The Buckinghams, a rock band out of Chicago became one of the top selling acts of the 60s. Their hit song, first made them famous, "Kind of a Drag" is a standout favorite with their fans. Seven national chart hits would follow, including 15 singles, and 8 acclaimed albums. Billboard Magazine named them "The Most Listened to Band in America," making them one of the most beloved and respected Chicago bands ever to explode onto the national scene.

The band broke up in 1970, and reformed in 1980. After a highly acclaimed 25th Anniversary reunion tour, Carl Giammarese and Nick Fortuna return to perform on the 2011 Happy Together Tour, as The Buckinghams join The Turtles, Mark Lindsay, The Association, and The Grass Roots for this national tour. They will hit the legendary B.B. King Blues Club in New York City on September 28.

TimesSquare.com Editor-in-Chief Joey Franco caught up with Buckinghams bassist Nick Fortuna.

TimesSquare.com:So Nick, how does it feel to get together with the band after so many years?

Nick Fortuna: Oh, it's great… well we've actually done shows with all of the bands that were on the tour in the interim, but not on tour, just one offs.  We've seen each other trough the years, it's not as if we haven’t seen each other since 85!

TS: The B.B. King show is coming up on September 28^th, what sort of material should the fans expect from this show?

NF: Of course were going to do all the Buckingham big hits, and well do a couple of little things off the album.  We also do some cover stuff in our own way and our own arrangement.  We have a pretty good variety of 60s stuff which launches people right back to that time period… the show is pretty entertaining.

TS: Do you have any past memories from playing in New York City?

NF: Originally when our band had first come out in the 60s, we did a lot of work in New York City… plus on top of that we did recordings at CBS, so we spent a lot of time in New York, especially in Manhattan.

At that particular time the village was really happening.  We would go to the Electric Circus, which was a really big club back in the 60s, and a lot of celebs would hang around in these clubs.  There were also a lot of musicians.  New York is always happening, but it was really, really happening back then.

TS: What sort of music did you listen to while you were growing up?

NF: Of course in the 50s, I was listening to Elvis… you gotta understand something, radio was not divided into different categories like R&B stations, a blues station, a country station, or a pop station… it was one station!  They played anything from Elvis to Sinatra to Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis.  Everybody that made records was played on the same radio station, so I listened to basically everything but I really sort of pulled into the R&B, Motown thing.  Growing up in Chicago, R&B was a big thing.

TS: Are there any current bands in today's music landscape that have caught your ear?

NF: The only person that’s really made a pretty big impression on me is Lady Gaga, she’s pretty innovative in her own right.  I see shades of Madonna in her.  I do like a lot of the R&B solo artists.

I definitely thing that bands like Maroon 5 have some good tunes, but there’s nobody around that’s going to be another Beatles, or another Luther Vandros in the industry right now.

The Buckinghams will be performing at B.B. King Blues Club in the heart of Times Square on Wednesday September 28^th.   Tickets are available for purchase here 

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