronger than some groups that have one lead singer and some guys in the background going doo-wa doo-wa. We were the ‘N Sync of the ’60s and ’70s. The Lettermen are the original boy band."

The Lettermen emerged as the most romantic singing group of the era for its timeless love songs and romantic ballads such as The Way You Look Tonight, The Seventh Dawn and Theme From A Summer Place.

And in the next four and a half decades, The Lettermen stood the test of time and successfully met the challenge of a new generation of music and music fans with its songs of love and romance that ultimately evolved into good, quality and positive-harmony music that the whole family can enjoy.

For seven memorable nights this January, it will be the turn of thousands of music lovers from Metro Manila and Central Luzon and four major cities in the South to watch The Lettermen perform live its classic songs when it returns for a series of shows to be highlighted by a major concert on Jan. 12, 8 p.m. at the Araneta Coliseum.

Billed as The Lettermen…More!, the concert series to be mounted by Renen de Guia’s Ovation Productions will open with a dinner-show on Jan. 11 at Crowne Plaza Hotel, with John Lesaca as guest. Other performances are slated on Jan. 13 at St. LaSalle, Bacolod City; Jan. 14, Central Bank Auditorium, Davao City; Jan. 15, Cebu Waterfront Hotel, Cebu City; Jan. 16, Limketkai Mall, Cagayan de Oro City; and Jan. 19, Clark Expo, Pampanga.

The Lettermen… More! marks the return of the popular American vocal group less than a year after its successful six-day, five-city 2006 tour which was capped by a sold-out concert, also at the Big Dome. It will reunite the group with its Filipino fans whom it had consistently enthralled with the superb, quality and positive harmony of its enduring songs and ballads during the four times it had performed here since 1991.

Composed of Butala, Donovan Tea and Mark Preston, The Lettermen boasts an outstanding record as singers, entertainers, recording artists and concert performers since it was formed more than 46 years ago in Hollywood by Butala as a vocal group of "three very strong soloists who also had the ability and showmanship to perform and entertain an audience, and who had the discipline needed to be group singers."

As artists and performers, The Lettermen toured with George Burns, Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Bill Cosby and performed with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Jimmy Durante, Debbie Reynolds, Sam Cooke and Sammy Davis Jr. It also appeared several times on The Ed Sullivan Show and the members were regulars on The Red Skelton show and The Hollywood Palace.

It continued to cultivate a new crop of fans throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s as it made some 200 appearances on TV shows, such as Dick Clark’s American Bandstand series, was interviewed and performed on talk shows and variety shows with Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, Jack Paar, Milton Berle, Steve Allen, Dinah Shore and many others.

Tickets for the Araneta Coliseum concert on Jan. 12 are priced at P3,500, P3,000, P2,500, P1,500, P800 and P300 and available at Ticketnet outlets at SM Department Stores. For details, call Ticketnet at 911-5555.