Tommy James and the Shondelles C or D

everyone always forgets "Baby baby I can't take it no more" and "Sweet cherry wine."

Of course, "Mirage" is just "I Think We're Alone Now" backwards - so conceptual geniuses into the bargain

Brought an old mix CD to the gym today, found a Tommy James and Shondells triptych at the end:

"Sweet Cherry Wine"
"Love's Closin' in on Me"
"Sugar on Sunday"

and my god, they made the elliptical machine almost tolerable. Totally, positively, classic.

I'm going to download C + C right now.

Also, there's a letter from Herbert Humphreys on the back!

My faves:

Mirage (I agree even better than ITWAN)
Out of the Blue
I'm Taken
And you have to love "Hello banana, I am a tangeriiiiiinnnne.. . ."

? and the Mysterians do own "Do Something to Me," though, although TJ's version is decent.

So is the Crimson & Clover LP worth getting? I should probably get something of theirs, considering how much I love C&C, "I Think We're Alone Now," "Crystal Blue Persuasion," etc.

(It) is actually the beginning of James' shift to uplifting religious themes that would really blossom on his second solo record. Christian of the World is not a concept record as such, but there is a theme of spirituality running through the lyrics. The title track is a sun-kissed plea for salvation, "Sing Sing Sing" rejects material possessions in favor of the power of song, "Sail a Happy Ship" directs people to turn to religion for peace and friendship, and "Church Street Soul Revival" is a beautiful, open-hearted celebration of God. The music is an amazing blend of bubblegum and gospel with some soul and a bit of country thrown in for good measure. James is on a creative roll here: his vocals are deeply heartfelt and soulful, the songwriting is powerful, and the whole record is strong from beginning to end. It isn't too surprising that apart from the hit single "Dragging the Line," the record was completely ignored. James' bubblegum persona preceded him. No one was quite ready to consider him a serious musician capable of creating an album as fully realized and creative as Christian of the World. Luckily, 30-plus years later one can divorce him or herself from James' lightweight image and see the record for the lost classic that it is.

He did turn up at the Atlanta Pop Festival, however...

This man speaks the truth

I was supposed to go last night to BeeBeeKing's to see him on a comp from my buddy who was playing in the band but, somewhat mysteriously, all the tickets to the sold-out show that were reserved for the band seemed to have disappeared, so dud for that reason, but otherwise classic.

Where is the love for "Kathleen McArthur"?

"I'm Comin' Home" is like cheapass songwriting at it's BEST, a vague rip of "Jumpin' Jack Flash"'s riff and the chorus from "He's So Fine" and it fucking WORKS. Just got a crappy "as advertised on TV!" US cdouble vinyl comp for cheap and man, it's all good. And it's missing so many songs that've been mentioned on this thread!

Also "Cat's Eye in the Window" IS "Horse w No Name". Bubblegum rips off a lot, and so leaves itself open for same due to lack of respect to "art" going both ways?

"He has sold, to date, over 100 million records and has been awarded 23 gold singles and 9 gold and platinum albums."

...according to James' website. But I believe it. It's mind boggling how many classic songs this dude has written. As a singles band, I think the Shondells (and James solo) rivals the Monkees. Is that crazy to think?

Hell no. And as mentioned upthread, I think, it was interesting to see how often he got covered in the eighties and how so many of those covers were big hits! A transitional character, if you like. Liminal even. (I'll stop there.)

Sadly, the most recent cover I can think of is REM doing "Draggin' the Line."

in addition to the 30 or so absolutely perfect and transcendent pop songs already mentioned, i feel compelled to add a word or two on behalf of 1969's "on behalf of the entire staff & management," from the tommy james experimental era. it's basically an early guided by voices song, right down to the way the lead vocal is recorded. and james isn't that much older than robert pollard. the replacements could've covered it too, circa "treatment bound." and, um, it's great.

How about the production on "Ball of Fire"? I know somebody else mentioned the tune, but hell, talk about lo-fi weirdness long before Sebadoh!

actually, it was you, fact checking, that mentioned it before.

I don't think the James' penned "Tighter, Tighter" gets enough love; well, except on certain oldies stations.

speaking of "ball of fire," can someone tell me what the first line is? i hear "scarlet hovering my head," which makes no grammatical sense whatsoever but kind of does make sense with the rest of the song (which, by the way, makes for a fairly excellent 9/11 song!). is there some word or piece of syntax that i'm missing in there?

