Bubblegum pop (also known as bubblegum rock, bubblegum music, or simply bubblegum) is a genre of pop music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers. Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972.^[1] The second wave of bubblegum started two years later and ran until 1977 when disco took over and punk rock emerged (some critics have claimed bubblegum influenced punk).^[2]

The genre was predominantly a singles phenomenon rather than an album-oriented one, the presumption being that teenagers and pre-teens had less money to spend on records and were thus more likely to buy singles than albums. Also, because many acts were manufactured in the studio using session musicians, a large number of bubblegum songs were by one-hit wonders. Among the best-known acts of bubblegum's golden era are 1910 Fruitgum Company, The Ohio Express and The Archies,^[3] an animated group which had the most successful bubblegum song with "Sugar, Sugar", Billboard Magazine's No. 1 single for 1969. Singer Tommy Roe, arguably, had the most bubblegum hits of any artist during this period.

Characteristics[link]

The chief characteristics of the genre are that it is pop music contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, is produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers and has an upbeat sound.^[1] The songs typically have singalong choruses, seemingly childlike themes and a contrived innocence, occasionally combined with an undercurrent of sexual double entendre.^[4] Bubblegum songs are also defined as having a catchy melody, simple chords, simple harmonies, dancy (but not necessarily danceable) beats, repetitive riffs or "hooks", use of solfege syllables and a vocally-multiplied refrain. Bubblegum rarely has guitar solos, usually features the organ, and often use a single handclap or double handclap as prominent percussion.

The song lyrics often concern romantic love, but many times are about just feeling good or being happy, with references to sunshine, loving one another, toys, colors, nonsense words, etc. They are also notable for their frequent reference to sugary food, including sugar, honey, butterscotch, jelly and marmalade.^[1] Cross-marketing with cereal and bubblegum manufacturers also strengthened the link between bubblegum songs and confectionery. Cardboard records by The Archies, The Banana Splits, The Jackson 5, The Monkees, Bobby Sherman, Josie and the Pussycats, H.R. Pufnstuf and other acts were included on the backs of cereal boxes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, while acts including The Brady Bunch had their own brands of chewing gum as a result of licensing deals with TV networks and record companies.^[1]

Etymology[link]

Producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz have claimed credit for coining the term bubblegum music, saying that when they discussed their target audience, they decided it was "teenagers, the young kids. And at the time we used to be chewing bubblegum and my partner and I used to look at it and laugh and say, 'Ah, this is like bubblegum music'." The term was seized upon by Buddah Records label executive Neil Bogart. Music writer and bubblegum historian Bill Pitzonka confirmed the claim, telling Goldmine magazine: "That's when bubblegum crystallized into an actual camp. Kasenetz and Katz really crystallized it when they came up with the term themselves and that nice little analogy. And Neil Bogart, being the marketing person he was, just crammed it down the throats of people. That's really the point at which bubblegum took off."^[4]

History[link]

The birth of bubblegum is generally dated from the success in 1968 of The Lemon Pipers' "Green Tambourine", 1910 Fruitgum Company's "Simon Says" and The Ohio Express' "Yummy Yummy Yummy", but music critics have identified novelty songs including The Dixie Cups' "Iko Iko" and Patti Page's "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?" as possible precursors.^[4]

A breeding ground for the genre has also been found in the field of 1960s garage rock, the songs of which shared an overriding simplicity with bubblegum. Garage and bubblegum groups were also both generally singles acts. Several garage punk bands, including Shadows of Knight, later recorded bubblegum tracks, while Ohio Express, one of the major 1960s bubblegum bands, began their recording career with punk-rooted tunes.^[4]

Between those two camps emerged Florida group The Royal Guardsmen, who scored a US No. 2 hit in 1966 with their novelty hit "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron", and The Fifth Estate, whose 1967 song "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" reached No. 11 in the US.^[4]

Tommy James and the Shondells are also seen as a major influence, with such songs as 1964's "Hanky Panky", 1966's "It's Only Love", and 1967's "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Gettin Together", as is Tommy Roe, but critics are divided on one possible major bubblegum band prototype: The Monkees. Although the band began as a prefabricated, fictional rock group concocted to sell records and TV advertising time, the band later staged a coup and wrested creative control from their creators.^[4]

1960s and 1970s[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)

The success of The Lemon Pipers' "Green Tambourine" (US No. 1, February 1968, produced by Paul Leka) was followed by a wave of bubblegum delivered by the Super K Productions team of Kasenetz and Katz, who had scored their first hits in 1967 with the Music Explosion's "Little Bit o' Soul" (No. 2, May) and The Ohio Express's "Beg, Borrow and Steal" (No. 29, October).

