10. Crimson and Clover (Tommy James and The Shondells)
Tommy James constructed this slice of psychedelia from his favorite color and his favorite flower.
Kenny Laguna is a songwriter and producer who has worked
with Joan Jett ever since she started as a solo artist. He played keyboards and
sang backup as a member of The Shondells.
Kenny explains how this came together: "Bo Gentry wrote
all these songs for Tommy James, from 'I Think We're Alone Now' right on
through 'Mony Mony.' There were other co-writers, but Bo was the genius, the
driving force. Bo wasn't getting paid from Roulette Records, so he went on
strike and refused to make any more Tommy James records. In those days, the
legend, Morris Levy, said he was not going to be pushed around and said, 'Fine,
you want to quit, quit. It will be the end of your career.' We went to Tommy
and said, 'Look Tommy, if you don't get someone to write the songs for you,
you're going to be dead meat. You can't go trying to do it yourself, you don't
know how to write hit songs.' So he went off with the drummer and created this
song. I'll never forget it, it was in Allegra studios on 1650 Broadway. There
was the Brill building, and in the basement was this great studio. Tommy says,
'come here,' so I went in the room, listened to what he'd been doing and said,
'Oh, my God.' Everybody kind of deserted Tommy, and he went off and just did
this incredible song. He wrote it, produced it, and played all the instruments
with the drummer."
Many songs need to be cut down before radio stations will
play them, but this was the opposite. The song was only 2 1/2 minutes long, so
they spliced together an extended version for FM radio. If you listen to that
version, you can hear some really bad edits.
Joan Jett recorded this in 1982 as her follow-up to "I
Love Rock And Roll." Her version hit #7 in the US.
This was #1 during Christmas. At the end of the song, when
the vocals are heavily processed, some listeners thought James was singing
"Christmas Is Over" instead of "Crimson And Clover."
US listeners got sick of this in a hurry: it dropped from
#18 to completely out of the charts in one week, setting a record for farthest
fall out of the charts.
US Vice President Hubert Humphrey wrote the liner notes for
the Crimson And Clover album. Humphrey asked James to run his
"Youth Affairs" commission when he was campaigning in 1968.