THE TIGHT VOCAL harmonies that made three young men popular in the late 1950s and into the '60s are again warming the airwaves via the group Reunion.
Jim Pike and Bob Engemann, formerly of the popular group The Lettermen, and Ric de Azevedo, a member of the musical King Family, are entertaining around the country under their new name and finding great success.Performing mostly at conventions and other one-night gigs, the trio have found the old sound to be just what audiences are looking for. According to Pike, it's not uncommon for them to have five or more standing ovations during an evening's performance.
During the weekdays they work at their regular jobs - Engemann at the Brigham Young University development office in Provo; and, in California, de Azevedo as a post-production director for Warner Brothers Television and Pike with his own production company. But on weekends they're off doing another show.
"We'll do between 25 and 30 shows a year," Engemann said. "We've recently toured to Hawaii, Wisconsin, Oregon and Los Angeles." They performed at Maxim's Casino in Las Vegas New Year's Eve. Reunion also released a new compact disc, "Songs We Sang For You," featuring numbers performed in their show.
Yet, while songs like "Going Out of My Head/Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" and "The Way You Look Tonight" bring cheers from baby-boomer audiences, it's the story of Jim Pike and his rendition of "The Impossible Dream" that really bring the house down.
PIKE, CONSIDERED the heart of Reunion and the driving force behind the former Lettermen, has been singing and performing most of his life.
"I started singing when I was 3 years old. My father was a country-western singer and popular in the Midwest. I was kind of the mascot. Mom played in his band, and they stood me on a chair at the radio station and I would sing songs."
Pike didn't have the money to go to college, so joined the Navy instead. However, he had to return home to Idaho after one year when an old football knee injury flared up.
"All my friends in Idaho went to Brigham Young University, so I ended up there too," he said. "I wanted to be the next Frank Sinatra, so I started working with the BYU Program Bureau. That's where I met Bob Engemann."
Eventually the Lettermen formed, and that story is history. It was during the height of the group's career that Pike's life took a drastic change.
"I never had any voice problems until the Lettermen got famousand started having rigorous schedules. We'd play at colleges across the country, sometimes four or five months straight without a day off," Pike said.
All of a sudden, "Iron Voice" Pike - so called because of his strong, high tenor notes - couldn't sing.
"The doctors told me I would ruin my voice permanently and I should be put on complete vocal rest. At one time my vocal chords were bleeding," he said. "After five years of doctors telling me to stop, my subconscious created a symptom and it totally shut off my voice. It paralyzed my diaphragm and vocal chords.
"One voice doctor looked at me and couldn't see anything wrong. He suggested I see `another' kind of doctor," Pike said.
For nearly 10 years Pike suffered from the paralysis. Even now his voice isn't completely healed.
"When I talk about my voice not being totally back, I mean it. I still have problems," he said. "After going through what I went through, I've always felt that I owe it to my audiences to tell them my inspirational story."
ENGEMANN BELIEVES music should be part of everyone's life, that it is inborn in every human being to love beautiful music. Because of this belief, he began entertaining early in life.
As a student at BYU, Engemann sang with his brother Karl and Karl's wife Gerri. They called themselves the Engemann Trio and performed at several college functions. It was during this time that he met up with Pike.
After he served an LDS mission, Engemann and Pike got together again. They had some fun singing, and then "Bobby" went into the National Guard. It was at that point that Pike and Engemann talked about going professional. While Engemann was away, Pike met Tony Butala, the third member of the old Lettermen lineup.
Engemann loved his days with the Lettermen. And although the touring was brisk, he found time to marry and have children, the only one in the group at the time to do so.
Now with Reunion, Engemann says that even though members of the group live hundreds of miles apart, and rehearsals are almost nonexistent, the sound is better than ever. And they can bring their families along on the trips if they like.
DE AZEVEDO, the only member of Reunion not to have sung with the original Lettermen, had his own early musical career, beginning with the King Family.
"I grew up around music. I would sing with my mom, Alyce King Clarke, in the car with her on her trips. I performed with the King Family on television over a 10-year period of time."
From 1967 to 1970, de Azevedo served in the Army as a vocal soloist with the U.S. Army Field Band out of the Pentagon.
De Azevedo met Engemann when they performed together in Lex de Azevedo's production of "Saturday's Warrior."
"When Bobby heard me sing, he told Jim he thought he had found the third voice for Reunion," he said. "I feel real comfortable with them. Our audiences say that, more than the music, there is a love of each other that really comes across."
When de Azevedo's schedule prohibits him from performing with Reunion, Gary Pike, Jim's brother and a great contributor to the group, takes his place.