The CHUM Chart was a ranking of top 30 (and, until August 1968, the top 50) songs on Toronto, Ontario radio station CHUM 1050 AM, from 1957 to 1986, and was the longest-running Top 40 chart in the world produced by an individual radio station.^[1] In the early 2000s, sister station 104.5 CHUM FM, which airs a hot adult contemporary format, revived the CHUM Chart name for a new countdown show.

The CHUM Chart also aired as a television program on Citytv every Saturday at 2:00 p.m until January 2008, when the show was discontinued after Rogers Communications gained control of the Citytv stations and replaced it with the JackNation chart, a show based on their Jack FM radio brand. The program aired a list of the most popular songs in the countdown, starting from #30, playing approximately half of them.

History[link]

The chart debuted on May 27, 1957, under the name CHUM's Weekly Hit Parade. The CHUM Chart name was adopted in 1961.

The chart was published for 1,512 consecutive weeks, and had 694 different No. 1 songs over the course of its original run. Its first No. 1 single was Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up", and its final No. 1 was Madonna's "Live to Tell".

From its inception until 1975, each week's CHUM Chart was published in a brochure format, with additional features promoting the station and its personalities. It was distributed to record stores and music venues across the city.^[1] In 1975, the brochure was discontinued, and each week's chart was instead published in the entertainment section of the Toronto Star. Mike Myers, Gordon Lightfoot, Dick Clark and Dave Thomas all reportedly own collections of CHUM Charts.

For the first 26 weeks in 1957, the chart published full information only for the top 10, listing only song titles for the remainder of the chart. On November 25, 1957, however, the chart began publishing information on all listed songs. In 1959, the chart briefly added a Top 10 albums list, which was discontinued in 1960, revived in 1963 and discontinued again in 1967.

Author Ron Hall published The CHUM Chart Book (ISBN 0920325157) in 1983, listing every song that had appeared in the CHUM Charts to that point. Following the discontinuation of the chart, he published an updated edition in 1990 listing every charted song and profiling the history of the chart. The final chart, for the week of June 14, 1986, was never published until Hall's 1990 book. A commemorative list of all the chart's number one songs was also published in poster format by CHUM in 2007 to commemorate the station's 50th anniversary.

See also[link]

• Music of Canada

References[link]

External links[link]

• Current CHUM Charts
• Rock Radio Scrapbook The CHUM Charts
• Rock Radio Scrapbook The CHUM Archives (Part 1)
• Rock Radio Scrapbook The CHUM Archives (Part 2)
• Welcome – 1050 Chum.net

v t e Lists of number-one singles in Canada CHUM Chart 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 RPM Top Singles 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 RPM Alternative 30 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 RPM Country singles chart 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 RPM Dance Chart 1976 1977 1978 1979 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 Canadian Singles Chart 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Canadian Hot 100 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Hot Canadian Digital Singles Chart 2010 2011 2012 R3-30 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

King Biscuit Boy was the stage name of Richard Alfred Newell (March 9, 1944 – January 5, 2003) a Canadian blues musician. He was the first Canadian blues artist to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S..

King Biscuit Boy played with artists such as Muddy Waters, Joe Cocker, and Janis Joplin.

Career[link]

Newell was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and played guitar and sang, but was most noted for his harmonica playing. His stage name was taken from the King Biscuit Flour Hour, an early American blues broadcast. He was given the name by Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins, a pioneering rock and roll musician, while he was part of Hawkins' back-up band.

Newell reportedly started his career by stealing his first harmonica (Marine Band, key of B) from a joke shop near his home on Hamilton Mountain, Hamilton, Ontario.^[1]

Newell played with The Barons (later renamed Son Richard and the Chessmen) from 1961 to 1965, followed by a stint with The Midknights and in the summer of 1969 helped to form And Many Others, which was Ronnie Hawkins' backing band at that time. After one LP and several US appearances, Hawkins fired the entire band in early 1970,^[2] upon which the members, including Newell, formed themselves into their own band, which they named Crowbar. Newell recorded an album with Crowbar, then embarked on a solo career, although he played with Crowbar off and on throughout his career.

