Tommy James and the Shondelles C or D

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?

according to songmeanings.net you're right

excellent. that's confirmation enough for me!

i've had a tommy james 2cd comp for a while, but never really listened to 'Draggin' the Line' before, which is my new favourite song.

another two that aren't mentioned above but are really wonderful are 'She' and 'Loved One'

Fucking Mirage!

I have a hard time saying anything bad about TJ&Shondelles. In fact, the later into their catalog, the better, yeah...

Cellophane Symphony ('69) has way good moments going on

"Evergreen" from that record is a psychedelic sloe-jam of sorts, while "Making Good Time" is something that should have been covered by Elvis circa '75. It just has that kinda vibe. Vaguely swamprock, and name-checking different cities and stuff.

another two that aren't mentioned above but are really wonderful are 'She' and 'Loved One'

Oh, yes. Yes. "Loved One" is...yeah. If you like "Tighter, Tighter", then...

Dude was a GREAT singer. Maybe still so now, dunno. Can anyone report?

saw him in coney island this summer and he was kinda great. he was headlining a straight-up oldies bill, and the average age of the crowd was easily over 50. first up, johnny maestro and the brooklyn bridge ("worst that could happen") did their name proud with some nice singing over pedestrian bar-band arrangements. next up, jay black simply can't sing anymore -- i mean, really really really has no vocal skills whatsoever -- and he knows it and he spent 70 percent of his stage time telling stories and cracking jokes, which he's damn good at. dude is hilarious. he too had the pedestrian bar-band oldies lounge thing behind him. then they cleared the stage for tommy & the shondells, who came out with marshall stacks, leather pants, long hair, etc., and who were a mix of old guys and one or two young ringers who look like they play in wooden shjips in their spare time. they turned up the volume from roughly three to roughly 12, scared more than a few 60- and 70-year-olds out of the venue, sang every song you could legitimately expect to hear (i.e. most of their rhino anthology, including "mirage," "ball of fire" and other faves from this thread), and quite legimately rocked. when oasis tour the oldie circuit in 2035, i imagine they will sound similar, and i will be ok with that, though they won't be as good.

so classic i can't even believe it.

great story fcc, thanks.

yeah, awesome story

i wonder if Tommy knows about this whole garage/60s pop subculture? maybe he's been listening to little steven's show?

...although he should be legitimately pissed about not receiving the kind of lip service a lot of these retro bands pay to far inferior bands from the 60s.

Anytime he wants to do a European tour, I'm there!

yeah, i found a fantastic 2005(or so?) version of Crystal Blue Persuasion on youtube. he's still awesome.

Mirage is great, as is Out Of The Blue.

Tommy James in 2006

Crystal Blue Persuasion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m9d4IyCmIs

I Think We're Alone Now - not a great video, but you can tell he's still got it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzmmwsOjl7s

Crimson and Clover!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6444EeeQBiw

look over yonder
what do you see?

just picked up travelin' from '70 on roulette. much goodness on here. bloody water, travelin', gotta get back to you.

"candy maker" is the jam!

Read about fifty pages of his memoir Me, The Mob, And The Music and it's very good.

Was he involved with the Mob?

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.