In early 1968, the pair signed New Jersey band Jekyll and the Hydes, changed the band's name to 1910 Fruitgum Company, and released two singles that made the Billboard Hot 100 – "Simon Says" (No. 4, February 1968) and "May I Take a Giant Step (Into Your Heart)" (No. 63). In May 1968, The Ohio Express (who had also undergone an enforced name change under the Super K team's tutelage, from Sir Timothy and the Royals) also scored a No. 4 hit with "Yummy Yummy Yummy".

The latter, written by early twentysomething Joey Levine and accomplished songwriter Artie Resnick, was intended as a demo for Ohio Express to emulate, featuring vocals by non-band member Levine and backing by session musicians. The song was released as an Ohio Express single without Levine's knowledge. Two follow-ups, "Down at Lulu's" (No. 33, August 1968) and "Chewy Chewy" (No. 15, October 1968), also charted - both featuring vocals by Levine (who had never met the band), and neither featuring any members of Ohio Express. The real Ohio Express toured, supporting The Beach Boys, The Who and Herman's Hermits, with bassist Dean Kastran performing the vocals for the hits, emulating Levine's nasal-punk singing style.^[1]

Kasenetz and Katz developed a strong relationship with Buddah Records, releasing a series of hits by 1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express and one-offs such as "Quick Joey Small" by The Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus, a Levine-fronted group of studio players. Kasenetz and Katz also scored on Bell Records in early 1969 with "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin" by another manufactured band, Crazy Elephant.

The dominance of the Kasenetz-Katz team was challenged in 1969 by music publisher Don Kirshner and "Hanky Panky"'s co-author, Brill Building writer/producer Jeff Barry. In early 1967, after almost a year of success directing the music team behind made-for-TV pop band The Monkees, the band rebelled against Kirshner's strict creative controls and after an acrimonious confrontation, involving lawyers and fisticuffs, wrested control of their career from Kirshner.

A battered and resentful Kirshner envisioned a manufactured group over which he could have permanent and total control: Filmation's cartoon band The Archies, based on the Archie Comics characters. He enlisted Barry and Andy Kim as songwriters, session musicians including Hugh McCracken, Gary Chester, Chuck Rainey and Ron Frangipane to provide the music and Ron Dante as vocalist.^[5] Dante, also of the Cuff Links, with whom he scored a No. 9 bubblegum hit, "Tracy" during the same period, would go on later to produce hits for Barry Manilow in the early 70s. The fictional band's "Sugar Sugar" (a song which Kirshner had originally intended for the Monkees to record) was the best-selling single of 1969, and the band would score five other Hot 100 singles, including "Bang Shang-a-Lang", "Jingle Jangle", and "Who's Your Baby?"

Numerous cartoon, costumed and even animal bands appeared during 1969-72 in response to the Archies' success. Cartoon producers Hanna-Barbera created The Banana Splits, for a Saturday morning cartoon show featuring costumed actors miming to pre-recorded tracks à la the early Monkees. Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was originally developed as cartoon band show, but even after that idea was dropped, the 1970-1971 season included seven episodes that each used a different bubblegum song for extended chase scenes - each performed by Austin Roberts.^[6] Hanna-Barbera's Josie and the Pussycats became the studio's new cartoon band show.

Other animated acts featuring bubblegum music included Filmation's The Hardy Boys, and Groovie Goolies, Sugar Bears, and (in the UK) The Wombles. The all-simian bubblegum band Evolution Revolution appeared on ABC-TV's Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp from 1970 to 1972 featuring vocals by Steve Hoffman, and studio musicians from The Grass Roots providing backup.

Sesame Workshop, then called Children's Television Workshop, also jumped on the bubblegum bandwagon with a juvenile group called "The Short Circus" from its new series, The Electric Company, who would also double as kid cast members in various sketches in the show.

The initial era of bubblegum carried on into the early 1970s, with hits from The Cowsills, The Partridge Family (a made-for-TV group inspired by the real-life Cowsills, starring Shirley Jones and featuring David Cassidy), The Jackson 5, The Osmonds, The DeFranco Family featuring Tony DeFranco and others. Many British acts of the first glam rock era (approximately 1971-1975) also incorporated bubblegum influences,^[4] including Gary Glitter, Alvin Stardust, T. Rex, and such Nicky Chinn/Mike Chapman-produced acts as Sweet, Mud, and American expatriate Suzi Quatro. These acts had great success in the UK, Asia, Europe and Australia, charting many singles. They were less successful in the US, however.

