Tommy James Interview

The music of Tommy James is played continuously, everyday, in every country in the world, and has been for over a generation. His songs have become so ingrained in modern culture, it's difficult to go for more than a couple of days without hearing one of them on the radio, TV, in films, or one of the 300 plus cover versions of his songs by other artists. He has sold, to date, over 100 million records and has been awarded 23 gold singles and 9 gold and platinum albums.

He was born Thomas Jackson on April 29, 1947 in Dayton, Ohio. His family finally settled in Niles, Michigan which he still regards as his hometown. His first stage appearance was as a child model at age four.

In 1959, at the age of 12, he formed his first rock band, "The Tornadoes", and began playing local gigs around the area, developing a sizeable following.

In 1964 a local DJ asked Tommy and the group to sign with his new regional label, "Snap Records". One of the 4 sides they recorded was an obscure song written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich called "Hanky Panky". The group changed their name to "The Shondells" and released it as a single. It was an instant local hit but didn't break nationally and was soon forgotten.

Amazingly, two years later, the record was found in an obscure record bin by a Pittsburgh nightclub DJ who played it at his weekend dances. The response was so overwhelming that the local radio stations began to play it and the local record distributor began to bootleg copies of the song. In ten days, sales had reached 80,000 so that by May of 1966, HANKY PANKY was the number one record in Pittsburgh and Tommy James was a sensation. Tommy was tracked down and asked to come to Pittsburgh. Unable to put the original group back together, Tommy went alone and hired the first local band he could find to be The Shondells. Two weeks later the new group signed a record deal with Roulette Records in New York and HANKY PANKY became the biggest hit of the summer of '66. Thus began one of the longest strings of non-stop hits in recording industry history.