TOMMY JAMES AND THE SHONDELLS
Tommy James and the Shondells are an American rock and roll group whose greatest period was in the late 1960’s. They had two No. 1 singles in the U.S., “Hanky Panky” (1966) and “Crimson and Clover” (1969), and also charted twelve other Top 40 hits, including five in the Hot 100’s top ten: “I Think We’re Alone Now”, “Mirage”, “Mony Mony”, “Sweet Cherry Wine”, and “Crystal Blue Persuasion”. (More from Wikipedia)
For those wanting to hear ’em like they used to be, I live in a casino town, so a lot of the oldies acts come through here. I set aside a more or less random Marquee newspaper insert covering entertainment options down here (from October 2011). Here are the better known acts that were listed, and this is by no means everybody who was in town over those several weeks: Herman’s Hermits (featuring Peter Noone), Loretta Lynn, Frankie Avalon, Tommy James and the Shondells, David Cassidy, Daryl Hall and John Oates, Kool & the Gang, Merle Haggard, and the Four Tops.
(January 2012)
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I have since found out that Roulette Records was owned by the notorious music mogul Morris Levy. Some of the information that I have read about him is praiseworthy, but most people think he was basically a gangster. Tommy James and the Shondells was one of Roulette’s big artists; they had a lot of records on the charts – including one of the biggest psychedelic hit songs of the 1960’s, “Crimson and Clover” – and their albums are really good as well. I picked up one not too long ago; at the beginning of the album, there was an older man with a gruff voice who was trying to be hip, saying things like “don’t mind me, you just do your thing”. In another context, I would have just thought that it was corny; with Roulette though . . . I don’t know if that was Levy or not, but it sounded pretty sinister to me.
(March 2012)
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Other novel platforms have been discovered for new musicians to get the word out. Tiffany had a major hit song in 1987 with “I Think We’re Alone Now” (off her debut album Tiffany), a cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells hit “I Think We’re Alone Now” from 20 years earlier. Tiffany promoted the single by performing live in regional shopping centers throughout the country during what she called “The Beautiful You: Celebrating The Good Life Shopping Mall Tour ’87”.
(June 2017)