Bubblegum had a resurgence however and maintained a minor presence on the US charts in the mid-to-late 1970s, particularly through Shaun Cassidy (David's half-brother) and Leif Garrett, both of whom also maintained television acting careers. The last big act of the 70s featuring obvious bubblegum elements was the Scottish band the Bay City Rollers, who charted from 1975 through 1978. Some of ABBA's material (e.g., "Take a Chance on Me") was arguably borderline bubblegum.

See also[link]

• Teenybopper
• Bubblegum dance
• Teen pop
• 1960s in music

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bubblegum University, a group blog dedicated to bubblegum scholarship
• The Classic Bubblegum Music Home Page, Bubblegum articles, interviews, history, lyrics, and reviews
• Billboard Top Kid Audio Chart

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Bon Scott
Bon Scott (centre) pictured with guitarist Angus Young (left), performing at the Ulster Hall: August 1979.
Background information
Birth name	Ronald Belford Scott
Also known as	Bon Scott
Born	(1946-07-09)9 July 1946 Forfar, Scotland
Died	19 February 1980(1980-02-19) (aged 33) London, England
Genres	Rock and roll, blues rock, hard rock, heavy metal
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, drums, bagpipes, recorder
Years active	1964–1980
Associated acts	AC/DC, Fraternity, The Valentines, The Spektors

Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980.^[1] He was born in Forfar and brought up in Kirriemuir, Scotland, before moving to Melbourne, Australia with his family in 1952 at the age of six. The family lived in the suburb of Sunshine for 4 years before moving to Fremantle, Western Australia.

Scott formed his first band, The Spektors, in 1964 and became the band's drummer and occasional lead vocalist. He performed in several other bands including The Valentines and Fraternity before replacing Dave Evans as the lead singer of AC/DC in 1974.

In the July 2004 issue of Classic Rock, Scott was rated as number one in a list of the "100 Greatest Frontmen Of All Time" ahead of Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant.^[2] Hit Parader ranked Scott as fifth on their 2006 list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Vocalists of all time.^[3]

AC/DC's popularity grew throughout the 1970s, initially in Australia, and then internationally. Their 1979 album Highway to Hell reached the top twenty in the United States, and the band seemed on the verge of a commercial breakthrough. However, on 19 February 1980, Scott died after a night out in London. AC/DC briefly considered disbanding, but the group quickly recruited vocalist Brian Johnson of the British glam rock band Geordie. AC/DC's subsequent album, Back in Black, was released only five months later, and was a tribute to Scott. It went on to become the third best-selling album in history.^[1][4]

Biography[link]

Youth[link]

Ronald Belford Scott was born on 9 July 1946 at the Fyfe Jamieson Maternity Hospital, Forfar, Scotland to Charles Belford ("Chick") and Isabelle ("Isa") Scott, and grew up in Kirriemuir. A younger brother Derek was born in 1949.^[1] The Scott family emigrated from Scotland to Australia in 1952 where they initially lived in the Melbourne suburb of Sunshine.^[1] It was at Sunshine Primary School that he received his nickname; there was already a classmate with the name Ronald and as he had recently arrived from Bonnie Scotland he was dubbed "Bon" and the name stuck. A second brother, Graeme, was born in 1953. Bon was the oldest of Derek, Graeme, and Valerie. Bon did have an older brother born before him named Sandy Scott, but he died shortly after birth.

In 1956, the family moved to Fremantle, Western Australia and Bon joined the associated Fremantle Scots Pipe Band, learning the drums.^[1] Scott attended John Curtin College of the Arts until he dropped out at the age of 15 and spent a short time in Fremantle Prison's assessment centre and nine months at the Riverbank Juvenile Institution relating to charges of giving a false name and address to the police, having escaped legal custody, having unlawful carnal knowledge and stealing twelve gallons of petrol.^[1] He attempted to join the Australian Army but was rejected for being deemed as "socially maladjusted."^[5]

Early career[link]

