Have you been “Draggin’ the Line” lately?
Perhaps, you’re looking to enjoy a little “Hanky Panky”?
If so, be sure to boogie on over to the St. George Theater in Staten Island, NY, this Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016, for a live performance by iconic 60s rockers, Tommy James and the Shondells!
Tommy and his band will rock the St. George with such timeless classics as “Draggin’ the Line,” “Hanky Panky,” “Crimson and Clover,” “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” “Mony, Mony,” and more.
With over 23 gold singles and nine platinum albums to his credit, James has sold over 100 million records worldwide. More than 300 artists, including Springsteen, Santana, R.E.M., Billy Idol, Joan Jett, and Kelly Clarkson have covered his songs. His music has also been heard in 29 motion pictures and on such television shows as The Simpsons, Criminal Minds, In Plain Sight, and Breaking Bad.
Currently back in the studio, Tommy is working on a new acoustic album, Acoustitronics, with a number of guest artists. Given his incredible musical output, it’s no wonder that James’ career has spanned 50 years and his music continues to appeal to a new generation of fans.
Spotlight Central recently caught up with Tommy James who talked to us about his upcoming tri-state area concert, his autobiography Me, The Mob and The Music, and about his own favorite Tommy James and the Shondells’ hit.
Spotlight Central: We’ve heard you have a personal connection to New Jersey — is that right?
Tommy James: Well, yes! I live in New Jersey, so New Jersey is my home. I originally was brought up in the Midwest, but I’ve lived in New Jersey since the very early ‘70s. I came to New York — out of my hometown of Niles, Michigan — when I was 18 years old, because I had my first hit record, “Hanky Panky.” So I found myself in New York City, in Manhattan, and I lived there ’til 1973. And then I moved out to New Jersey, and I’ve been here ever since.
And I love Jersey! Jersey is one of those places that “makes sense.” I originally grew up in Michigan — which is on the exact same latitude line — so Jersey is like a very, very crowded version of where I grew up. So it makes a lot of sense to me: Jersey is a fun place to live because you’ve got the ocean, you’ve got New York right close by, you’ve got airports — it’s perfect if you’re in show business.
SC: And speaking of show business, can you please tell us a little bit about your upcoming area concert?
TJ: Sure. That’s gonna be this Saturday night, Oct. 22, at the St. George Theater in Staten Island. And with us on the show will be Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. It’s gonna be a wild night, so I’d just like to invite everybody to come on down; the show starts at 8pm.
SC: Talk about a Jersey connection: Southside Johnny!
TJ: That’s right!
SC: I have to tell you that we’ve been listening to your 40 Years: The Complete Singles Collection and finding ourselves listening more to the second disc with the lesser-known tunes on it even more than the first disc with all the great hits on it! So the question to you is: Do you have a favorite Tommy James and the Shondells’ song?
TJ: Well, of the hits, I’d probably have to say “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” simply because of the kind of record it was and the memories it evokes in me. Strangely enough, it was one of the hardest records we ever produced, because we had completely overproduced it.
We went into the studio with electric guitars and a whole lot of stuff and we just completely overproduced it and realized at the end that it just wasn’t “Crystal Blue Persuasion” anymore — the song that we had written.
So we spent the next three weeks “unproducing” the record — wiping things out. So, really, all that was left was a bongo and a conga drum — you know, we had a full set of drums that we took out and all kinds of filler instruments — and the only thing that was left was a little flamenco guitar and an organ and we had to “let it breathe” — I guess you could say — before it became “Crystal Blue.”
So that was probably the hardest record I ever made — you know, one of the songs that was just so different for us because it had a sort of a Latin feel — and it was just a very memorable song from 1969.
SC: What was your inspiration for writing that song?
TJ: Well, we had just played a college in Atlanta the night we wrote the song. And a fella came up to me with a poem he wrote called “Crystal Persuasion.” And I was always looking for titles and it was about the Book of Revelation in the Bible. And it was really a fascinating poem.
So we went back to our rooms and started fooling around with the riff and, you know, one guy would come up with one part — for example, one guy would come up with the guitar riff — and it was literally a song the whole group wrote. It just kind of came together with his lyrics in the Book of Revelation, but we wrote different lyrics than were in the poem. And I added the word, “blue,” because we needed it for the rhyme. So “Crystal Blue Persuasion” it became. Isn’t it funny how whimsical some of the hits are?
SC: Your catalog of hits that you’ve written is terrific. “Mony Mony” is one of the greatest party songs of all time. “Crimson and Clover,” “Sweet Cherry Wine,” “Draggin’ the Line” — you wrote all of those! Can you give us a little background on any one of those songs by telling us what inspired you?