After leaving Crowbar, he signed a major American deal with Paramount/Epic. Seven solo albums followed, along with two Juno nominations (the Juno Awards are the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. Grammy Awards).^[1]

Newell released his last album in early 2003 at Race Records, an independent record label in Hamilton, Ontario. It was a collaboration with saxophonist Sonny Del-Rio (a former Crowbar bandmate and long-standing friend) entitled Two Hound Blues. The album was a combination of six lost tracks from the 1981 King Biscuit Boy album, Biscuits 'n' Gravy, and the 1991 Sonny Del-Rio effort, 40 Years of Rock & Roll and All I Got's the Blues, which was recorded in 2002.^[1]

Blake 'Kelly Jay' Fordham (a former Crowbar bandmate and friend) recalled that Newell had a soft spot in his heart for 1950s doo-wop music. "We'd do a medley, four chords in F, and see how many songs we could fit into it; stuff by Johnnie & Joe - ""Over the Mountain, Across the Sea," and "You Belong to Me", or "Talk to Me", by Little Willie John. Each week we'd try to best ourselves, see who could come up with more. He would always find the most obscure stuff."^[3]

Newell preferred Hohner Special 20 (diatonic) harmonicas, and was using a Danelectro amplifier late in his career. He rarely played a chromatic, either on stage or in the studio.

Health and death[link]

Newell fought repeated battles with alcohol abuse throughout his life. Poor health due to alcoholism stunted his career through the 1990s. The bright spot in this time period was his release of the album Urban Blues Re: Newell in 1995. Newell succumbed to the disease at his home in Hamilton, Ontario, in 2003, just two months short of his fifty-ninth birthday.^[4]

Legacy[link]

A couple of months after his death, friends of Newell held a benefit show at a downtown Hamilton, Ontario club, to create a trust fund in his name. More than 100 musicians from across the country showed up to play at Club 77 at the first annual "Blues With A Feeling" benefit show. The show was successful and "The Friends of Richard Newell" have held one every year since, with the money raised going to a music scholarship fund at Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology in Hamilton, Ontario.^[3]

Discography[link]

• Official Music (as King Biscuit Boy and Crowbar) (1970, Daffodil; 1996, Stony Plain)
• Gooduns (1971, Daffodil; 1996, Stony Plain)
• King Biscuit Boy" (aka The Brown Derby Album) - Epic 1974
• Mouth of Steel (1979, UK, Red Lightning; 1982, Canada, Stony Plain)
• Badly Bent (The Best of King Biscuit Boy) (1982, Daffodil)
• King Biscuit Boy AKA Richard Newell (1988, Stony Plain)
• Urban Blues Re: Newell (1995, Blue Wave; 1995, Stony Plain)

Quotation[link]

"Newell is the Sonny Boy Williamson of the Great White North". - Tommy Tearaway^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• King Biscuit Boy tribute site
• Brief biography on the Canadian Encyclopedia
• Race Records website

Lesley Gore (born Lesley Sue Goldstein; May 2, 1946) is an American singer. She is perhaps best known for her 1963 pop hit "It's My Party", which she recorded at the age of 16. Following the hit, she became one of the most recognized teen pop singers of the 1960s.

Biography[link]

Gore was born in New York City, New York. She was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, in a Jewish family.^[1] Her younger brother Michael, was an Oscar winner for Best Original Song for the theme song of Fame. Her father, Leo Gore, was a wealthy manufacturer of children's clothes and swimwear.

Lesley was a junior at the Dwight School for Girls in nearby Englewood when "It's My Party" became a #1 hit. It was later nominated for a Grammy Award for rock and roll recording.^[2] It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.^[3]

Career: 1960s and 1970s[link]

Gore's first hit was followed by many others, including: "Judy's Turn to Cry" (US #5), the sequel to "It's My Party"; "She's a Fool" (US #5); the protofeminist million-selling "You Don't Own Me",^[3] which held at #2 for three weeks behind The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand"; "That's the Way Boys Are" (US #12); "Maybe I Know" (US #14/UK #20); "Look of Love" (US #27); and Grammy-nominated "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" (US #13), from the 1965 movie "Ski Party". Her record producer was Quincy Jones, who would later become one of the most famous producers in American music.

Instead of accepting the television and movie contracts that came her way, Gore chose to attend Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York. This limited her public career to weekends and summer vacations and undoubtedly hurt her career. Nevertheless, throughout the mid 1960s Gore continued to be one of the most popular female singers in the United States and Canada.

