Tommy James Miscellany
The song Mirage uses the chords and structure of I Think We're Alone Now in reverse. It was created when the original was played backwards during a writing session.
The song Smokey Roads on their 1968 album Crimson and Clover (album) begins with a backwards masked quotation from An Address by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Aug. 12, 1855. Played in reverse, one hears: Extricate the quadruped from the vehicle, and constabulate him to something nutritious, and when the aurora rises in the heavens, I will return and compensate thee amply.
Tommy James and the Shondells' It's Only Love album cover was the first professional photo shoot by Linda Eastman McCartney in 1966.
Tommy James and the Shondells declined an invitation to play at the Woodstock Festival on the advice of their agent, who felt it would be a career killer.
Several bands have covered James' hits. Joan Jett (managed by former Shondell Kenny Laguna) had a top ten with Crimson and Clover in 1982. In November of 1987, Tiffany and Billy Idol had back-to-back #1 hits with their respective cover versions of I Think We're Alone Now and Mony Mony.
In 1987, Hanky Panky resurfaced in the parody Homer Hanky, released during the Minnesota Twins' run to the World Series.
More recently, in 2006 Finnish garage rock trio The Micragirls included a cover of one of The Shondells' lesser-known recordings 'Go Go Gorilla' on their LP 'Feeling Dizzy Honey'.
When James went solo in 1970, Shondells bass player Mike Vale and Shondells drummer Pete Lucia formed Hog Heaven, and released one album for Roulette Records.
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