Entitled "The Lettermen Live! In Manila," the concert series to be mounted by Renen de Guia’s Ovation Productions and Solar Entertainment Corp. will premiere with a dinner-show on Jan. 26 at the Manila Hotel, with The Three Tenors (Angelo Reyes, Joey Lina and Bayani Fernando) as featured guests.

Other shows are slated on Jan. 29 in Iloilo City, Jan. 30 in Cebu City and Jan. 31 in Davao City.

"The Lettermen Live! In Manila" will feature the endearing music of the American singing group which is a mix of the sound of big band vocal groups and of early R&B rock groups through a number of classic love songs, including "The Way You Look Tonight," "The Seventh Dawn," "Theme From ‘A Summer Place,’" "Shangri-la," "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" and "The Wonder of You."

Composed of original founding member Tony Butala, Donovan Tea and Darren Dowler, The Lettermen boasts an outstanding record as singers, entertainers, recording artists and concert performers since it was formed more than 45 years ago by Butala as a vocal group of "three very strong soloists who also had the ability and showmanship to perform and entertain an audience, but who also had the discipline needed to be group singers."

After an impressive debut appearance in a record-shattering revue in Las Vegas, the original The Lettermen composed of Butala, Jim Pike and Bob Engemann launched in 1960 its successful recording career when the song it recorded for Capitol Records, "The Way You Look Tonight," shot to No. 13 on the Billboard chart.

Its second single that year, "When I Fall In Love," hit No. 7 and established The Lettermen as the most romantic singing group of the Sixties.

In 1961, "Come Back Silly Girl" reached No. 17, while The Lettermen’s debut album, "A Song For Young Love," hit the Top 10, its first of 32 straight Top 40 albums.

(Among those 32 consecutive albums, which charted in the Top 100 in the United States, four were certified gold: "The Lettermen!!!…And "Live" (1967), "Goin’ Out Of My Head" (1968), "Best Of The Lettermen" (1969) and "Hurt So Bad" (1970).

In almost every music industry poll during that period, The Lettermen was voted as Best New Group or Best Vocal Group with the 1962 release of two more albums – "Once Upon A Time" and "Jim, Tony and Bob," a take-off from the first names of The Lettermen’s members.

The group continued to rule the music charts in the 60s and early 70s as it scored over 25 hit singles, including "Theme From ‘A Summer Place’" (No. 16, 1965, from the Sandra Dee/Troy Donahue film of the same title), "Goin’ Out Of My Head/Can’t Take My Eyes Off You" (No. 7, 1968, the first hit record ever to completely integrate two songs as one) and "Hurt So Bad" (No. 12, 1969)

Its signature sound led by Butala’s distinctively breathy vocals made romantic standards of romantic and inspirational songs such as "Smile," "Put Your Head On My Shoulder," "Shangri-la," "Love," and many more.

As artists and performers, The Lettermen toured with George Burns, Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Bill Cosby and performed on bills with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Jimmy Durante, Debbie Reynolds, Sam Cooke and Sammy Davis, Jr. It also appeared several times on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and were regulars on "The Red Skelton" show and "The Hollywood Palace."

It continued to cultivate a new crop of fans throughout the 60s and 70s as it made some 200 appearances on television shows, such as Dick Clark’s "American Bandstand" series, was interviewed and performed on talk shows and variety shows with Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, Jack Paar, Milton Berle, Steve Allen, Dinah Shore and many others.

Tickets for the Araneta Coliseum concert are available at Ticketnet outlets at SM Department Stores or call Ticketnet at 911-5555. For the Manila Hotel dinner-show, call Beth Tagle at 438-7200.