Tommy James

Career

In 1959, at age 12, James formed a band called the Echoes, which later became Tom and the Tornadoes. The group changed its name to the Shondells in 1964. That same year, Jack Douglas, a local DJ at WNIL radio station in Niles, started his own label, Snap Records, and recorded the Shondells at WNIL Studios. One of the songs they recorded was "Hanky Panky", a Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich composition that the pair had previously recorded as the Raindrops.

The single became a local hit, but Snap Records lacked resources for national promotion, and the record was soon forgotten. In 1965, Pittsburgh dance promoter Bob Mack discovered a copy of "Hanky Panky" in a used record bin and began playing it at his clubs. A Pittsburgh-area bootlegger then pressed copies of the song, slightly speeding it up, and sold an estimated 80,000 copies in ten days. By early 1966, the song reached number one on Pittsburgh radio stations.

Douglas learned of the record's renewed popularity through calls from Pittsburgh, as his name and contact information appeared on Snap Records labels. James traveled to Pennsylvania, where he met Mack and Chuck Rubin, who handled talent bookings for Mack's clubs. Soon, the three major music trade papers—Billboard, Cashbox, and Record World—listed "Hanky Panky" as a regional breakout hit. Rubin, who had industry connections, suggested the trio go to New York City to seek a record deal.

The band visited major labels and received initial potential offers from most. Roulette Records gave no immediate response because its head, Morris Levy, was out of town until evening. By the next morning, the major companies were politely refusing the record. James later learned from Jerry Wexler at Atlantic that Levy had called other labels, saying "This is my freakin' record," scaring them away.

The band's only option was to sign with Roulette. Since the band had broken up two years before, James was the only Shondell left. Mack made his dance-club bands available to James, but nothing seemed to fit until one of the bands' guitarists took James to the Thunderbird Lounge in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. James sang with the house band, the Raconteurs.

The Raconteurs became the new Shondells, and Jackson acquired the professional name of Tommy James. By the third week of June 1966, "Hanky Panky" had become the top single at WLS. By the third week of July 1966, "Hanky Panky" had become the top single in the United States. After a few comings and goings of members, the classic lineup of James, Eddie Gray (guitar), Mike Vale (bass), Ron Rosman (keyboards), and Pete Lucia (drums) was formed.

The group recorded a follow-up song to "Hanky Panky". When Bob Mack's attempt at finding some Shondells worked out in an inadvertent way, he told James about another record he found in the same used record bin "Hanky Panky" came from: "Say I Am" by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs. The only thing James and his new Shondells were aware of when they entered the recording studio for the first time is that whatever they recorded should sound similar to "Hanky Panky", although the two songs sound nothing alike.

Mack played the Fireballs record for the group, and they decided to record their version of the song. Mack was credited as the producer for the group's first album, Hanky Panky. Songwriter Richie Cordell wrote (or co-wrote) and produced many of the group's hits, among them "I Think We're Alone Now", "Mirage", and "Mony Mony". The creation of "Mony Mony" was a group effort involving Cordell, James, Shondells band member Peter Lucia, producer Bo Gentry, and Bobby Bloom.

James and Cordell set out to create a party rock single, working out everything except the song's title, which eluded them even after much effort. When they took a break from their creative endeavors on James' apartment terrace, they looked up at the Mutual of New York Insurance Company's large neon sign bearing the abbreviation for the company: M-O-N-Y, which provided the song's name. Tommy James and the Shondells also produced a "Mony Mony" video when the song was a hit.

Though a number of musical groups had already produced videos by that time, no market at all existed for that film in the U.S. Television stations would not air it, and it was originally shown between double features in movie theaters in Europe. The film was not seen in the U.S. until the creation of MTV.

James was contacted by Beatle George Harrison, who was working with a group called Grapefruit at the time. Harrison and the group had written some songs they wanted James to consider recording. Since the group had made a decision to change their musical style (and would do so with "Crimson and Clover": see below) and the material Harrison and Grapefruit provided was in the style of "Mony Mony", James turned down their offer. The music business changed after the success of "Mony Mony".

Top 40 program formatting, based on 45 rpm single records, drove popular music on the radio. Few stations played cuts from albums, so radio was, in effect, "selling" singles for the record companies. In August 1968, James and the Shondells went on the campaign trail for three months with presidential candidate Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Meanwhile, popular music had become album-driven, displacing many performers whose singles had been top sellers.

James realized the Shondells and he needed to become an album-oriented group if they were to survive in the business, necessitating a change in their style. After working out a marketing strategy for their new sound, James visited WLS when the group was in Chicago to play a concert, bringing along a rough cut of "Crimson and Clover" to the station. WLS secretly recorded the music when James played his tape for them. By the time James was out of the building and in the car, its radio was playing the station's dub of the not-yet-finished song.

"Crimson and Clover" had to be pressed the way it was heard on the radio station, and the marketing plan was now wasted time and effort. "Crimson and Clover" was a huge success, and the group would have two follow-up hits that also reached the Hot 100's top 10, "Sweet Cherry Wine" and "Crystal Blue Persuasion". James, who co-wrote all three of those songs (with Peter Lucia, Richie Grasso, and Eddie Gray and with Mike Vale, respectively), and his band did well enough with the transition to be invited to perform at Woodstock.

James describes Artie Kornfeld's invitation like this: "Artie was up and asked if you could play at this pig farm up in upstate New York." I said, "What?!?" "Well, they say it's gonna be a lot of people there, and it's gonna be a really important show." At the time, James was in Hawaii and was incredulous about being asked to travel 6,000 miles to play a show on an upstate New York pig farm, telling the Roulette Records' secretary Karin Grasso, "If I'm not there, start without us, will you please?"

In March 1970, after four more hits, drugs almost killed James, when at a concert, he collapsed and was pronounced dead. He survived, though, and decided to take a break from the recording studio and move to the country to recuperate. The Shondells, without James, recorded two albums under the new group name Hog Heaven (one "self-titled" on Roulette Records in 1970 and the second in 1971 but unreleased until 2008), but disbanded soon afterwards. In October 2008, James and the three surviving members of the original Shondells (Pete Lucia died in 1987) reunited in a New Jersey studio to record again after 37 years.

The group recorded an album, I Love Christmas. Tommy James and the Shondells were voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends online Hall of Fame in 2006. Four of the band's biggest hits have been voted Legendary Michigan Songs: "Crimson & Clover" in 2010, and "Hanky Panky", "I Think We're Alone Now", and "Mony Mony" in 2011.

Did You Know?

• James was a child model at the age of four.
• A bootlegger sold an estimated 80,000 copies of "Hanky Panky" in 10 days in Pittsburgh.
• The "Mony Mony" video was originally shown between double features in European movie theaters because U.S. TV stations wouldn't air it.