Tommy James & the Shondells' '40 Years' 2-CD Set Presents Four Decades of Hits and Rarities

If you were a bedrock ’n’ cycle fan in the ‘60s and aboriginal ‘70s, you able-bodied bethink Tommy James & the Shondells accepting hit afterwards hit on the charts. 40 Years: The Complete Singles Collection (1966-2006) – a two-CD, 48-song set to be to be appear on November 25 by the Collectors’ Choice Music and Aura labels – is a career attendant of both the casting and James’ abandoned career. And, as they say on the attack commercials, Tommy James has accustomed this collection, so admirers can blow assured there’s no “hanky panky” traveling on.

40 Years contains the A-side of every individual James appear (with or after the Shondells) on six altered labels from 1966 to 2006 (plus an ultra-rare 1962 benefit track) with all-embracing liner addendum bound by Ed Osborne and Tommy James' biographer, Martin Fitzpatrick, and photos from Tommy's claimed archive. As with did the contempo Collectors’ Choice Jan & Dean Compete Liberty Singles release, 40 Years contains the aboriginal individual mixes, not the remixed versions heard on antecedent collections. Fifteen Shondells' advance and 5 of Tommy's abandoned singles are in their aboriginal address mixes, about all of which are authoritative their CD debut.

The album leads off with the aboriginal slower adaptation of “Hanky Panky” which appeared on the Snap characterization in 1966, followed by the archetypal Roulette singles: “Say I Am (What I Am),” “It’s Only Love,” “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Mirage” (with an added articulate overdub not heard on the stereo version), “I Like the Way,” “Gettin’ Together,” “Out of the Blue,” “Get Out Now,” “Mony Mony” (original individual mix and edit), “Somebody Cares” (with single-only overdubs), “Do Something to Me” (from the aboriginal sped-up individual master), “Crimson & Clover” (single edit), “Sweet Cherry Wine,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” "Ball of Fire,” “She,” “Gotta Get Back to You” (single version, not the one heard on the Rhino aggregate Anthology) and “Come to Me” (shorter individual version). And those are alone the Tommy James & the Shondells abandon — the album contains James’ abandoned works, too.

Tommy's abandoned career began in 1970 with the individual “Ball and Chain” from the Tommy James album. 1971’s “Draggin’ the Line” (since covered by R.E.M.) was his aboriginal abandoned smash, and the adaptation heard on 40 Years appearance the aboriginal individual mix version. The singles "Adrienne," "I'm Comin' Home," and "Nothing To Hide" aswell appear actuality in their different individual mixes, while the adaptation of "Calico" is the one that charted (not the jazzier adaptation begin on Anthology).

The accumulating contains all of Tommy's post-Roulette singles, including "I Love You Love Me Love" (with the Tower of Power horns), his adaptation of "Tighter, Tighter" (which he'd produced for Alive And Kicking in 1970), "Love Will Find A Way" (featuring the Doobies' Michael McDonald and The Eagles' Timothy B. Schmidt), and his chart-topping Adult Contemporary individual from 1980, "Three Times in Love."

James eventually started his own Aura characterization and denticulate three added blueprint abandon if "Isn't That The Guy," "Love Words," and "Hold The Fire" all went Top 5 on FMQB's AC blueprint and "Love Words" hit #1: 40 years afterwards "Hanky Panky" topped the Hot 100.

Also featured on the accumulating is a attenuate pre-Shondells benefit track: Tom & the Tornadoes’ 1962 individual “Long Pony Tail.” It was James’ aboriginal record.

The liner addendum amend some of the band’s abounding anecdotes. “Hanky Panky” was a crowd-rousing song 17-year-old James had heard a bounded bar casting play and, analysis a hit, recorded it with all fabricated lyrics at a Niles, Michigan radio station. It was appear on the Snap characterization and that was that — until a Pittsburgh radio apostle alleged him to acquaint him that it was a radio accident with 80,000 banned copies sold. It was again that he recruited a Pittsburgh casting alleged the Raconteurs to be his own. Tommy larboard the Raconteurs casting for the White Stripes’ Jack White to accroach 42 years after if they took on the Shondells name instead.

The anecdotes abide through the adventure abaft the “Mony Mony” appellation (James looked out and saw a assurance for Mutual of New York Insurance) and how the Shondells became presidential applicant Hubert Humphrey’s official attack casting (HHH would after address the liner addendum for the multi-platinum Crimson & Clover album.)

James says, “I’d absolutely like to acknowledge the Good Lord and the fans. It’s been an absurd ride.”

And the ride’s not over. Tommy and the aboriginal actual Shondells — Mike Vale, Eddie Gray, and Ron Rosman — are aback in the flat authoritative new music. But that’s for addition volume.