The Lettermen back on Nov. 11 for 2013 Phl tour

MANILA, Philippines - Music fans will be treated to four delightful and memorable evenings of some of the great hits of the ‘60s from one of the most popular male pop vocal groups of all time when The Lettermen returns for another nostalgia tour that will kick off with a major concert on Nov. 11 at the Newport Performing Arts Theater at Resorts World Manila, Pasay City.

The four-night, four-city series of shows billed  as The Lettermen Philippine Tour  2013 will  also include performances on Nov. 12 at The Manila Hotel Tent, Manila; Nov. 15, Dotties Place, Butuan City; and Nov. 16, Rose Memorial Hall, Central Philippine University, Iloilo City.

Ovation Productions is bringing back the legendary pop act  three years after its 2010 concert in the fourth of a string of sold-out tours since 2006 that opened the doors for the entry of other top foreign singers and artists and touched off a revival trend for imported acts that forever changed the face of local music and entertainment.

With its series of shows from 2006 through 2007 and 2008 until 2010, the American pop vocal trio has consistently demonstrated its popular appeal and drawing power as it captivated millions of fans with its signature close-harmony pop songs with light arrangements that set the standard for other imported groups that followed it.

Its 2013 concert tour — the group’s eighth visit in almost 40 years — is expected to draw another record turn-out from The Lettermen’s strong fan base of Baby Boomers to Generation X’ers  during a nostalgia evening steeped in the fadeless sounds and era of the music of yesteryears.

Acclaimed for its timeless love songs and romantic ballads, The Lettermen will treat concert-goers to  fabulous array of  classic pop songs  such as The Way You Look Tonight, When I Fall In Love, Theme From A Summer Place, Goin’ Out Of My Head, Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing, The Seventh Dawn and Shangri-la.

Since it was formed more than 50 years ago by Tony Butala, The Lettermen has been recognized worldwide for its record of musical brilliance as singers, entertainers, recording artists and concert performers who are distinguished for their sweet and soothing music that evokes the beautiful and exciting sounds of big-band vocal groups and early R&B and rock groups of the ‘60s.

The original Lettermen composed of Tony, Jim Pike and Bob Engemann made its auspicious concert debut in 1958 in Las Vegas, Nevada, followed by the successful launching in 1960 of its recording career with the debut single, The Way You Look Tonight, which vaulted to No. 13 on the Billboard chart.

The second single, When I Fall In Love, hit No. 7 and established The Lettermen as the most romantic singing group of the ‘60s.

The Lettermen’s star continued to rise when its debut album, A Song For Young Love, landed on the Top 10 — its first of 32 consecutive Top 40 albums that charted in the Top 100 in the US, four of which were certified gold: The Lettermen!!!...and Live (1967), Goin’ Out Of My Head (1968), Best Of The Lettermen (1969) and Hurt So Bad (1970).

In almost every music industry poll during that period, The Lettermen was voted as Best New Group or Best Vocal Group following the release of two more albums — Once Upon A Time and Jim, Tony and Bob, a take-off from the first names of the band’s original members.

The group continued to dominate the charts in the ‘60s through the early ‘70s as it scored over 25 hit singles, including Theme From A Summer Place (No. 16, 1965, from the Sandra Dee/Troy Donahue film of the same title); Goin’ Out Of My Head/Can’t Take My Eyes Off You (No. 7, 1968, the first hit record ever to completely integrate two songs as one) and Hurt So Bad (No. 12, 1969).

Its signature sound led by Tony’s distinctly breathy vocals also made romantic standards of and turned into all-time favorites songs such as Smile, Put Your Head On My Shoulder, Shangri-la and Love.

It reached out to a new generation of fans as it made more than 200 appearances on top-rated US television shows, including Dick Clark’s American Bandstand series, was interviewed and performed on talk shows and variety programs with Johnny Carson, Jerry Lewis, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, Jack Paar, Milton Berle, Steve Allen and Dinah Shore.

A frequent visitor to the Philippines since the early ‘70s, it has endeared itself to Pinoy fans by constantly including in its concerts Tagalog hit songs like Dahil Sa Iyo and Sapagka’t Kami Ay Tao Lamang, which it performs with near-perfect enunciation and pronunciation of the language to the delight of its audiences.

Over the years, The Lettermen has undergone several changes in its line-up, replacing members who left for various reasons with new ones to maintain a vocal trio. Its current combination of members (starting in 2011) is composed Tony, Donovan and Bobby.

(The Lettermen  Philippine Tour 2013 is presented by Ovation Productions in association with  Air21, 2nd Avenue, Diva Universal, Jack TV  and Sixt Rent A Car.  It is also supported by The Philippine STAR, Manila Bulletin, BusinessWorld  and  OptimaSignsolutions.   For details, call Newport Performing Arts Theater, RWM, Pasay City at  908-8000 loc. 7700/891-9999/911-5555 or visit www.rwmanila.com; The Manila Hotel Tent, Manila, 527-0001/911-5615; Dotties Place, Butuan City,  0999-3759968/0946-5813354; Rose Memorial Hall, CPU, Iloilo City, 0915-5353873/0932-3290573.)