Carl Giammarese - Columbia Records Career

Columbia Records Career

When Columbia released “Don’t You Care,” it moved quickly up the same charts that still held “Kind of a Drag” and “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” on USA Records, giving The Buckinghams three singles atop the Top 10 simultaneously on two different labels.

The end of the 1960s found The Buckinghams’ musical tastes changing with the times. They tried psychedelic looks and sounds, but Columbia Records preferred sticking with the proven pop rock sound and look. Convinced they could write, sing and produce their own material, The Buckinghams splintered, helped along by a series of events. They’d parted company with Guercio over publishing rights, royalties, and profits. Columbia assigned staff producer Jimmy “The Wiz” Wisner to produce their fourth album, “In One Ear and Gone Tomorrow.” Only one single, “Back in Love Again” would chart, but the album more closely represented the group’s developing musical talents. Another Wisner-produced song written by Marty Grebb, “You Misunderstand Me,” would find new life on the Northern Soul circuit; Giammarese includes it in the band's current concert lineup.

Columbia assigned a fourth producer, John Hill, to record tracks and before The Buckinghams decided to split in 1970, they’d recorded several new songs, some of their own composition, which would later find modest success 30 years later. Two songs cowritten by John Turner, who joined on keyboards after Grebb departed (“It’s a Beautiful Day" and “Difference of Opinion,”) were included on Sony/Legacy’s compilation CD, “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” which still shows strong sales.