Carl Giammarese
| Carl Giammarese | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The Buckinghams |
| Origin | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Rock & Roll |
| Years active | 1965 — present |
| Labels | USA Records Columbia Records Sony/Legacy Nation Records BML Records 24/7 Records Fuel Records |
| Website |
www Biography on the Buckinghams Website |
| Members | Carl Giammarese (Lead vocals and guitar) Nick Fortuna (Bass and vocals) Bruce Soboroff (Keyboards and vocals) Rocky Penn (Drums) Dave Zane (Guitar and vocals) |
Carl Giammarese (born August 21, 1947) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist and vocalist for The Buckinghams.
Giammarese was born in northwest Chicago, Illinois. His study of guitar began in 1960 and continued at Catholic grammar school St. Thomas of Canterbury and high school at Lane Tech in Chicago, . His first musical influences were The Ventures’ Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, and the Chantays, who started the craze of surfer rock, with their unique guitar riffs. Influenced by a high school teacher, Giammarese’s musical interests expanded from surfer rock to jazz and early rhythm and blues. His first guitar was a used Harmony open top guitar, a gift from his father in 1960. At home, Giammarese took in the big band sounds favored by his parents. His next musical influence was James Burton, who played guitar for Ricky Nelson’s band every week on The Ozzie and Harriet Show. Future legend and neighborhood guitarist Harvey Mandel was Giammarese’s next instructor, from whom Carl took lessons while part of his first band, The Centuries. By this point, he was using a solid-body Gibson SG guitar to play dates.
From Mandel, Giammarese developed his string technique to reproduce the string-bending styles of the blues. When The Beatles came to America, Giammarese’s musical education extended to the unique chords and rhythms their new sounds offered. While he was studying with Mandel, Giammarese was invited by his cousin Gerald Elarde, a talented drummer and vocalist, to join a band Elarde was forming. The lineup for The Centuries included Elarde, Giammarese on lead guitar, Nick Fortuna, Elarde's classmate at Niles West High School, on rhythm guitar, and Curt Bachman, Elarde's neighborhood friend, for bass guitar and shared vocal duties. The Centuries quickly became popular as they played neighborhood events, teen parties, and weddings.
To set them apart from other local groups, The Centuries also created their first distinct "look", inspired by The Beatles. The Beatles' influence was reinforced by the Carnaby Street look that Giammarese and band members adopted as they selected suits from clothing stores on Chicago's Maxwell Street. The Centuries were one of the first Chicago bands to cover Beatles songs in their 1963–1964 appearances.
Giammarese traded in the Gibson, as he and fellow Centuries member, Nick Fortuna, bought white Fender Stratocasters. The Centuries played Chicago’s most popular dance club venues, including Dan Belloc’s Holiday Ballroom, the Embassy Ballroom, the Aragon Ballroom (later renamed The Cheetah Club), and Scott’s, and other teen hangouts. The Centuries played all the hits by The Hollies, The Byrds, The Kinks, and included James Brown’s latest hits in their repertoire.
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