Gore was given first shot at recording "A Groovy Kind of Love", but Shelby Singleton, a producer for Smash Records, a Mercury subsidiary, recommended that she not record a song with the word "groovy" in it. The Mindbenders went on to record the song, and it went to #2 on the Billboard charts.^[4]

Gore performed on both the January 19 and January 25, 1967, episodes of the Batman TV series, in which she guest-starred as Pussycat, one of Catwoman's minions. In the January 19 "That Darn Catwoman" episode, she lip-synched to the Bob Crewe-produced "California Nights" (US #16) (skipping the second verse), and in the January 25 "Scat! Darn Catwoman" episode to "Maybe Now"^[4] (the latter was for some reason cut from most later broadcasts of the episodes). Gore also performed the single "We Know We're in Love" ten months earlier on the final episode of "The Donna Reed Show", which aired on March 19, 1966. Afterwards, she maintained a lower profile in the music industry, performing at concerts and in cabarets.

By the late 1960s, her popularity had decreased with the advent of harder-edged psychedelic music. Gore released "Wedding Bell Blues" as a single in 1969, but her version flopped while the 5th Dimension's version spent three weeks at #1. Gore also recorded many of her hit songs in French, German, and Italian. In an interview Gore said that when Mercury Records dropped her in 1969, they owed her $175,000.00 and she did not see a nickel from them until 1989, by which time Mercury has recouped all of their costs from her royalties.^{[citation needed]}

Gore kept busy writing songs, including composing songs for the soundtrack of the 1980 film Fame, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for "Out Here on My Own", written with her brother Michael.^[5] The song was a Top 20 hit for Irene Cara.^{[citation needed]}

Return to recording in 2005[link]

Gore played concerts and appeared on television throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 2005, she recorded her first album of new material since 1976 (Love Me By Name) — Ever Since — with producer/songwriter Blake Morgan for Engine Company Records (a small independent label). In addition to extensive national radio coverage and critical acclaim from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard Magazine, and other national press, three songs from Ever Since have been used in television shows and films: Better Angels, in CSI: Miami's fourth season premiere episode, "Words We Don't Say", in an episode of The L Word, and "It's Gone", in the Jeff Lipsky-directed film Flannel Pajamas. In 2009, "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" was featured in the film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" was also used in the Simpsons episode Marge on the Lam, for the Butlins Company TV advertisements in 2008 and for the Target Australia homewares TV advertisement in 2010.

Personal life[link]

Beginning in 2004, Gore hosted the PBS television series In the Life, which focused on LGBT issues.^[6] In 2005, she stated in an interview that she was a lesbian.^[6] As of the time of the interview, Gore had been living with her partner for more than 23 years.^[6]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[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. (December 2011)

Compilation albums[link]

Singles[link]

B-sides[link]

Television appearances[link]

• Ed Sullivan Show (Four appearances)
• American Bandstand
• The Mike Douglas Show
• The Andy Williams Show
• Merv Griffin Show
• The Donna Reed Show (appeared as herself in the final episode of the series on 3/19/66, performing "It's My Party" and "We Know We're In Love")
• Batman (starring as "Pussycat") – her hit "California Nights" was introduced on this show, in the episode "That Darn Catwoman."^[4]
• Club 1270, a teen-oriented dance-party television show on WXYZ-TV in Detroit ("1270" was a reference to the frequency of WXYZ-AM radio, a leading Top 40 station in the Detroit area at the time, now WXYT.)
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
• Shindig!
• Hullabaloo
• What's My Line?
• Days of our Lives
• Sha Na Na
• All My Children
• Murphy Brown
• Hollywood Squares
• Dinah Shore
• The Midnight Special
• In The Life (PBS)
• A Capitol Fourth
• Gay USA
• The T.A.M.I. Show

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lesley Gore Official Site
• Lesley Gore International Fan Club
• AfterEllen.com 2005 interview

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2008)

Jackie DeShannon
Background information
Born	(1942-08-21) August 21, 1942 (age 69)
Origin	Hazel, Kentucky, United States
Genres	Pop, Vocal
Occupations	singer-songwriter, singer, lyricist
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1950–present
Associated acts	Hal David, Burt Bacharach, Ry Cooder, Jimmy Page

Jackie DeShannon (born August 21, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards. She was one of the first female singer-songwriters of the rock 'n' roll period.

Life and early career[link]

She was born Sharon Lee Myers in Hazel, Kentucky,^[1] the daughter of musically inclined farming parents, Sandra Jean and James Erwin Myers, and was singing country tunes on a local radio show at the age of six. By the age of 11, DeShannon was hosting her own radio program. When life on the farm became too difficult, the family moved to Aurora, Illinois, her mother's home town, and her father resumed his other career as a barber. After a year, they moved up the Fox River to Batavia, Illinois, where Sharon attended high school.

