Why The Lettermen is a big hit among Pinoy fans

MANILA, Philippines - Few musical acts in the past 50 years have consistently enjoyed greater popularity and following worldwide than The Lettermen, the celebrated male pop vocal group of the ’60s which has captivated fans with pop hits like The Way You Look Tonight, Theme From A Summer Place, Goin’ Out Of My Head, Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing, and many more.

In the Philippines, The Lettermen has earned a special place in the  hearts of music lovers for its beautiful and inspiring rendition of local songs during its concerts that has imbued its act with distinctive Pinoy spirit and flavor.

Over the years, the group has built and sustained a strong and loyal fanbase of Baby Boomers and Generation X’ers who have constantly demanded for more of its acts despite the number of times it has performed here in the past.

Pinoy fans will have another opportunity to enjoy the delightful and enduring sounds of yesteryears when The Lettermen returns for another nostalgia tour that will kick off with a major concert  tonight at the Newport Performing Arts Theater, Resorts World Manila, Pasay City.

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

Ovation Productions is bringing back the popular group more than 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 foreign singers and artists and touched off a revival trend for imported acts that forever changed the face of local music and entertainment.

This year’s tour is expected to trigger a resurgence of The Lettermen phenomenon that first swept the music scene more than 40 years ago when the vocal combination of three talented male singers conquered millions of listeners through close-harmony songs with light arrangements and sold-out concerts.

Among the songs that the group became  famous for were  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.

The Lettermen scored a big hit among Filipinos during the 1974 Miss Universe beauty pageant in Manila when it serenaded the contestants on coronation day with rendition of the classic, Dahil Sa Iyo, that blew away the audience inside the Folk Arts Theater and hundreds of millions of  televiewers in the Philippines and other parts of the world.

The Lettermen endeared itself further by including a selection of popular Pinoy love songs and romantic ballads in its song list during its numerous performances to earn the distinction of being a foreign musical act with Filipino spirit.

Among the local songs that it performs with near-perfect enunciation and pronunciation of the  language are Dahil Sa Iyo, Sapagka’t Kami Ay Tao Lamang, Ikaw and Hindi Kita Malimot. 

Since it was formed more than 50 years ago by Tony Butala, The Lettermen has been recognized worldwide for its record of musical brilliance.

The original Lettermen made an auspicious concert debut in February, 1958 in the Desert Inn Hotel Resort Showroom in Las Vegas, Nevada  when the vocal trio of Tony Butala, Mike Barnett and Talmadge Russell performed in the record-shattering revue, Newcomers of 1928.

Two years later, The Lettermen — now with a new line-up composed of Tony, Jim Pike and Bob Engemann — was signed to Capitol Records and released in the summer of 1961 its debut single, The Way You Look Tonight, a soft, melodic and romantic ballad which vaulted to No. 13 on the Billboard chart.

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

The Lettermen’s star continued to rise with its next single, Come Back Silly Girl, which reached No. 17, while 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/I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You (1968), Best Of The Lettermen (1969) and Hurt So Bad (1970).

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).

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 of Tony Butala, Donovan Tea and Bobby Poynton.

(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 ticket inquiries and reservation, 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; and Rose Memorial Hall, CPU, Iloilo City, 0915-5353873/0932-3290573.)