- Happy Together Tour – 2025
- Kauffman Center – Kansas City, Missouri
- August 22, 2025
I was born in 1960. So I’ve had the amazing opportunity of listening to music for almost seven decades. And while I will always maintain that the 1970s was the best decade for film, you can’t compare any other decade to the 1960s when it comes to music. Rock and roll. Pop. Soul. We had it all together on the same radio station. So when a band or performer from that decade comes to town I do my best to attend. But when FIVE groups come to town, you cant keep me away. This past Friday the latest version of the popular Happy Together Tour hit Kansas City and I was not disappointed.
Staring the show were the Cowsills, a band so popular in it’s day that they served as the inspiration for the popular television series, and recording act, the Partridge Family. Brothers Paul and Bob, along with little sister Susie, had a great set, ending with a raucous audience sing-along of their huge hit “Hair.” I also learned something new when they sang the theme from the television show “Love, American Style.” I was today years old when I learned that they sang the song.
They were followed by the Vogues, whose harmonies on such hits as “Five O’clock World” and “Come a Little Bit Closer” were as pure as the day they were recorded. Next up was the great Gary Puckett who, at age 82 still has a powerful voice. Again, the audience joined in happily as he led them during “Woman, Woman.”
Jay and the Americans were next. I had forgotten that they sang “Only in America,” a song I always loved listening to as a boy. Jay Reincke hit all the notes on Cara Mia,” a great tribute to the band’s original lead singer, Jay Black, who passed away in 2021. All of the groups had a distinctive sound during their heyday and it was their voices that shined on this evening, none more so then the next act, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Little Anthony. At age 84 his voice was as soft and sweet as when he released his first hit, “Tears on My Pillow” in 1956!
Closing the show were the Turtles, whose hit song gave the tour it’s name. Fronted by Ron Dante, the band brought the crowd to their feet repeatedly with hits like “Elenore” and “You Baby.” Fun fact: the most popular record of 1969 was “Sugar, Sugar,” by the Archies, a popular comic book series that became an animated show I watched faithfully as a kid. I was taken back to Saturday morning when Dante did the song. I wish I had been closer to the stage because I would have yelled, “Now do Bang Shang-a-lang!”
The show ended with all of the groups returning to the stage for a mini-medley that had the crowd on their feet clapping and singing along. To paraphrase another 60s band, the Beatles, “a splendid time was indeed guaranteed for all!”
SET LIST: COWSILLS – Indian Lake, The Rain, the Park & Other Things, Love, American Style, Hair. THE VOGUES – Five O’clock World, My Special Angel, Turn Around, Look at Me, You’re the One. GARY PUCKETT – Lady Willpower, Over You, Woman, Woman, Young Girl. JAY AND THE AMERICANS – Only in America, Let’s Lock the Door (and Throw Away the Key, “Cara Mia, Come a Little Bit Closer, This Magic Moment. LITTLE ANTHONY: Tears on My Pillow, Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop, Hut So Bad, Goin’ Out of My Head. THE TURTLES – She’d Rather Be with Me, You Baby, It Ain’t Me Babe, Sugar, Sugar, Elenore, Happy Together.