The Buckinghams – Kind of a Drag

This song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100 and #1 in Canada in 1967. This was an American band from Chicago that formed in 1966. They scored 3 top ten hits (#5 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, #6 Don’t you Care and this song).

The Buckingham was a band from Chicago that formed in 1966. They were very successful in 1967 and 68 and broke up in 1970. They reformed in 1980 and are still together today.

From Songfacts

“Kind of a Drag” was written by Jim Holvay, who was a friend of the band’s from Chicago. It is The Buckingham’s only #1 hit, although they peeked into the Top 10 twice more and charted a couple more times after that. Holvay went on to write “Don’t You Care,” “Susan” and “Hey Baby They’re Playing Our Song” for The Buckinghams.

Is that a song from the late-’60s/ early-’70s with a horn section? Then odds are good it’s produced by James William Guercio. Guercio produced both early Chicago and The Buckinghams, and the latter influenced the formation of Blood Sweat & Tears. Try playing “Kind of a Drag” back-to-back with “Saturday In The Park” (Chicago) and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” (BS&T).

Meet The Buckinghams: Dennis Tufano (vocals), Carl Giammarese (guitar), Martin Grebb (keyboard), Nick Fortuna (bass), Jon Poulos (drums). The band had dissolved by 1970, but a reunion has since taken place starting in 1980, with the only two original members now being Carl and Nick. Jon Poulos died from a drug overdose in 1980.

The Buckinghams had five charting hits, and they all occurred in 1967, prompting Billboard magazine to declare them “the most-listened-to band of the year.” So why did they fall off the map? In our interview with Tommy James, he explained that 1968 marked the emergence of album-oriented bands, with singles acts dying off. Said James: “When we left in August (1968, for the Democratic National Convention), all the big acts were singles acts. It was the Association, it was Gary Puckett, it was the Buckinghams, the Rascals, us. But the point was that it was almost all singles. In 90 days, when we got back, it was all albums. It was Led Zeppelin, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Joe Cocker, Neil Young. And there was this mass extinction of all of these other acts. It was just incredible. Most people don’t realize that that was sort of the dividing line where so many of these acts never had hit records again.”

The modern-day version of The Buckinghams have risen to such heights as playing at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration ball, and being inducted into the 2009 class of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

 

Kind of a Drag

Kind of a drag
When your baby don’t love you
Kind of a drag
When you know she’s been untrue

Oh oh, listen to what I’ve gotta to say
Girl, I still love you
I’ll always love you
Anyway, anyway, anyway

Kind of a drag
When your baby says goodbye
Kind of a drag 
When you feel like you want to cry

Oh oh girl, even though you make me feel blue
I still love you
I’ll always love you
Anyway, anyway, anyway

Oh, listen to what I’ve gotta say
Girl, I still love you
I’ll always love you
Anyway, anyway, anyway

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

25 thoughts on “The Buckinghams – Kind of a Drag”

  1. Some historical trivia from my region: The Who opened for the Buckinghams in 1967 at a high school in Kansas. It was Shawnee Mission South High School. This was about 30 miles from where I grew up. I was way too young to have gone, but our schools were rivals, and we grew up hearing the legend of the concert over the next decade. Anyway, I’ve always loved this Buckinghams song. It has been played a lot here over the years, which may be due to that concert.

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    1. Thank you for that… wow…that is cool if The Who opened up for you. They had a lot of top 100 songs…more than I would have ever dreamed before writing this.

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      1. It’s quite a story for sure. What I wouldn’t give to have been there. I can think of a handful of fun Buckinghams songs, and I’m not surprised that they had a lot more good ones.

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    1. I do also…I first heard it in the 80s…many of these older songs remind me of when I listened to an oldies channel

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      2. I have about everything now that I would want but…I do occasionally listen to oldies…sometimes I come across one I missed.
        I try to post some that aren’t played to death.

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      4. That is starting to be the case on a lot of them now. Yes Jimmy McCulloch was in that band…he played for Wings for a while…great talent but died young because of drugs.
        Can you imagine having youtube when we were young? I would have never left it….glad I didn’t have it lol.

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      5. He did die young, and yes, it is beginning to be the case. It’s truly sad.
        For me, my YouTube was the radio, American Bandstand & Soul Train. If I wanted to know the lyrics, the that was taken care of by “Tiger Beat” magazines. Lol…My friends and I bought “Teen Beat” magazines too! We were typical teenagers.

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      6. Magazines were the thing! It was hard to find lyrics unless they were on the album sleeve…I didn’t know Tiger Beat had them… My sister had Tiger Beat and David Cassidy everywhere…I mean you could not see her wall because of him.

        Rolling Stone was the magazine I read the most…and every Beatles book I could get my hands on. Their story is just incredible…from where they came from to how big…they still are.

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    1. Yea Sgt Pepper, The Band, and other albums took over as the format. It didn’t kill top 40 but it dampened it for a while.

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      1. I never knew that. My parents were listening to what is now called AM Gold. Our small town (small back then) local radio station didn’t play the rock side of Top 40. They stayed with easy listening. And, that is what the dial stayed on with my parents. Or, they played their albums. I didn’t know who Led Zeppelin was until high school.

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      2. Those albums really changed the landscape…I liked the top 40 but albums started to sell very well.
        In the early seventies my sister was not hip…whatsoever. I learned a lot from a cool cousin.

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