There's some good stuff in the Seymour Stein book about Goldner and Levy. The Red Bird label was also handed over by Goldner (after Leiber & Stoller relinquished their interest) to Levy, which effectively ended the label. As Stein was a Red Bird employee, this is essentially what led to Stein forming the Sire label.

an interesting side story they get into was that Levy was the guy who owned the Chuck Berry copyright who sued John Lennon over "Come Together" and when he won made John cover other songs he owned on the "Rock n Roll" record. and then he printed his own bootleg version of the record called "Roots". LOL this guy was an epic hustler.

I met somebody about once who I knew was involved in Red Bird and so I mentioned the name of the label and he said “You want to know about THAT?” and that was the end of that line of questioning.

I thought Leiber and Stoller relinquished only after it was already effectively a done deal.

Don't know the details but it sounds like it was it was all done as one big deal simultaneously. Leiber & Stoller accepted a symbolic $1 to get out of it.

Think the most detailed version of the story I read was in Josh Alan Friedman’s Tell the Truth Until They Bleed but I don’t have a copy. It’s also discussed in Leiber and Stoller’s Hound Dog.

At some point there was a merger floated between Atlantic and Red Bird by the two Jerrys Leiber and Wexler but this made Ahmet Ertegun a little suspicious and Goldner as well as Red Bird’s lawyer, Lee Eastman, put the kibosh on it.

Thought the eventual new partner in Red Bird was someone like Morris Levy but wasn’t actually him.

Or maybe he came along a little later, after Jerry and Mike were already gone.

Ah, I see the story is recounted in a bit more detail in Ken Emerson's Always Magic in the Air. Jerry and Mike had started to get nervous about possible leverage mobsters might have over Goldner and the chance that some unknown mobsters might suddenly become partners in Red Bird through him. They took the initiative and sold out to Goldner for a buck (announced in Billboard
April 1966). Doesn't say what happened after Goldner gained total control, just that "Goldner made short work of Red Bird, which quickly collapsed."

The would-be Atlantic merger you mention was basically Jerry and Mike's attempt to "drive out" or "control" Goldner, whom they didn't trust.

Yes. In Hound Dog Jerry says he was called into a surprise meeting in a deli on Broadway with one of George’s friends ( who is named in that Josh Alan Friedman book) and then discussed the situation with his father-in-law and one of his father-in-law’s friends, a Rothschild, who both hinted that he should sell.

Sorry to be such a nerd about this. The most detailed version is truly frightening, partly by its nature partly because Jerry Leiber is such a good storyteller.

lord knows i'm a lazy, unfocused poster, with many unfinished projects and half-assed, un-submitted ballots

but this would be a great discography for a listening thread imo

YES, I would be so down for that. They're one of those "holy shit, they did THAT song too??" bands, like the Isley Brothers or...Manfred Mann comes to mind, but I know there are many better examples out there. But it's definitely worth digging deep beyond the singles for TJ & Shondells

otm

Dragging the Liiiiiiiiine

in xpost Hound Dog, the Lieber & Stoller joint autobio, they came to treasure Goldner as they realized that he had "the musical taste of a 14-year-old girl," and could always tell them just what a song needed a little more or less of--and if he liked it right away, with no changes needed---! He was a shy, studious-looking fellow, yet always beautifully tailored, like the financial genius with a modest office in an august firm, City of London more than Wall Street. But they also came to realize that he was a zombie gambler in a bottomless pit---realizing it when pulled into that little xpost meeting, and also when they heard two goodfellas moving furniture around in the next room, talkin' 'bout how it would be a nice place for meetin's. So yeah, sold him Redbird for a dollar, got the hell out.

Getting past the most obvious choices, here's Celebration: Complete Roulette Recordings 1966-1973. Don't know this label, Grapefruit, or how it might sound, but 40 bucks for a 6-CD import, so hey George Goldner might we;; be right about a chance worth taking, in this instance:
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71+0Cd-C--L._SL1200_.jpg

