Bill Burkette, The Vogues’ longtime lead singer, brings the band and those rich vocal harmonies to the Palladium

 For Bill Burkette, lead singer of the The Vogues, his musical career, like his life, has been a series of reinventions.

The Vogues started as high school kids doing R & B demos as the Val-Airs, with help from their high school principal in the Pittsburgh suburb called Turtle Creek. Vocal groups were still the rage and these kids could sing.

“They call it Doo Wop now but we called it Rhythm and Blues back then.  The inspiration was The Dells “Oh What a Night” That’s how the harmonies came about,’ says Burkette, during a phone call from his home in Pennsylvania.

The demos got some traction locally. The first reinvention was a name change, the first and last for the band, which turned them into The Vogues. Burkette says they weren’t named after the fashion magazine but after a local teen club called Vogue Terrace.

By 1966, Burkette and The Vogues were topping the charts with hits like “You’re The One” and “Five O’Clock World.”

Then, the boys from Pittsburgh discovered the hard facts of pop stardom.

“We had a cold spell and in those days if you didn’t have a hit, you died. We learned that the kids are fickle,” Burkette says.

That led to their next big reinvention, as a more adult contemporary group. Same name. Same great vocals but a different style.

And more hits followed. This time – “My Special Angel” and the big one that became a pop standard – “Turn Around, Look At Me.”

“We’re the only group – to my knowledge – that changed direction in mid-stream. We went from light rock in 1968 to contemporary and were successful both ways,” he says.

Those hits let them play major halls and clubs around the country and had staying power. The group has been doing shows – sometimes more, sometimes less – ever since.

Not wanting to rely on music entirely, Burkette reinvented himself personally, taking a “Five O’Clock World” job in sales. He married and raised a family.

And now, with his kids grown, he and Hugh Guyer, another of the original members, are on the road and playing to crowds of all-ages.

“We work these concerts throughout the country today, you’d be surprised the ages. There are people in their ‘20s and ‘30s and then you see people in their 70s and 80s. When I’m singing lead on “You’re The One” and “Five O’Clock World” they are singing along,” Burkette says. 

The traveling is still rough, but he brings his wife now, and when he’s on stage he’s having fun, just as he did when it all started back in high school.

Bill, Hugh Geyer and the rest of the band, will be on-stage at the Palladium, playing and singing their hits, on Saturday, Jan. 14 starting at 8 p.m. Amanda Nikka, the Fox News Bay Area finalist for The X Factor, will open the show with a tribute to American’s armed forces and veterans. Amanda attends St. Pete High.

For tickets and more information check out www.mypalladium.org or call the box office at 727 822-3590.