Tommy James: A Career Like No Other
UP CLOSE
⭐️
Tommy James
⭐️
UP CLOSE ⭐️ Tommy James ⭐️
PHOTO CREDIT: Jim Pietryga
Let’s get right down to it. I lost my virginity to the sound of Tommy James & The Shondells. We listened to a Tommy James & The Shondells eight-track (remember those?) on the way to the Woodstock festival in August of 1969. My high school band covered “Hanky Panky.” It’s almost impossible to conceive an America without the noise he generated. Now Sony Publishing has granted him license to use whatever Beatle and Motown songs he wants to cover for use in future Hollywood films. We got the lowdown from the horse’s mouth as this thoroughbred was happy to let us know the info. This interview was conducted in May 2024.
Tommy James: What it boils down to is all the Roulette publishing—Morris Levy’s old publishing—on my stuff and everything in his publishing catalog, is owned by Sony. They bought it. And I’ve become very close with Sony because in the several years that I’ve been with them they’ve gotten my songs placed in some 90 films, 75 TV shows and lots of commercials all around the world. So the Sony Music Publishing people and myself have developed a real good friendship. Sony has become the biggest music publisher in the world. They’ve acquired all of CBS, RCA, Epic, Arista and they keep acquiring things. And finally they bought EMI that used to be the biggest music publisher in the world. Sony has also acquired two other music catalogs that are very significant: the entire Beatle catalog and the entire Motown catalog of songs. They just keep getting bigger and bigger. They have a great movie department that gets songs placed in major Hollywood productions. That’s the department who came to me and asked me if I’d be interested in doing a couple of Beatle and Motown covers for further film placements. I immediately said, “yeah, I’d love to.” I was very excited about doing that so I started with John Lennon’s “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.” [Although it was credited, as all their songs were, to Lennon-McCartney].
(Advertisement) Interview continues below…
“I look at my career and I see how I’ve been so blessed in so many different ways. And that’s really the truth. The idea of actually doing what I love doing for this long, and the fans moving right along with me… I look out at our concert crowds now and see three generations of people.”
Tommy James: It’s really a unique situation because you have to be very careful doing a Beatle song. You can’t compete with the original Beatle version! What could I do? Make it better? Hardly. It’s already as good as it can be. Plus the fact that doing a Beatle song could be very tricky. The fans might not like it and could very easily resent such a cover. So I knew I had to be careful. Also, I had to pick a song that wasn’t a hit single. [“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” is from the 1965 Help! soundtrack.] So I thought it important to find a song in their catalog that meets all the criteria for doing a successful cover. At least in my mind. And the other thing is, if you’re going to do one, I think you really need to totally change the arrangement. You need to turn it inside out. Sorta like what Joe Cocker did with “A Little Help From My Friends” in 1968. So this song fits. Plus, Lennon recorded it very simply. It’s almost like a demo. Just him and his acoustic guitar in 2:09! Plus a tambourine. And that flute. It’s wide open for a new production. There’s not even any background vocals on the original. [Lennon has said it’s him being Dylan.] It just seemed like the perfect song to do. It’s a very profound song lyrically. Everyone knows it but they don’t know it too well. And everyone I’ve mentioned it to really loves that song.
So after I picked it, I arranged it. It’s finished. It sounds like it’s straight from the church with a gospel touch. I even brought in a choir. Now I’m working on a Motown song. “Where Did Our Love Go,” the Supremes’ first #1, 1964. That’s also very tricky. I didn’t want to make a Motown record. The original was such an iconic record. I’m doing the song in a completely different way. I turned its arrangement inside-out. We slowed it down to half-time. It was a teenaged dance song, perfect for the time. But the song itself, upon closer inspection, is a very sad song. I had to do it totally different. So that’s what I believe we’ve done. It’s hard to describe: certainly not the four-on-the-floor rhythm like the Motown original was. [sings] “Baby Baby…” It’s not like that at all. It’s a lot more emotional. It had to be slow. It’s not a rhythmic track with voice on top, it’s a lead vocal with an accompanying music track wrapped around it. In fact, I’m going in the studio tomorrow to finish it. I will bring in musicians as I need them. The first thing you do with digital recording is make a skeleton of the song. You do that with the engineer and the programmer. Recording today is a very different animal than it was 30 years ago. I’ve been lucky enough to have seen recording from a historical point-of-view. And I’ve been in the studio for the whole period of time since I started so I’m aware of all the digital changes. You make records nowadays with very few people. And, as you need musicians, you hire them. You should’ve seen me with the choir on the Beatle song. Of course, the idea is to use real instruments as much as possible. Sony told me the toughest songs to place in films are the ‘80s and ‘90s synth songs, complete with drum machines and all that. Hollywood likes real instruments, if you can do it. So I try and keep the digital to a minimum, working it in-between a real piano, organ or drum set.
