The Lettermen

During the 1960s, when shifting musical fashions left countless longtime listeners somewhat adrift, the Lettermen achieved considerable commercial traction through their close-harmony pop songs, whose gentle melodies, light arrangements, and romantic core struck a resonant chord. Their very first Capitol Records release, the 1961 single “The Way You Look Tonight,” not only reached the Top 20 but also inaugurated a total of twenty Billboard Hot 100 entries that encompassed the Top Ten hits “When I Fall in Love” (1961) and the 1967 medley “Goin’ out of My Head/Can’t Take My Eyes off You.” From their 1962 debut album A Song for Young Love—which attained a career-best position of number six—through the 1972 collection Lettermen 1, the trio placed more than two dozen consecutive titles on the Billboard 200. Their popularity extended well beyond those peak years: founding member Tony Butala remained active until his semi-retirement in 2019, the 1987 holiday set It Feels Like Christmas continued to be reissued well into the streaming era, 2000’s Greatest Movie Hits refreshed their catalog, and New Directions 2010 recast several signature numbers with Les Brown, Jr. & His Band of Renown. In 2019 the group received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, while tours and annual fan conventions persisted into the next decade.

Tony Butala formed the Lettermen in 1959 with Brigham Young University alumni Jim Pike and Bob Engemann. After roughly a year of unsuccessful recordings, the trio signed with Capitol Records, where their debut single—a Jerome Kern–Dorothy Fields standard titled “The Way You Look Tonight”—climbed to number 13 on the Hot 100 late in 1961. The follow-up, a revival of the Doris Day hit “When I Fall in Love,” rose to number seven in January 1962. Their first long-player, A Song for Young Love, entered the album chart at number six that same year. Additional 1962 releases Once Upon a Time and Jim, Tony, and Bob preceded the 1963 sets College Standards and the live album Lettermen in Concert. The following year yielded A Lettermen Kind of Love, The Lettermen Look at Love, and She Cried, while 1965 brought You’ll Never Walk Alone, Portrait of My Love, and The Hit Sounds of the Lettermen; every one of these LPs charted in the upper half of the Billboard 200, with the last-mentioned reaching number 13. More Hit Sounds of the Lettermen appeared in 1966 alongside A New Song for Young Love and the seasonal collection For Christmas This Year, and Capitol also issued the first compilation, The Best of the Lettermen. Warm, Spring! (1967) peaked at number 31, and the live set The Lettermen!!...And Live! finished the year inside the Top Ten. Goin’ Out of My Head, the initial studio album of 1968, climbed to number 13.

Although the group scored only one further Top Ten single—the 1968 medley “Goin’ Out of My Head/Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” the same year Gary Pike replaced Bob Engemann—its Billboard 200 streak continued, and steady concert work sustained the act long after many similar ensembles had disbanded. The 1968 albums Special Request and Put Your Head on My Shoulder both charted outside the Top 40 yet still reached the Top 100, while Hurt So Bad (1969) attained number 17. That year’s I Have Dreamed stopped at number 74; Traces/Memories and Reflections followed in 1970, both landing outside the Top 40, as did the three 1971 studio efforts Everything’s Good About You, Feelings, and Love Book—the latter marking their final Top 100 album. Lettermen 1 reached number 136 in 1972, after which Live in Japan became the first Lettermen full-length to miss the chart entirely. Spin Away and A Time for Us completed the year’s output, and 1973’s Alive Again...Naturally made a final chart appearance at number 193.

Donny Pike took Jim Pike’s place in 1974, and the lineup of Butala, Donny Pike, and Gary Pike issued a steady succession of albums through the late 1970s. In 1979 the members established their own Alfa Omega Records and began releasing new material more intermittently. Former colleagues Jim Pike and Bob Engemann launched Reunion in 1983 with Ric de Azevedo (later replaced by Gary Pike), issuing several albums on Collectables, while Tony Butala kept the Lettermen on the road. He, Donovan Tea, and Mark Preston recorded Evergreen in 1985 and Why I Love Her in 1986. The 1987 holiday album It Feels Like Christmas proved especially durable, receiving periodic reissues for decades. Preston departed temporarily in 1988 and was succeeded by Ernie Pontiere. The Capitol Collectors Series collection appeared in 1993, the same year Love Is All was released; by then the trio consisted of Butala, Tea, and Bobby Poynton. After two further Christmas projects, Greatest Movie Hits arrived in 2000 with Darren Dowler filling Poynton’s role. Butala, Tea, and Preston reconvened for the 2006 edition of Why I Love Her and again for New Directions 2010, the latter recorded with Les Brown, Jr. & His Band of Renown.

Preston exited once more in 2011, prompting Poynton’s return; the roster remained stable until 2019, when Butala, after sixty years, elected to step back from full-time participation. Tea and Poynton continued, enlisting Rob Gulack—selected through a national talent search—as the third member. That same year the Lettermen were inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Universal issued the compilation Best Selection.