Scott's vocals were inspired by his idol, Little Richard.^[6] After working as a postman, bartender and truck packer, Scott started his first band, The Spektors, in 1964 as drummer and occasional lead singer.^[7] Two years later the Spektors merged with another local band, The Winstons, and formed The Valentines, in which Scott was co-lead singer with Vince Lovegrove. The Valentines recorded several songs written by George Young of The Easybeats including "Every Day I Have to Cry" which made the local top 5.^[1] In 1970, after gaining a place on the National Top 30 with their single "Juliette", the Valentines disbanded due to artistic differences after a much-publicised drug scandal.^[8]

Scott moved to Adelaide in 1970 and joined the progressive rock band Fraternity. Fraternity released the LPs Livestock and Flaming Galah before touring the UK in 1971, where they changed their name to "Fang". During this time they played support slots for Status Quo and Geordie, whose front man, Brian Johnson, became the lead singer of AC/DC after Scott's death.^[1]

In 1973, just after returning to Australia from another tour of the UK, Fraternity went on hiatus. Scott took a day job at the Wallaroo fertiliser plant and began singing with the Mount Lofty Rangers, a loose collective of musicians helmed by Peter Head (né Beagley) from Headband, who explains "Headband and Fraternity were in the same management stable and we both split about the same time so the logical thing was to take members from both bands and create a new one ... the purpose of the band was for songwriters to relate to each other and experiment with songs, so it was a hotbed of creativity".^[9] Other ex-Fraternity members also played with the band as did Glen Shorrock pre Little River Band. During this time, Head also helped Scott with his original compositions.

Vince Lovegrove said "Bon would go to Peter's home after a day shovelling shit, and show him musical ideas he had had during his day's work. Bon's knowledge of the guitar was limited, so Peter began teaching him how to bridge chords and construct a song. One of the songs from these sessions was a beautiful ballad called "Clarissa", about a local Adelaide girl. Another was the country-tinged Bin Up in the Hills Too Long, which for me was a sign of things to come with Bon's lyrics; simple, clever, sardonic, tongue-in-cheek ..."^[10]

In return, Scott recorded vocals for Head's "Round & Round & Round" and country ballad "Carey Gully".^[11] Head released these original recordings in 1996, also teaming up with producer Ted Yanni, another old friend of Scott's, to create an entirely new backing for Round & Round & Round that more accurately reflected the original intentions Head had. Long out of print, and massively bootlegged, this EP finally got an official digital release in June 2010. Unrecorded original compositions of Scott's, "Been Up In The Hills Too Long" and "Clarissa" have been recorded by Head on his Peter Head & The Mount Lofty Rangers album, also released in digital format only in 2010.

"About 11 p.m. on 3 May 1974, at the Old Lion Hotel in North Adelaide, during a rehearsal with the Mount Lofty Rangers, a very drunk, distressed and belligerent Bon Scott had a raging argument with a member of the band. Bon stormed out of the venue, threw a bottle of Jack Daniels on to the ground, then screamed off on his Suzuki 550 motorbike."^[10] Scott suffered serious injuries from the ensuing motorcycle accident, spending three days in a coma and a further 18 days in hospital. Vince Lovegrove and his wife, by then running a booking/management agency, gave Scott odd jobs, such as putting up posters and painting the office during his recovery, and shortly after introduced him to AC/DC who were on the lookout for a new lead singer.^[8]

"There was a young, dinky little glam band from Sydney that we both loved called AC/DC ... Before another AC/DC visit, George Young phoned me and said the band was looking for a new singer. I immediately told him that the best guy for the job was Bon. George responded by saying Bon's accident would not allow him to perform, and that maybe he was too old. Nevertheless I had a meeting with Malcolm and Angus, and suggested Bon as their new singer. They asked me to bring him out to the Pooraka Hotel that night, and to come backstage after the show. When he watched the band, Bon was impressed, and he immediately wanted to join them, but thought they may be a bit too inexperienced and too young. After the show, backstage, Bon expressed his doubts about them being "able to rock". The two Young brothers told Bon he was "too old to rock". The upshot was that they had a jam session that night in the home of Bon's former mentor, Bruce Howe, and at the end of the session, at dawn, it was obvious that AC/DC had found a new singer. And Bon had found a new band."^[10]

Like Scott, Malcolm Young and his younger brother Angus Young of AC/DC were born in Scotland before emigrating to Australia in their childhood with their family.

Fraternity later reformed and replaced Scott with Jimmy Barnes.

With AC/DC[link]

Bon Scott in Grenoble, 10 December 1979.