(Advertisement) Interview continues below…
“Recording today is a very different animal than it was 30 years ago. I’ve been lucky enough to have seen recording from a historical point-of-view. And I’ve been in the studio for the whole period of time since I started so I’m aware of all the digital changes.”
Mike Greenblatt: You couldn’t have had any idea whatsoever when you recorded your first song, “Long Pony Tail,” in 1960 that you’d still be at it 64 years later.
TJ: Yeah, and still doing it live, and they’re still screaming, and still moving with the music. If someone had told me that, I’d have said you’re absolutely out of your mind.
PHOTO CREDIT: Love Images
MG: Then, four years later, you cover an unsuccessful single by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich for their group The Raindrops. It seems to peter out but another two years goes by before it inexplicably becomes a regional hit in Pittsburgh and you take “Hanky Panky” to #1 all across the country, despite its raw garage-rock appeal. And you’ve never looked back. To what do you owe your astonishing longevity?
TJ: The good Lord and the fans.
MG: The good Lord because you still have your voice.
TJ: And so much else. The timing especially. I look at my career and I see how I’ve been so blessed in so many different ways. And that’s really the truth. The idea of actually doing what I love doing for this long, and the fans moving right along with me…
MG: And getting new fans.
TJ: Yes! I look out at our concert crowds now and see three generations of people.
MG: That’s because the songs themselves are so good.
TJ: I’ve been very lucky that the songs have stayed in front of the public all this time.
(Advertisement) Interview continues below…
MG: Dolly Parton, Billy Idol, Prince, Joan Jett, Santana, Bruce, Tom Jones, Cher, R.E.M. and even The Boston Pops have all covered your songs. These songs are timeless! They’re inside of us all.
TJ: Believe me, nobody is more astonished at all this than I am.
MG: I love how “Crimson and Clover,” which you co-wrote, was played on the radio prematurely before the song was even finished. It was a mere demo. Yet that’s the version that we all know and love for decades.
TJ: That’s true.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jim Pietryga
MG: And, not only that, you survived with your head still attached to your body despite working for notorious mobster Morris Levy who ran Roulette Records like his personal fiefdom.
TJ: When I get to heaven, I’m going to ask God what he had in mind. After we exploded in Pittsburgh, we took “Hanky Panky” to New York and met with a thumbs-up from Atlantic, Columbia, RCA and Kama Sutra. The last place we went to was Roulette. You know the story. Morris Levy called all of the other labels and, uh, backed them down off of us. Don’t ask me how. Had we gone with one of the them, especially with a song called “Hanky Panky” in 1964, we would have been lucky to have been a one-hit wonder. The competition at those labels would’ve been unbelievable. And we would’ve been turned over to some in-house A&R man and it most likely would’ve been the last anybody would’ve seen of us. At Roulette, they needed us. So from a creative standpoint, we couldn’t have been at a better place. Roulette not only rolled out the red carpet, but worked it well. And they kept pumping out singles for me that all went Top 10, 23 in a row, as a matter of fact, all gold-selling singles. That wouldn’t have happened anywhere else.
MG: Yeah, too bad you didn’t get your proper royalties. Good thing you knew enough not to argue that with Levy who had your labelmate Jimmie Rodgers beat almost to death and left on the side of the road for demanding royalties for his 1957 #1 “Honeycomb.” Should make a good scene for the movie. Happy ending here, though, as Rodgers lived to the ripe old age of 87. But we’ll leave that for our next interview.
(Advertisement)