Kind Of A Drag – The Buckinghams | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning

Chart Performance: Pop (#1 for 2 weeks); 1967

Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne

Bumping the Monkees‘ I’m A Believer from the top after seven weeks was the first hit from Chicago’s Buckinghams. The Buckinghams were also familiar faces on television, however, only to those viewers within the WGN viewing radius.

Formerly known as the Pulsations, the band changed to the more British sounding “Buckinghams” at the request of the producers of the show, and played cover versions of the hits of the day.

After a failed release on Spectra Sound Records, the Buckinghams moved over to the U.S.A. label where the first three singles generated local action. The fourth single, Kind Of A Drag, came to the group from Jim Holvay and Gary Beisber of fellow Chicago group, The Mob.

Drag put the Buckinghams’ in the national top three alongside the Monkees and Rolling Stones. Holvay and Beisber wrote three more consecutive hits for the Buckinghams before the band’s turn in the spotlight was over.

This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.

Produced by:

  • Carl Bonafede
  • Dan Belloc

Lyrics Written by:

  • Jim Holvay

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Ed Osborne

Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).