etween 1966 and 1973, Tommy James issued thirteen albums on Roulette either as a solo performer or with The Roulettes. All of these recordings now appear on this definitive 6-CD set. This includes "Greatest Hits" or "Best Of" albums which of course duplicated tracks from regular albums. These tracks have been left in their respective original albums. Although these albums have all appeared on CD reissues at various times over the years, this is the first box set to gather together all of the recordings in one set. In addition, there is the bonus of all of the recordings that never featured on the original LPs. Some of these tracks are making their CD debut within this collection. The 141-track box set features 16 tracks that were only ever released on 45s or were previously unissued until earlier compilations were released on CD. Produced by Bob Fisher whose detailed essay covers the entire history of the group with quotes by Tommy James from his biography and the notes to previous reissues. The booklet includes details of all of their chart achievements in the USA and the UK along with numerous reproductions of advertisements, reviews and news stories from music industry magazines. Designed by Michael Robson and mastered by Simon Murphy this is the definitive collection of Tommy James & the Shondells tracing their career from garage and bubblegum pop band through career defining psychedelic albums into Tommy James solo years as an introspective singer/songwriter. Disc One contains the first two albums "Hanky Panky" and "It's Only Love" plus the non- album B-side of the 'Hanky Panky' 45 and six titles previously unissued which made their first and only appearance on a long deleted 1997 CD set. Disc Two contains the albums "I Think We're Alone Now", "Something Special" and "Getting Together". Disc Three features 'Mony, Mony'. Their first and only UK No 1 single and the album titled after that hit alongside their classic psychedelic album, "Crimson & Clover" and the 45 version of the title track. Disc Four presents their second career defining psychedelic album "Cellophane Symphony" including the long version of the title track and a track from the album sessions, 'Contact', only previously released on the aforementioned 1997 compilation. Disc four also features the one track on the album "The Best of Tommy James & The Shondells" that hadn't been on an album before, 'Ball of Fire' and the first seven titles on "Travellin'" the last Tommy James & The Shondells album. Disc Five opens with the continuation of the "Travellin'" album with it's last three tracks before moving on to the first Tommy James solo albums "Tommy James" and "Christian Of the World" which features his last major hit single, 'Draggin' the Line'. Disc Six concludes the box with his last album for Roulette, 1971's "My Head, My Bed and My Red Guitar" his country -rock album co-produced in Nashville with Pete Drake and featuring such legendary country sidemen as Scotty Moore, D. J. Fontana, Charlie McCoy, Buddy Spicer and others.

Seems like Tommy and the ex-Shondells went in pretty much the same musical directions, judging by quotes from Mike Vale and others here---also has YouTube links:

In 1971 the mega-hit group, Tommy James and The Shondells disbanded. The Shondells went on to form Hog Heaven This pg is a tribute to them and their music.

this is still hilarious

and turning down Woodstock before burning out mightily in '70.

To be fair, this is how Woodstock was presented to him:

We were in Hawaii, and my secretary called and said, ‘Yeah, listen, there’s this pig farmer in upstate New York that wants you to play in his field.’ That’ s how it was put to me. So we passed.”

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, June 23, 2018 12:33 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyQiJKY7NpM

^Immortal masterpiece, perfect 60s primetime psychedelic visuals in that clip. Though as much as I love "Crimson and Clover", "Crystal Blue Persuasion" will always be my #1 TJ song; that main chord progression (Amaj9, Bm7, repeat) is so beautiful, gives me chills. It's the kind of chord progression you hear in soul music of the era way more often than in rock. And since it's just back-and-forth between two chords, it exudes a calm, elegant simplicity.

Also I'm currently hearing TJ's wacky 1995 concept album A Night In Big City (An Audio Movie) for the first time. The liner notes on his official website sum it up better than I can:

Talk about a concept album...Tommy pulled out all the stops on this one - a blend of music and theater reminiscent of an earlier time when the music business had a lot more imagination and fun. On this make believe trip through "Big City" (New York), Tommy and his group, along with the listener, are given the key to the city, a private limousine, and a voluptuous female driver who takes them on the ride of their life.

The album, produced by Tommy and long time friend and arranger Jimmy Wisner, contains 11 great new tracks including sparkling remakes of "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Tighter, Tighter" interspersed with dialogue and sound effects and a comic book style, story guide to help follow the action.

This is Tommy James at his creative best. From "Give It All", a hard, up-tempo alternative rocker, to the dreamy "Who Do You Love" to "Megamation Man", a chilling glimpse into the demonic New World Order.

One would have to go back to the CELLOPHANE SYMPHONY album or perhaps TRAVELIN' to find anything remotely as daring or progressive.

First impression is that the between-song dialogue is extremely cringe (maybe approaching so-bad-it's-good territory), but at least a couple of the songs are improbably good--"Baby Tonight" is a legit new jack swing song with a banging chorus, and "Give It All" is some decent power pop/heartland rock. "Megamation Man" is some Styx-tier dystopian cheese. There's also an unnecessary Mellencampified remake of "I Think We're Alone Now". Mostly I'm just appreciating that he conceived and executed such a bizarre and ambitious project in the mid 90s, even if it's deeply flawed.