Tony Butala, co-founder of the Grammy-nominated vocal trio The Lettermen, died Sunday at age 87. He was the last surviving member of the original lineup and retired from the group in 2019. A cause of death was not provided.
Tony Butala, co-founder of the Grammy-nominated trio The Lettermen, died Sunday at age 87. The group announced his death in a post on its Facebook page. The band's media coordinator, Tracy Clark, confirmed the death to The Associated Press. A cause of death was not provided. There will be no public viewing, and details for celebrations of life in Wisconsin and California will be announced later.
In the late '50s, Butala co-founded The Lettermen with Jim Pike and Bob Engemann. Butala was the last surviving original member of the group. Pike died in 2019 at age 82, and Engemann died in 2013. The current lineup is Donovan Tea, Bobby Poynton and Rob Gulack.
The Lettermen's version of Fred Astaire's "The Way You Look Tonight" was their first hit, in 1961, peaking at No. 13 on Billboard's Hot 100. It was nominated for a Grammy in 1962. "When I Fall in Love" followed the next year. The group's 1968 medley of "Goin' Out of My Head" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" earned a Grammy nomination. The Lettermen placed 19 more songs on Billboard charts over the following decade, and two reached the Top 10: "When I Fall in Love" and the 1968 medley.
Butala was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, in 1938. He moved with his mother to Los Angeles by age 10, where he joined the Mitchell Boys Choir. He stepped away from performing in 2019. In 2020, he and The Lettermen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
