Tommy James and the Shondelles C or D

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?

You'll have to read the book ;)

Let's put it this way: the very beginning of the book, the incident which prompts him to tell his story, is the death of Morris Levy. Do you know who that is?

Ah, I see. I forgot they were on Roulette!

Morris Levy is such a colorful character, his cameo in Ahmet Ertegun's biography steals the show from the subject http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bkrev/hitmen-nyt.php

"Meet the Comer" off of Christian of the World = vocal melody from Neil Young's "Helpless"

"bad vibrations everywhere..."

Long CBC interview about the mob stuff:
http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2011/02/11/tommy-james-the-mob-and-the-music/

uggest Ban Permalink
One night when I was like 13, I was working on a poetry assignment for my Grade 8 english class, we had to assemble our own poetry anthology, meeting certain requirements, and only so many could be lyrics from songs, blah blah blah, this is not important, anyway, it was really late, like maybe 10 or something, or maybe later, because I was the only up in my house and I was working in the kitchen, but I called into the crappy radio station and requested "Crimson & Clover" and they played it, and maybe even put me on the air for like 5 seconds, I don't remember, but they definitely said my name. Which is an uncommon name. That's important to remember.
Two years later, I meet this girl at a party. We talk for a while and finally feel friendly enought to tell each other our names. She looks at me and says "You're XXXXX? Did you ever request 'Crimson & Clover' on such-and-such FM? You're soooooo rad!"
I got kissed with tongue for the first time that night.

― My Huckleberry Friend (Horace Mann), Friday, February 20, 2004 7:46 AM (6 years ago)

This is a fucking great story!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp2u0sgwvPQ

"ah dig snow and the rain and the bright sunshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine"

who is gonna groove to Tommy with me today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv3WB2loIA4

I'm sure I've mentioned it, but how wild that three people had three huge hits with three covers of his songs in the '80s?

miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage

huggin a tree when you get near it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax-guC_7XXs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgUmBBN6Kj4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unbR8vjy9cE

Travelin' is a gold mine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah6iAzTBl9c

trust each other in love
and we can't stop believing for a single day

Fun fact: "Crimson and Clover" is a rough mix. Tommy played it off-air for WLS (Chicago AM radio powerhouse) during an interview/promo spot. Unbeknownst to him, WLS recorded it. When he left the station and got in his limo, he turned on the radio and heard, "World exclusive from Tommy James and the Shondells!" and the rough mix of "Crimson." Because the station played it every 20 minutes (and because it was hugely influential in making hits), Tommy had to release it like that.

Had no intention of seeing this (barely knew of its existence, to be honest), but now I think I will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saHzng8fxLs

got a freebie best of Tommy James CD, was kinda excited to play it. fired it up: uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggh it's a LIVE compilation from like, 2007. it says live on the spine but not on the cover, and only on the linernotes inside does it say in fine print

bleh

ugh

his albums on roulette are some of the best-sounding vinyl I own - Travelin' is a fantastic album

Crimson and clover. Possibly the greatest song of all time

Yes.

It's so good.

yeeaahh

yep

they have a couple of these! "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Mony Mony" are up there too

I'd add Crystal Blue Persuasion to the list. One of the great singles bands of all time

totally. i like "Mirage" a lot too.

their evolution is incredible. they made "Hanky Panky" when they were still in high school in 1966. some DJs started playing bootlegged copies of it and it became a regional hit, tromping a record deal. in 1967 later they release "I Think We're Alone Now". in 1968 they release "Mony Mony". in 1969 they release "Crimson & Clover".

these are insane singles. like damn. fwiw the albums are not too shabby either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9S8liz2HSQ

Otm, but Crimson and Clover is just unbelievable

Was anybody who played on “Hanky Panky” besides Tommy on the later records?

he's still alive, right? who was in his band? did he really have a band? did he have a writing partner?

He eventually did have more or less a regular band and writing partner(s).