Relive the best of the '60s, '70s classics at The Palace

When Gary Puckett and the Union Gap last played The Palace Theatre in Greensburg in 2011, they shared the stage with Turtle Creek’s Chuck Blasko and The Vogues.

This time around, the catalog of ’60s and ’70s classic music hits will be considerably larger with the addition of The Turtles, Chuck Negron (formerly of Three Dog Night), The Buckinghams, The Classics IV and The Cowsills.

Puckett said the 10th anniversary Happy Together Tour currently underway is being well received by music fans of all ages.

“It was the best time for music,” he said of the late ‘60s era when his band was recording songs such as “Woman, Woman,” “Young Girl” and “Lady Willpower,” which were Top 10 Billboard hits. “They were the days before you could tune somebody’s voice to sound better or make a record note-by-note. It was the analog era; music was made by people, not machines.”

Puckett grew up in the 1950s, listening to the sounds of artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. In 1968 his own band had achieved six consecutive gold records and had sold more records than any other recording act, including the Beatles, according to his website.

It took an idea by Puckett to get his band noticed during the early days when competition was fierce among rock groups scrambling for recognition by radio DJs to play their songs.

Getting noticed

“Radio stations only had a Top 40 list of records they played and 45s records came to them in a plain sleeve,” he said. “I fought to get our photo on our label.”

He knew of a disc jockey in Columbus, Ohio, that was a Civil War historian, so Puckett had his band dress in costumes based on Union Army uniforms for the photo and his idea worked. Their recording of “Woman, Woman” was aired and it became their first big hit.

Puckett, who will be 77 in October, lives in Clearwater, Fla., now and has two daughters and three grandchildren. He has no plans to stop singing and touring “as long as God will let me do it.” His website already lists a Sept. 17, 2020, tour date for a concert at The Palace Theatre.

Negron going strong

Also headlining on the Happy Together Tour is Chuck Negron, former vocalist for Three Dog Night. The group disbanded in 1976 after a successful string of hit records that included “One,” which was their first gold record; “Easy to be Hard,” “An Old Fashioned Love Song,” “Black and White” and many more.

Three Dog Night earned 12 gold albums and had 21 consecutive Billboard Top 40 hits, seven of which went gold.

Negron went through a dark time personally with a drug addiction. In 2013, he released the third edition of his best-selling autobiography, “Three Dog Nightmare,” that provides details of his struggle with drugs and how he overcame his addiction by seeking professional help and turning to religion.

Now 77, he still tours with his own band and is enjoying his time performing with the Happy Together Tour. In 2013, he recorded an album, “Negron Generations,” with his two teenage daughters, Charlie and Annabelle.

“I’ve been sober almost 30 years now. Thank God I’m doing well,” he said in a phone call from his home in Los Angeles, Calif.

When the current Happy Together Tour winds down at the end of August, Negron said he’ll continue to make guest appearances and do shows with his band.