A wonderful set of coincidences ....
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:27 pm
It's 1964 and Tommy "Stoney" Jackson is a Senior in HS, living in Detroit, and lead Fa La La La La.... La la la la of a band he had formed some five years ago. They have achieved a small degree of success and their only single- Hanky Panky was a minor hit in the Michigan market, but the record company was regional, and without national distribution, the band made no money. June came around, the kids graduated and everyone went their own ways.
Meanwhile, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, another group of kids is four years into having their own band. Originally formed as a folk group, they are trying to change into a rock and roll band but their manager keeps booking them as a folk group.
A year goes by, and a DJ at a Pittsburgh radio station who moonlites as a dance DJ gets a copy of Hanky Panky and begins playing it at dances where it gets huge pops. Soon, it's on the radio and a mobbed-up outfit out of NY bootlegs some 15,000 copies that sell out. The DJ invites Tom Jackson to Pittsburgh to
promote the song and he is invited to NY for a showcase, only they want a band, not a solo act.
His former band has moved on, one guy in college, one in the military and the other had taken a city job with good benefits.
Back in Latrobe, the other band has a chance to play a rock and roll show on a Saturday night, and their manager books them into a lounge for a Sunday night for a folk show at a local hotel.
So Jackson has an offer but no band, and spends the weekend tracking down every musician he knows with no success.
The band from Latrobe performs Saturday night at a Rock show and then performs one set playing folk music before deciding to do their rock stuff in the second set. Jackson wanders in during the second set, sees a tight band and invites them to play with him in NY.
The showcase goes great, and the band is signed. The one thing the new label wants is for Jackson to change his name, which he does to Tommy James.
In another coincidence, they end up signing with Roulette Records, the very company that had bootlegged Hanky Panky to begin with.
Tommy James and the Shondells had a fairly successful career, with a number of top ten hits, and the band exists, in one form or another to this day.
None of the guys from Latrobe stayed on for more than a decade and the Shondells became a revolving door of a band with only Tommy James as the anchor.
In 2015, after not performing together for years, the original Latrobe band played what was going to be
a one night reunion but they were so tight they decided to stay together. Adding a Fa La La La La.... La la la la who had performed Tommy James songs in a Vegas act, they went back on the road as Crystal Blue Persuasion, and until Covid hit were playing over a hundred nights a year.
Strange to think that if they hadn't gone against their manager's demands, none of this would have happened, and all their fifty five year careers would never have happened.
Meanwhile, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, another group of kids is four years into having their own band. Originally formed as a folk group, they are trying to change into a rock and roll band but their manager keeps booking them as a folk group.
A year goes by, and a DJ at a Pittsburgh radio station who moonlites as a dance DJ gets a copy of Hanky Panky and begins playing it at dances where it gets huge pops. Soon, it's on the radio and a mobbed-up outfit out of NY bootlegs some 15,000 copies that sell out. The DJ invites Tom Jackson to Pittsburgh to
promote the song and he is invited to NY for a showcase, only they want a band, not a solo act.
His former band has moved on, one guy in college, one in the military and the other had taken a city job with good benefits.
Back in Latrobe, the other band has a chance to play a rock and roll show on a Saturday night, and their manager books them into a lounge for a Sunday night for a folk show at a local hotel.
So Jackson has an offer but no band, and spends the weekend tracking down every musician he knows with no success.
The band from Latrobe performs Saturday night at a Rock show and then performs one set playing folk music before deciding to do their rock stuff in the second set. Jackson wanders in during the second set, sees a tight band and invites them to play with him in NY.
The showcase goes great, and the band is signed. The one thing the new label wants is for Jackson to change his name, which he does to Tommy James.
In another coincidence, they end up signing with Roulette Records, the very company that had bootlegged Hanky Panky to begin with.
Tommy James and the Shondells had a fairly successful career, with a number of top ten hits, and the band exists, in one form or another to this day.
None of the guys from Latrobe stayed on for more than a decade and the Shondells became a revolving door of a band with only Tommy James as the anchor.
In 2015, after not performing together for years, the original Latrobe band played what was going to be
a one night reunion but they were so tight they decided to stay together. Adding a Fa La La La La.... La la la la who had performed Tommy James songs in a Vegas act, they went back on the road as Crystal Blue Persuasion, and until Covid hit were playing over a hundred nights a year.
Strange to think that if they hadn't gone against their manager's demands, none of this would have happened, and all their fifty five year careers would never have happened.
