Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: Tommy James and the Shondells, “Hanky Panky”
49 years ago today, Tommy James and the Shondells arrived at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with a song that had actually been composed in 1963, recorded and released by James and his gang in 1964, and required a re-release two years later before finally making it to #1.
Written in all of 20 minutes by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich when they suddenly discovered that they needed a B-side to a single they were recording for their group, The Raindrops, “Hanky Panky” was quickly written off by Barry, who – per a conversation with Fred Bronson for the writer’s invaluable tome The Billboard Book of Number One Hits – thought of it as “just a B-side” and said, “As far as I was concerned, it was a terrible song.”
Nonetheless, the song quickly found a number of fans, including an Indiana band whose name has been lost to history but who covered the song one evening as James – then still in his teens – was watching them perform. In short order, James covered the song himself, but it was prior to his big commercial breakthrough, so while it proved to be a regional success, it failed to cross over to national airplay, and it wasn’t long before James had given up his rock ‘n’ roll dreams and finished high school. Are you paying attention, kids? Stay in school!
In 1965, however, James’s cover of the song was stumbled upon by a DJ in Pittsburgh who worked under the name “Mad Mike” Metro, and when James – who was an unemployed high school graduate by that point – found out about the song’s newfound success, he apparently viewed the news as the Shondells Signal. Alas, the musicians who’d recorded the song weren’t nearly as inspired to get back to rocking, but an undeterred James nonetheless headed to Pittsburgh, found a local band called The Raconteurs, and – voila! – he had himself a new bunch of Shondells. As the buzz began to build on the track James sold the song to Roulette Records, and the next thing he knew, the song was sitting at #1.
This isn’t exactly an unfamiliar rock ‘n’ roll story, of course: many artists have experienced belated success stories as a result of DJs discovering their songs and turning them into hits. In James’s case, however, it wasn’t’ a one-off: he and the Shondells went on to earn a second #1 in 1968 with “Crimson and Clover” while also pulling five top-10 hits to go with it: “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Mirage,” “Mony Mony,” “Sweet Cherry Wine,” and “Crystal Blue Persuasion.” Not bad for a kid who might well have been on track to be a high school dropout if he hadn’t failed to find success the first time around.
