Tommy James said, "We didn't know what in the world was going on, and finally Jerry Wexler over at Atlantic leveled with us and said, 'Look, Morris Levy and Roulette called up all the other record companies and said, "This is my freakin' record.
20 Facts About Tommy James
2.
Since the band had broken up two years before, Tommy James was the only Shondell left.
3.
Tommy James and the Shondells produced a "Mony Mony" video when the song was a hit.
4.
Harrison and the group had written some songs they wanted Tommy James to consider recording.
5.
Tommy James realized he and the Shondells needed to become an album-oriented group if they were to survive in the business, necessitating a change in their style.
6.
WLS secretly recorded the music when Tommy James played his tape for them.
7.
Tommy James, who co-wrote all three of those songs, and his band did well enough with the transition to be invited to perform at Woodstock.
8.
The Shondells, without Tommy James, recorded two albums under the new group name Hog Heaven, but disbanded soon afterwards.
9.
Tommy James had two further Billboard Hot 100 top 20 chart hits with "Draggin' the Line" and "Three Times in Love", plus eleven much smaller Hot 100 chartings.
10.
Tommy James wrote and produced the million-selling 1970 hit "Tighter, Tighter" for the group Alive 'N Kickin'.
11.
In 1971 Tommy James spent time in Nashville at the recommendation of friends when a "mob war" erupted among organized crime families in New York, and threats against Tommy James were intimated due to his connection to Morris Levy.
12.
Tommy James recorded an album there with top Nashville musicians, My Head, My Bed and My Red Guitar, which received critical acclaim but sold poorly.
13.
Tommy James left Roulette Records in 1974 and two more albums, In Touch and Midnight Rider, followed on Fantasy Records, with yet another, Three Times in Love, appearing on Millennium Records in late 1979.
14.
Tommy James announced that deals were in hand to turn the story into both a film and a Broadway play.
15.
Tommy James estimates the company owed him $30 to $40 million in royalties.
16.
Tommy James settled in Nashville, Tennessee, where the Mafia had little presence or influence.
17.
Tommy James did not feel comfortable writing his book until all those deeply involved with the record company had died.
18.
Tommy James can be seen on late-night informercials selling collections of music from the Woodstock era for Time Life.
19.
Tommy James moved to Clifton, New Jersey in the mid 1970s and circa 2000 to nearby Cedar Grove.
20.
Tommy James has been married three times and has one child.