Scott replaced Dave Evans as the lead singer of AC/DC on 24 October 1974, when it became obvious the band and Evans were heading in different directions, with Evans having personal clashes with band members and management.^[12]

With the Young brothers as lead and rhythm guitarists, session drummer Tony Currenti (see AC/DC lineups) and George Young as a temporary bassist, AC/DC released High Voltage, their first LP in Australia in 1974 according to the official Australian AC/DC website. Within a few months Currenti was replaced by Phil Rudd and Mark Evans was hired as a permanent bassist,^{[citation needed]} and AC/DC began recording their second album T.N.T., which was released in Australia in December 1975. The first AC/DC album to gain international distribution however was a compilation of tracks from the first two albums, also entitled High Voltage, which was released in May 1976. Another studio album, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap was released in the same year, but only in Australia; the international version of the album was released in November 1976 in the UK and in March 1981 in the U.S., with a different track listing.

In the following years, AC/DC gained further success with their albums Let There Be Rock and Powerage. The 1978 release of Powerage marked the debut of bassist Cliff Williams (who had replaced Mark Evans), and with its harder riffs, followed the blueprint set by Let There Be Rock. The album was the last produced by Harry Vanda and George Young with Bon Scott on vocals and is claimed to be AC/DC's most underrated album.^[13] Only one single was released for Powerage – "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" – and gave AC/DC their highest chart position at the time, reaching #24. An appearance at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow during the Powerage tour was recorded and released as If You Want Blood You've Got It.^[14]

The band's sixth album, Highway To Hell, was produced by Robert "Mutt" Lange and was released in 1979. It became AC/DC's first LP to break the U.S. top 100, eventually reaching #17, and it propelled AC/DC into the top ranks of hard rock acts.^[15][16]

Death[link]

Bon Scott's grave.

67 Overhill Road, East Dulwich, London, the site of Bon Scott's death

After Highway to Hell, Bon Scott and company began developing a new album that was to eventually become Back in Black, but Scott would not be a part of its success. On 19 February 1980, Scott, 33 at the time, passed out after a night of heavy drinking in a London club called the Music Machine (currently known as the KOKO). He was left to sleep in a Renault 5 owned by an acquaintance named Alistair Kinnear, at 67 Overhill Road in East Dulwich, South London.^[17] The following afternoon, Kinnear found Scott lifeless, and alerted the authorities. Scott was rushed to King's College Hospital in Camberwell, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Pulmonary aspiration of vomit was the cause of Scott's death,^[18] and the official cause was listed as "acute alcohol poisoning" and "death by misadventure".^[19][20] Scott was cremated and his ashes were interred by his family at Fremantle Cemetery in Fremantle, Western Australia.^[21]

Inconsistencies in media accounts of Scott's death (incorrect spelling of Alistair Kinnear's first name, among others) have been cited in conspiracy theories, which suggest that Scott died of an alcohol poisoning, or was killed by exhaust fumes redirected into the car, or that Kinnear did not exist.^[19] Additionally, Scott was asthmatic, and the temperature was below freezing on the morning of his death.^[22]

Shortly after Scott's death, the remaining members of AC/DC briefly considered quitting. However, it was eventually decided that Scott would have wanted them to continue and, after the blessings of Bon's family, the band hired Brian Johnson as the new vocalist. Angus Young stated in an interview with VH1 that Scott's mother, whom all the band members personally knew, heartily approved of the band continuing, and felt that it was the only way to properly remember her son and their bandmate.^{[citation needed]}

Five months after Scott's death, AC/DC finished the work they began with Scott and released Back in Black as a tribute to him with two tracks from the album, "Hells Bells" and "Back in Black", dedicated to his memory. It is now the third best-selling album in history, behind Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Michael Jackson's Thriller. The French rock band Trust wrote their hit song "Ton dernier acte" ("Your last act") in memory of Scott in 1980. German hard rock band Kingdom Come wrote and recorded a song titled "Bon Scott" for their album, Ain't Crying for the Moon, as a tribute to the former AC/DC frontman. It is a medium- to fast-paced song, that has a driving guitar riff during the verses that is very much in the style of AC/DC.

His grave site has become a cultural landmark; more than 28 years after Scott's death, the National Trust of Australia decreed his grave important enough to be included on the list of classified heritage places.^[21][23] It is reportedly the most visited grave in Australia.^[24] On 9 July 2006, the plaque was stolen from the site.^[25]

Posthumous events[link]

Statue of Bon Scott, Fremantle, Western Australia.