TJ: Basically, my whole philosophy was to never write the same song twice, which is what you tend to do. The only time that ever happened was when Bo Gentry and Richie Cordell wrote “I Think We’re Alone Now” and “Mirage” back to back. And, as a matter of fact, “Mirage” was “I Think We’re Alone Now” backwards, believe it or not! We played the tape accidentally upside down and it played backwards — the rough 7 1/2 inch tape — and they said, “That’s not a bad chord progression!” so they went off and wrote a song that became “Mirage.”
So those two sounded very much alike, but it was very important to me to write — for our singles, as fast as they were coming out, then — to not write the same song twice. So we were always looking for the next single — always looking for the next title, the next song — and we were putting out five singles a year back then. So that was my philosophy: never write the same song twice.
SC: Your songs have been used in movies, television shows, and commercials. For example, “Crystal Blue Persuasion” was prominently featured in Breaking Bad. Do you have any favorite ways in which your songs have been used in the media?
TJ: Well, I am just so proud of the fact that so many different people have used our songs. We’ve had over 300 cover versions of our songs done by everyone from Prince to the Boston Pops and I’ve just been so amazed. And I love it when young artists — or different artists — will use one of our songs and do their version of it; it’s always interesting to hear how somebody else interprets your music. And as far as movies are concerned, I’m just really glad that the music has stayed in front of the public and they’ve been as loyal as they have.
SC : Your book, Me, The Mob and the Music, details many highs and lows in your life. Do you have a favorite — or, perhaps, a least favorite — experience you talk about in the book?
TJ: Well, you know, the book itself is an autobiography with about three quarters of it — maybe more — devoted to our very scary and tumultuous relationship with Roulette Records, the label we had the bulk of our hits on. And the reason that it was scary and tumultuous was because Roulette Records — unbeknownst to us when we signed with them — was not only a functioning record company, but was also a front for the Genovese crime family in New York. So this made life real interesting for us and, you know, we couldn’t talk about any of this stuff!
So, finally, starting in about ’06, Martin Fitzpatrick, my co-author, and I started writing this book. And we were gonna call it “Crimson and Clover” and write a book about the hits, and the studio, and so forth. It would have been interesting, but we got about a third of the way into it and realized that if we didn’t tell the whole story — the Roulette story with all the ugly stuff in it — that we were cheating ourselves and everybody else.
And I was very concerned finishing the book right then because a lot of these guys were still walking around. So we put it on the shelf for about a year, and within about a year and a half, the last of the “Roulette regulars,” as I call them, passed on and we felt we could finish the book.
So we did and we sort of completely rewrote the thing and retitled the book. And we finished it in about 2010, and as soon as we finished, Simon and Schuster grabbed it — and we were so fortunate to have it put out right away — and then almost immediately, we started getting calls for the movie rights and for the Broadway rights.
And so it’s gonna be a film now, produced by Barbara De Fina who produced Goodfellas and Casino and Hugo, a couple of years ago, with Martin Scorsese — and just a whole slew of great movies. And the screenplay has just been finished by Matthew Stone, who did an excellent job — and that’s another interesting thing: turning a book into a movie is really quite an undertaking.
And now, Barbara is going for the director and, as everybody comes on board, it gets closer and closer; things are going faster now. So we’re probably looking at another two years because they have to do casting, etc., before the movie would be hitting the streets. So we’re just really thrilled.
And as far as the individual story is concerned, I think, basically, the whole book is a story. (Laughs) And I think the writing of the book was one of the most dramatic stories we had, because I was literally afraid to finish the book!
SC: How has your life changed as a result of the experiences with the Mob you’ve described in the book?
TJ: Well, you know, they ran Roulette and here we were trying to have hit records in rock and roll, with this very dark and sinister story going on behind us that we couldn’t talk about. So I had very definite feelings about that. Of course, when Morris Levy, the head of Roulette Records, died in 1990, I had very mixed feelings because — on the one hand, it was a disaster trying to do business — but on the other hand, if it hadn’t been for Morris Levy and Roulette Records, there wouldn’t have been a Tommy James. So I had to take that into consideration, and I tried to be very fair in this book.
SC: We’ve had a chance to meet you twice now — at Ocean Grove, NJ, at The Great Auditorium and at BergenPAC in Englewood, NJ — and we have to say that you’re one of the nicest people we’ve ever met in show business. So is there anything specific you’d like to say to all of your fans?
TJ: Sure! Well, just thank you for sticking with us all these years! Believe it or not, this is the 50th year since we first broke into major league show business. It was 1966 that we had our first hit record and I am just so grateful to the fans — and the good Lord — for the kind of longevity we’ve had and for the loyalty, and I mean that sincerely.
Showtime for Tommy James & The Shondells’ and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes’ performance this Saturday October 22, 2016 is 8pm at the St. George Theater, 35 Hyatt Street, Staten Island, NY. Tickets are $75, $65, and $45 and may be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com For more information, please go to stgeorgetheatre.com.
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