Early life and career By Wikipedia.com
In 1958 at age 11, Tommy's family moved to Niles, Michigan, which he still regards as his hometown. At age 12, Tommy formed his first band called Tom and the Tornadoes. In 1963 they changed their name to The Shondells. In 1964, a local DJ at WNIL radio station in Niles had formed his own record company, Snap Records. The Shondells were one of the local bands he recorded. One of those songs was the Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich song "Hanky Panky", which had been recorded "The Raindrops". The song was a big hit locally but didn't break nationally and was soon forgotten.

In 1965, a Pittsburg DJ found a copy of "Hanky Panky" in a stack of oldies. Not knowing that it hadn't been a real hit, he played it by mistake. To his amazement, delighted listeners wanted to know where they could get a copy of "that hot new single". Sensing a hit, a local bootlegger taped the song off the radio and began pressing copies of it. Within ten days, more than eighty thousand copies had been sold. The Pittsburgh DJ finally tracked down Tommy James and informed him that his record was number one in the city. Tommy almost hung up on the guy, but a week later, he was in New York, selling the original master of "Hanky Panky" to Roulette Records. By the late summer of 1966, it was the number one selling single in the nation.

Tommy James and the Shondells
Tommy moved to Pittsburgh and hired a local band named The Raconteurs and they became Tommy James and the Shondells. The group needed a follow-up and selected a song called "Say I Am [What I Am]". Although not as successful as "Hanky Panky", it reached number 21 on the charts later in the same year.

Roulette assigned songwriters Richie Cordell and Bo Gentry the task of writing songs for "Tommy James and the Shondells". From 1967 to 1969, the group turned out hit after hit on the Roulette label, including six that made it to the top ten: "I Think We're Alone Now", "Mirage", "Mony Mony", "Crimson and Clover" (the group's second and final number one hit in the USA), "Sweet Cherry Wine", and "Crystal Blue Persuasion". During 1968-69 Tommy James and The Shondells sold more single records (45s) than any artist in the world, including The Beatles.

 

 

 

 

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