Bon Scott memorial, Kirriemuir, Scotland.

AC/DC released a box set named Bonfire as a tribute to Scott on 18 November 1997. It contains four albums; a remastered version of Back in Black; a "rarities" album with alternate takes, outtakes, and stray live cuts, Volts; and two live albums, Live from the Atlantic Studios and Let There Be Rock: The Movie.

Live from the Atlantic Studios was recorded on 7 December 1977 at the Atlantic Studios in New York City.

Let There Be Rock: The Movie is a double album which was recorded on 9 December 1979 at the Pavillon de Paris in Paris, and was the soundtrack of the motion picture, AC/DC: Let There Be Rock.^[26]

AC/DC was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.^[27] Members of Scott's family joined the band at the podium to accept the honour in his place.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003 Scott's final studio album with AC/DC, 1979's Highway to Hell ranked 199 on Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

In 2004 the song "Highway to Hell" that Scott co-wrote with Malcolm and Angus Young ranked 254 on Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

In the July 2004 issue of UK magazine Classic Rock, Scott was rated as number one in a list of the "100 Greatest Frontmen," ahead of Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant.^[2]

On 6 May 2006, the town of Kirriemuir in Scotland held a service and unveiled a Caithness stone slab commemorating the singer.^[28] A message was read from long time friend and fellow member of The Valentines, Vince Lovegrove in which he said:

More recently a new street in Kirriemuir has been named after Scott.

A bronze statue of Scott was unveiled at Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour in Western Australia on 24 February 2008.^[30] The statue portrays Scott atop a Marshall amplifier.

A Screen Australia-backed film depicting Scott's life from 1974 until his death in 1980 was announced on 28 July 2011. The film will be directed by Eddie Martin and will be produced by Lizzie Atkins.^[31]

Notes[link]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bon Scott

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bon Scott

• Walker, Clinton (1994), Highway to Hell: The Life and Times of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott, Verse Chorus Press, ISBN 0-283-06263-0 .
• Stenning, Paul (2005), AC/DC – Two Sides to Every Glory, Chrome Dreams, ISBN 1-84240-308-7 .

External links[link]

Biography portal

• AC/DC official website
• AC/DC at the Open Directory Project
• Bon Scott at the Internet Movie Database
• Bon Scott at Find a Grave

Tommy James
Tommy James in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Thomas Gregory Jackson
Born	(1947-04-29) April 29, 1947 (age 65) Dayton, Ohio, United States
Genres	Rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, guitarist
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1958–present
Labels	Roulette Records, Millenium Records, St. Clair Entertainment Group
Website	The Official Site of Tommy James and the Shondells

Tommy James (born Thomas Gregory Jackson, 29 April 1947, Dayton, Ohio) is an American pop-rock musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as leader of the 1960s rock band Tommy James and the Shondells.^[1]

Early life and career[link]

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Tommy and his family moved to Niles, Michigan; a child model at age four, he was no stranger to the stage.^[1][2] In 1959, at the age of twelve, James formed what would be recognized as his first official band "The Tornadoes".^[2] A year later the band changed its name to The Shondells. By 1964, Jack Douglas, a local DJ at WNIL radio station in Niles formed his own record label, Snap Records. The Shondells were one of the local bands he recorded at WNIL studios.^[3] One of the songs was the Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich ditty "Hanky Panky", which the pair recorded using the name The Raindrops.^[3] The song was a hit locally, but the label had no resources for national promotion and it was soon forgotten.^[2][3]

In 1965, a local dance promoter, Bob Mack, started playing the song at his Pittsburgh dance clubs, having found a copy of it in a used record bin.^[1][2] Soon after, a Pittsburgh area bootlegger made a copy of the song and began pressing copies of it, speeding it up slightly in the process.^[3] Sales of the bootleg were estimated at 80,000 in ten days.^[1][4] It became number one on Pittsburgh radio stations in early 1966.^[4] Douglas was the first to hear about the record's sudden popularity in Pittsburgh; his Snap Records labels always included his name and location.^[3] Further calls from Pittsburgh convinced James to come to Pennsylvania, where he met with Mack and Chuck Rubin, who handled the talent bookings for Mack's dance clubs. Before long, all three major music trade papers, Billboard, Cashbox and Record World, were listing "Hanky Panky" as a regional breakout hit. Rubin, who had music industry connections, said it was a good time for the trio to travel to New York in search of a record deal.^[3]