She began to record under various names such as Sherry Lee, Jackie Dee, and Jackie Shannon, but had little success. However, her interpretations of country songs "Buddy" and "Trouble" gained the attention of Rock'n'Roll star Eddie Cochran, who arranged for her to travel to California to meet his girlfriend, singer-songwriter Sharon Sheeley, who formed a writing partnership with DeShannon in 1960. The partnership produced hits such as "Dum Dum" for Brenda Lee.

In 1960, DeShannon signed with Liberty Records, adopting the name Jackie DeShannon, believed to be the name of an Irish ancestor, after executives at Liberty thought the name Sharon Myers would not help sell records. In a Fresh Air interview (June 14, 2010),^[2] DeShannon said that she chose "Jackie" as a cross-gender name. Since she had a low singing voice, she could be heard as either male or female. If thought of as male, she was more likely to sell to female record-buyers, who dominated the market. When she found that "Jackie Dee" was too similar to Brenda Lee, Sandra Dee, et al., she changed it to Jackie Dee Shannon, which people heard as DeShannon. The name stuck.

Armed with her new name, she made the WLS Chicago radio survey with the single "Lonely Girl" in late 1960. A string of mostly flop singles followed, although "The Prince" bubbled under at No. 108 in the United States in early 1962, and "Faded Love" became her first US Billboard Top 100 entry, squeaking in at #97 in February 1963.^[3]

She fared better with the Sonny Bono-Jack Nitzsche song "Needles and Pins" and the self-penned "When You Walk in the Room" later in 1963. Both reached the lower rungs of the US pop charts, but were Top 40 hits in Canada, where "Needles and Pins" made it all the way to No. 1. "Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk in the Room" later became US and UK hits for The Searchers.

DeShannon recorded many other singles that encompassed teen pop, country ballads, rockabilly, gospel, and Ray Charles-style soul that didn't fare as well on the charts. During these years it was her songwriting and public profile rather than her recording career that kept her contracted to Liberty. DeShannon dated Elvis Presley and formed friendships with The Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson. She also co-starred and sang with Bobby Vinton in the teen surf movie Surf Party.

DeShannon's biggest break came in February 1964 when she supported The Beatles on their first US tour, and formed a touring band with guitarist Ry Cooder. DeShannon also wrote "Don't Doubt Yourself Babe" for the debut album of The Byrds. Her music at this stage was heavily influenced by the American West Coast sounds and folk music. Staying briefly in England in 1965, DeShannon formed a songwriting partnership with Jimmy Page, which resulted in the hit singles "Dream Boy" and "Don't Turn Your Back on Me". Page and DeShannon also wrote material for singer Marianne Faithfull, including her Top Ten UK and US hit "Come and Stay With Me". DeShannon also appeared on the television show Ready Steady Go!

Hit love songs[link]

Moving to New York, DeShannon co-wrote with Randy Newman, producing such songs as "She Don't Understand Him" and "Did He Call Today Mama?", as well as writing "You Have No Choice" for Delaney Bramlett. In March 1965, DeShannon recorded Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "What the World Needs Now Is Love", which led to club tours and regular appearances on television and went to No. 7 on the US charts and No. 1 in Canada. (DeShannon's recording of the song was subsequently used in the 1969 film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.) She appeared in the 1967 film C'mon Let's Live a Little, with Bobby Vee, as a folk singer.

DeShannon continued writing and recording, but it was not until 1969 that she scored her next smash single and album, both entitled "Put a Little Love in Your Heart". The self-penned single sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.^[4] The single "Love Will Find A Way" from the same album was also a moderate hit. Switching to Atlantic Records in 1970 and moving to Los Angeles, DeShannon recorded the critically acclaimed albums Jackie and Your Baby Is A Lady, but they failed to produce the same commercial success as previous releases. In 1973, she was invited by Van Morrison to sing on his Hard Nose the Highway album.

"Put A Little Love In Your Heart" was performed as the closing number at the Music for UNICEF Concert, broadcast worldwide from the United Nations General Assembly in 1979.

