The last voice left from the trio that turned “The Way You Look Tonight” into a national hit has gone quiet.
Tony Butala, the co-founder of The Lettermen and the last surviving member of the group’s original lineup, died Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, at 87. Tracy Clark, the group’s media coordinator, confirmed the death and shared an official statement from the band. No cause was provided.
There will be no public viewing. The group is planning two celebrations of life, one in Wisconsin and one in California, with details to come later.
The Lyric That Closed the Tribute
“We have lost an integral member of The Lettermen family,” the band said. “Tony never met a stranger,” the statement added.
The band called Butala a founding member of an international recording act and a recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and it extended thoughts and prayers to his children, grandchildren, siblings, the love of his life and everyone in the Lettermen organization. His life, the statement said, was an example of talent, perseverance and refinement, and his true joy was entertaining and sharing his music with audiences worldwide.
The Lettermen posted a tribute on Facebook. “Though his performing days had come to an end, he was instrumental in laying the groundwork for The Lettermen’s legacy to continue under skilled leadership. The Lettermen of the present and future will always stand on the principles that guided Tony in its inception.”
The group closed the tribute by quoting lines from “Smile,” the song Butala sang in his final public solo.
From KDKA Radio to “White Christmas”
Butala was born in Sharon, Pa., in 1938 and was singing professionally as a young child. He was on the air at KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh at age eight, and by age 10 he had moved with his mother to Los Angeles, where he joined the Mitchell Boys Choir and began working in film.
He appeared as a child in “White Christmas,” “Peter Pan,” “War of the Worlds” and “On Moonlight Bay” — pictures that still turn up on television every holiday season.
Close Harmony, Never Volume
Butala co-founded The Lettermen with Jim Pike and Bob Engemann in the late 1950s. The trio’s first hit was its version of Fred Astaire’s “The Way You Look Tonight,” released in 1961, which climbed to No. 13 on Billboard’s Hot 100 on a sound built from close, careful harmony rather than volume. The recording earned a Grammy nomination in 1962, and the group picked up a nomination for best new artist at the same ceremony.
Over the following decade the group placed 19 more songs on the Billboard charts, two of them in the Top 10: 1962’s “When I Fall in Love” and the Grammy-nominated 1968 medley “Goin’ Out of My Head/Can’t Take My Eyes off You,” which paired two standards into a single sweeping arrangement. Their last hit came in 1971 with “Everything Is Good About You.”
All told, the group’s recordings produced 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and four Grammy Award nominations, among them “Come Back Silly Girl,” “Theme from a Summer Place” and “Hurt So Bad.” Butala was a member for over 60 years.
Each Departure Answered by a Replacement
The Lettermen toured college campuses across the country and venues around the world, and that road schedule kept the name alive long after the hits stopped. Members came and went across the decades, each departure answered by a replacement rather than a retrenchment. The lineup stayed a trio, and the three-part sound remained identifiable from the first bar.
Engemann died in 2013. Pike died in 2019 at 82, of complications of Parkinson’s disease. Butala stepped away from performing that same year, ending a stage career that began with a grade-schooler on Pittsburgh radio.
In 2020, Butala and The Lettermen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He posed atop the star after the ceremony in Los Angeles on Feb. 24, 2020.
The group’s current lineup is Donovan Tea, Bobby Poynton and Rob Gulack.