The men made the rounds of the major recording labels, getting initial potential offers from most companies they visited. One label, Roulette Records, gave no initial response because its head, Morris Levy, was out of town until evening; Roulette was one of the last stops on their visit.^[3] By the next morning, Mack, Rubin and James were now receiving polite refusals from the major record companies after the enthusiasm for the record the day before. James said, "We didn't know what in the world was going on, and finally Jerry Wexler over at Atlantic leveled with us and said, 'Look, Morris Levy and Roulette called up all the other record companies and said, "This is my freakin' record." (laughs) and scared 'em all away – even the big corporate labels.'" Their only option would be to sign with Roulette.^[4]

Since the band had broken up two years before, the only Shondell left was James himself.^[3] Mack made his dance club bands available to James, but nothing seemed to fit until one of the bands' guitarists took James to the Thunderbird Lounge outside Pittsburgh. The lounge's house band was a five man group called the Raconteurs. James sang with the band at the lounge, and this time the chemistry was right. The Raconteurs became the new Shondells,^[3] and Jackson acquired the professional name of Tommy James. By the third week of July 1966, "Hanky Panky" had become the top single in the nation.^[3]

Tommy James and the Shondells[link]

The newly formed group had not played together except at the Thunderbird Lounge. The first time would be in the studio for the needed follow-up song to "Hanky Panky". When Bob Mack's attempt at finding some Shondells worked out in an inadvertent way, he told James about another record he'd found in the same used record bin "Hanky Panky" came from: "Say I Am" by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs. The only thing James and his new Shondells were aware of when they entered the recording studio for the first time is that whatever they recorded should sound similar to "Hanky Panky", except that the two songs sound nothing alike. Bob Mack, who was at the session, played The Fireballs record for the group and they decided to record their version of the song. Mack found the band the first tune they would record together; he was credited as the producer for the group's first album, Hanky Panky.^[3][5]

Songwriter Richie Cordell wrote (or co-wrote) and produced many of the group's hits, among them the classic good-timing "I Think We're Alone Now", "Mirage", and "Mony Mony".^[6] The creation of "Mony Mony" was a group effort, involving Cordell, James, Shondells band member Peter Lucia, producer Bo Gentry, and Bobby Bloom. James and Cordell set out to create a party rock single working out everything except the song's title, which eluded them even after much effort. They took a break from their creative endeavors on James' apartment terrace, when they looked up at the Mutual of New York Insurance Company's large neon sign bearing the abbreviation for the company: M-O-N-Y. Both knew instantaneously their song now had a name.^[3]

Tommy James and the Shondells also produced a "Mony Mony" video when the song was a hit, hiring a video company to produce a short film of it. Even though a number of musical groups had already produced videos by that time, there was no market at all for that film in the US. Television stations would not air it, and it was originally shown between double features in movie theaters in Europe. The film was not seen in the US until the creation of MTV.^[2]

With "Mony Mony" becoming such a hit in the US and an even bigger one in the UK, James was contacted by Beatle George Harrison, who was working with a group called Grapefruit at the time. Harrison and the group had written some songs they wanted James to consider recording. Since the group came to a decision to change their musical style (and would do so with "Crimson and Clover": see below) and the material Harrison and Grapefruit provided was in the style of "Mony Mony", James turned down their offer.

The music business changed after the success of "Mony Mony". Top 40 program formatting, based on 45 RPM single records, drove popular music on the radio. Few stations played cuts from record albums, so radio was, in effect, "selling" single records for the record companies.^[3] In August 1968, James and the Shondells went on the campaign trail for three months with presidential candidate Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. Meanwhile popular music had become album-driven, with artists like Led Zeppelin and Joe Cocker in the spotlight and on the air, displacing many performers whose singles had been top sellers. James realized he and the Shondells needed to become an album-oriented group if they were to survive in the business, necessitating a change in their style.