Later career[link]

While DeShannon has not produced any further Top Ten singles of her own, her songs have been covered by other artists who have converted them into hits. In 1974, she co-wrote "Queen of the Rodeo" and "Bette Davis Eyes" with Donna Weiss for her album New Arrangement ^[5]. "Bette Davis Eyes" which went on to become a worldwide no. 1 single for Kim Carnes in 1981, earning Weiss and DeShannon the 1982 Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

DeShannon also co-wrote "Break-A-Way", recorded by Irma Thomas in 1964 and by Tracey Ullman in 1983. "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" reached Billboard No. 9 in 1989 as a duet by Annie Lennox & Al Green and was also covered by Dolly Parton in 1993. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Stevie Nicks had a Top 40 US hit in 1986 with a cover of "Needles and Pins", which DeShannon originally recorded but did not write. A version of "When You Walk in the Room" by Pam Tillis in 1994 topped the country charts. Another recent cover of "When You Walk in the Room" was in 2004 by ex-ABBA vocalist Agnetha Fältskog, both in her comeback album My Colouring Book and as a UK (no. 34) and European (no. 53) hit single. Country rock artist Chris Hillman, one of the original members of The Byrds, also did a cover of "When You Walk in the Room" on his solo 1998 album "Like a Hurricane".

Jackie was portrayed by singer Liz Phair in an episode of the NBC period drama American Dreams.

On June 17, 2010, Jackie was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Also in 2010, Jackie DeShannon was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Personal life[link]

She has a brother, Randy James Myers, with whom she has sometimes written songs. In the mid 1960s, she dated Jimmy Page and Love guitarist Bryan MacLean. It is likely that Jimmy Page wrote the song "Tangerine" (which appeared on the third Led Zeppelin album) after the breakup of his relationship with DeShannon in early 1965.^{[citation needed]} Her first husband was Liberty Records executive Irving "Bud" Dain, whom she married on January 29, 1966 (annulled in 1967).^[6] DeShannon has been married to singer/songwriter and film composer Randy Edelman since 1977. They have one son, Noah, born in 1978.^[6]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Jackie DeShannon (1963)
• Breakin' It Up on the Beatles Tour (1964)
• Don't Turn Your Back on Me (1964)
• Surf Party (1964) (soundtrack)
• This Is Jackie DeShannon (1965)
• Jackie: In the Wind (1965)
• You Won't Forget Me (1965) (compilation)
• C'Mon Let's Live a Little (1966) (soundtrack)
• Are You Ready for This? (1967)
• New Image (1967)
• For You (1967)
• Me About You (1968)
• What the World Needs Now Is Love (1968)
• Lonely Girl (1968) (compilation)
• Great Performances (1968) (compilation)
• Laurel Canyon (1969)
• Put a Little Love in Your Heart (1969)
• To Be Free (1970)
• Songs (1971)
• Jackie (1972)
• Your Baby Is a Lady (1974)
• New Arrangement (1975) ^[7]
• The Very Best of Jackie DeShannon (1975) (compilation)
• You're the Only Dancer (1977)
• Quick Touches (1978)
• Together (1980) (soundtrack)
• Pop Princess (1981) (compilation)
• Jackie DeShannon (1985) (compilation)
• What the World Needs Now Is ...: The Definitive Collection (1987) (compilation)
• Good as Gold! (1990) (compilation)
• The Best of Jackie DeShannon (1991) (compilation)
• Trouble With Jackie Dee (1991)
• The Early Years (1998) (compilation)
• Come and Get Me: Best of 1958-1980 (2000) (compilation)
• You Know Me (2000)
• High Coinage: The Songwriters Collection 1960-1984 (2007) (compilation)
• You Won't Forget Me: The Complete Liberty Singles (Volume One) (2009) (new UK compilation)
• When You Walk In The Room (2011) (Greatest songs newly recorded)

Singles[link]

B-sides[link]

Film appearances[link]

• Surf Party (1963)
• Intimacy (1966)
• C'mon Let's Live a Little (1967)

TV appearances[link]

• Hollywood A Go Go (1965)
• Hullabaloo (1965)
• My Three Sons (1967)
• Playboy After Dark (1969)
• The Wild Wild West (1969) (The Night of the Janus)
• The Virginian (1970)
• The Catcher (1972)
• The Midnight Special (TV series) (1976)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jackie DeShannon

• Official site
• Audio interview with Jackie DeShannon on the Sodajerker on Songwriting podcast
• Jackie DeShannon at the Internet Movie Database

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]

External links[link]

• Official Website

Interviews[link]

• Interview with Michael A. Ventrella (June 2010)
• http://libwww.library.phila.gov/podcast/?podcastID=509