“I was there doing a solo spot, which was a real lucky thing to have,” he said. “The Lettermen were performing across the street at the Flamingo Hotel. They came across the street not to see me, but to see the 75 beautiful — and scantily dressed — girls in the show. Well, they saw me, too, quite by mistake.”
Months later, Tea received a call asking him to come to Los Angeles to audition with The Lettermen, including Mark Preston and founding member Tony Butala.
“I sang with them in July and we knew we had a blend,” Tea said. “We shook hands, but we weren’t sure then the whole transition would take place. I get called on Sept. 2, like a Tuesday, and they said, ‘We’re coming out and we need you to do a show on Saturday in Buffalo, N.Y.’ I had five days to basically get ready for a 2½-hour concert.”
Tea made a deal with the owners of the Star Dust Hotel who allowed him to get out of his commitments and to travel to New York. The members of The Lettermen rehearsed until they boarded a plane on Friday and took a red-eye flight to Buffalo.
“We went on stage at 8 p.m. Saturday and got not one, but two standing ovations,” Tea said. “I guess I didn’t hurt the show too badly. I was so familiar with the songs of The Lettermen that I just had to learn my part on a lot of the songs. And we always switch off parts. There’s not one guy who always does the high parts or one guy who always does the melody. We switch off many times in different songs, and even sometimes right in the middle of a song. If we’re doing our job right, the audience won’t know who is singing which part at what time.”