After working out a marketing strategy for their new sound, James visited WLS when the group was in Chicago to play a concert, bringing along a rough cut of "Crimson and Clover" to the station. WLS secretly recorded the music when James played his tape for them. By the time James was out of the building and in the car, its radio was playing the station's dub of the not-yet-finished song. "Crimson and Clover" had to be pressed the way it was heard on the radio station, and the marketing plan was now wasted time and effort.^[3]

"Crimson and Clover" was a huge success, and the group would have two follow-up hits that also reached the Hot 100's top 10, "Sweet Cherry Wine" and "Crystal Blue Persuasion". James, who co-wrote all three of those songs,^[7] and his band did well enough with the transition to be invited to perform at Woodstock. James describes Artie Kornfeld's invitation like this: "Artie was up and asked if you could play at this pig farm up in upstate New York." I said, "What?!?" "Well, they say it's gonna be a lot of people there, and it's gonna be a really important show." At the time James was in Hawaii and was incredulous about being asked to travel 6,000 miles to play a show on an upstate New York pig farm, telling the Roulette Records secretary, "If I'm not there, start without us, will you please?"^[1][3] Four minor hits later and a few months after turning down Woodstock, the group opted to disband.^[4]

Tommy James and The Shondells were voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends online Hall of Fame in 2006. Four of the band's biggest hits have been voted Legendary Michigan Songs: "Crimson & Clover" in 2010, and "Hanky Panky", "I Think We're Alone Now", and "Mony Mony" in 2011.^[8]

Solo[link]

James went solo and had two further Billboard Hot 100 top 20 chart hits with "Draggin' the Line" (co-written by Bob King) (#4 in 1971) and "Three Times in Love" (#19 in 1980), plus eleven much smaller Hot 100 hits. James has had twenty-three gold singles, and nine gold and platinum albums. He also wrote and produced the million-selling 1970 hit "Tighter, Tighter" for the group Alive 'N Kickin' (co-written by Bob King). In 1972, James spent time in Nashville and recorded an album there with top Nashville musicians, My Head, My Bed and My Red Guitar. He left Roulette Records in 1974. To date, over 300 musicians have recorded versions of James' music.^[1][2]

In October 2008, Tommy James and the three surviving members of the original Shondells reunited in a New Jersey studio to record once again. The group had disbanded because its members needed time away from the pressure-filled recording business, remaining close friends even though they no longer were recording together. After not playing together for 37 years, the group recorded an album, I Love Christmas.^[2][9]

Music and the mob[link]

In February 2010, an autobiography Me, The Mob, and The Music was published. James announced that deals were in hand to turn the story into both a film and a Broadway play.^[2] Martin Scorsese approached James about making a movie of the book shortly after its publication.^[10][11]

It was evident when James first met Morris Levy, the head of Roulette Records, that he was willing to strongarm others when necessary. Those signed to Roulette were there to produce money for the company, having their needs met only when it pleased Levy. Asking to be paid meant intimidation; to survive, those under contract to Roulette needed to find a means of generating income that did not involve the record company, such as personally booked tours.^[4] While a Roulette artist had great creative control when recording for the company, the lack of payment for those efforts was difficult to take.^[3][4][9]

James estimates the company owed him $30–40 million in royalties he never received.^[4][10] Roulette was a front for organized crime, also functioning as a money laundering operation. In the early 1970s, Levy was at the wrong end of a mob war. James had to leave New York for a while to avoid a mob hit, which explained why he recorded an album in Nashville in 1972. He did not feel comfortable writing his book until all those deeply involved with the record company had died.^[4] It was only after Roulette Records and Levy's Big Seven Music publishing company were sold (the record company to an EMI and Rhino Records partnership, the music publishing company to Windswept Pacific Music which was later sold to EMI) that James began to receive large royalty checks from sales of his records.^[12]

Solo discography[link]

1970 Tommy James
1971 Christian of the World
1972 My Head, My Bed & My Red Guitar
1976 In Touch
1977 Midnight Rider
1980 Three Times in Love
1989 Tommy James - The Solo Years
1990 Hi-Fi
1993 Discography: Deals and Demos
1996 A Night in Big City
1997 Tommy James Greatest Hits Live

2004: I Love Christmas (CD single)
2005 Sweet Cherry Wine (CD single)
2005 Isn't that the Guy (CD single)
2006 Lupe & Jo (MP3 single)
2006 Love Words (CD Single)
2006 Hold the Fire

James himself had thirteen charting solo singles, with the three highest-charting being 1971's "Draggin' the Line" (#4), 1980's "Three Times in Love" (#19), and 1971's "I'm Comin' Home" (#40).

Bibliography[link]

• James, Tommy; Martin Fitzpatrick (2010). Me, the mob, and the music : one helluva ride with Tommy James and the Shondells. New York: Scribner. pp. vii, 227 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm.. ISBN 978-1-4391-2865-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=I6pfS5VOa4kC&printsec=frontcover.  The book extensively details James's relationship with Morris Levy.

References[link]