Tommy James & the Shondells

Tommy James and the Shondells are an American rock and roll group whose period of greatest success came in the late 1960s. They had two No. 1 singles in the U.S. — "Hanky Panky" (1966) and "Crimson and Clover" (1968) — and also charted twelve other Top 40 hits, including five in the top ten: "I Think We're Alone Now", "Mirage", "Mony Mony", "Sweet Cherry Wine", and "Crystal Blue Persuasion". The band formed in 1959 in Niles, Michigan, first as the Echoes, then under the name Tom and the Tornadoes, with Tommy James (then known as Tommy Jackson), then only 12, as lead singer. In 1964 James renamed the band The Shondells because the name "sounded good." At this time, the Shondells were composed of Tommy James (vocals and guitar), Larry Coverdale (lead guitar), Larry Wright (bass), Craig Villeneuve (keyboards) and Jim Payne (drums). Later that year, the band recorded the Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich song "Hanky Panky" (originally a B-side by The Raindrops). Released by a local label, Snap Records, James's version sold respectably in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, but Snap Records had no national distribution. Although the band toured the eastern Midwest, no other market took to the song. The single failed to chart nationally, and The Shondells disbanded in 1965 after graduating from high school. After first considering taking a job outside of music, James decided to form a new band, the Koachmen, with Shondells guitarist Larry Coverdale and members of a rival group called the Spinners (not the hit-making group from Detroit). The Koachmen played a Midwestern circuit of clubs through the summer and fall of 1965 but returned to Niles in February 1966, after the gigs dried up, to plot their next move. Meanwhile in 1965 Pittsburgh dance promoter Bob Mack unearthed the forgotten single, playing it at various dance parties, and radio stations there touted it as an "exclusive". Listener response encouraged regular play, and demand soared. Bootleggers responded by printing up 80,000 black market copies of the recording, which were sold in Pennsylvania stores. James first learned of all this activity in April 1966 after getting a telephone call from Pittsburgh disc jockey "Mad Mike" Metro to come and perform the song. James attempted to contact his fellow Shondells. But they had all moved away, joined the service or gotten married and left the music business altogether. In April 1966 James went by himself to make promotional appearances for the Pittsburgh radio station in nightclubs and on local television. "I had no group, and I had to put one together really fast," recalled James. "I was in a Pittsburgh club one night, and I walked up to a group that was playing that I thought was pretty good and asked them if they wanted to be the Shondells. They said yes, and off we went." James recruited a Pittsburgh quintet called The Raconteurs – composed of Joe Kessler (guitar), Ron Rosman (keyboards), George Magura (saxophone), Mike Vale (bass), and Vinnie Pietropaoli (drums) – to become the new Shondells. With a touring group to promote the single, James went to New York City, where he sold the master of "Hanky Panky" to Roulette Records, at which time he changed his last name to James. With national promotion, the single became a No. 1 hit in July 1966. Before long, Kessler and Pietropaoli were forced to leave after a dispute when planned monies were not paid to them by Roulette. They were replaced by Eddie Gray and Peter Lucia; Magura departed as well.