Tag: Roulette Records

Tommy James and The Shondells – Crimson And Clover

I grew up with this single…I’ll never forget the orange Roulette Label going round and round. It’s a mystical and magical song to me. I fell in love with the tremolo effect that is throughout the entire song.

The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #1 in New Zealand, in 1968. I still am shocked that it either wasn’t released in the UK or it just failed to chart there. Joan Jett’s version peaked at only #60 in the UK. My friend at the UK Number Ones blog and I talked about it. Their song Mony Mony peaked at #1 in the UK earlier…maybe that was enough for them.

On this song…Tommy James is playing all the instruments except drums and they were played by Pete Lucia. James and Lucia wrote the song.

Bo Gentry was writing most of their hits until this point. He didn’t feel like he was getting paid enough from Roulette Records (which was partly run by the mob) so he quit. Tommy James was told that he better get someone to write songs for him or his career would sink since Bo Gentry refused. The record executives told him that he could not write a hit song and to find someone. Tommy James showed them all… he and his drummer wrote this massive hit song.

Around this time James got involved with politician Hubert Humphrey and they were trying to turn from a singles band to an album band. This song helped them. Below is a very long quote by Tommy James about that time. It does say a lot about the business in the late sixties.

Tommy James: “They were just two of my favorite words that came together. Actually, it was one morning as I was getting up out of bed, and it just came to me, those two words. And it sounded so poetic. I had no idea what it meant, or if it meant anything. They were just two of my favorite words. And Mike Vale and I – bass player – actually wrote another song called ‘Crimson and Clover.’ And it just wasn’t quite there. And I ended up writing ‘Crimson and Clover’ with my drummer, Pete Lucia, who has since passed away.”

Tommy James: ‘Crimson and Clover’ was so very important to us because it allowed us to make that move from AM Top 40 to album rock. I don’t think there’s any other song that we’ve ever worked on, any other record that we made, that would have done that for us quite that way. And it came out at such a perfect moment because we had been out with Hubert Humphrey on the presidential campaign for several months in 1968. And we met up with him right after the convention. The convention where all the kids got beat up. And we met up with him the following week in Wheeling, West Virginia, and of course we didn’t know where all the rallies were gonna be, like the convention. What have we gotten ourselves into? We had been asked to join him. And this really was the first time, I think, a rock act and a politician ever teamed up. But it was an incredible experience.

But when we left in August, all the big acts were singles acts. It was the Association, it was Gary Puckett, it was the Buckinghams, the Rascals, us, I’m leaving several people out. But the point was that it was almost all singles. In 90 days, when we got back, it was all albums. It was Led Zeppelin, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Joe Cocker, Neil Young. And there was this mass extinction of all of these other acts.

It was just incredible. Most people don’t realize that that was sort of the dividing line where so many of these acts never had hit records again. And we realized while we were out on the campaign that if our career was gonna continue, we had to make a move. We had to sell albums, which is something Roulette had never really done. The album, up to that point, had been whatever wasn’t the single. And then it was usually named the single, which I thought was a great idea. Morris (Levy) usually would name the album the same title as the single, so it would get kind of a head start. But the point was we knew we had to sell albums. Also that year the industry went from 4-track to 24-track in about the same period of time. So if we were gonna sell albums, we had to completely reinvent ourselves. And so it was a very dramatic moment. And the record we just happened to be working on at that moment, at the end of the campaign, was ‘Crimson and Clover.'”

Crimson and Clover

Ah, now I don’t hardly know her
But I think I could love her
Crimson and clover

Ah when she comes walking over
Now I’ve been waitin’ to show her
Crimson and clover over and over

Yeah, my, my such a sweet thing
I wanna do everything
What a beautiful feeling
Crimson and clover over and over

Crimson and clover over and over
Crimson and clover over and over
Crimson and clover over and over
Crimson and clover over and over

Rivieras – California Sun

If you are interested…Dave at A Sound Day posted an article I wrote on the Replacements.

This was garage band rock and roll at its best. It’s hard not to feel good when this song comes on the radio. The song peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada (CHUM), and #6 in New Zealand in 1964. It’s one of those songs that just make you feel good.

Now…is this band from sunny California? No…not even close. They are from South Bend Indiana. They were a garage band and the members all went to South Bend Indiana Central High School in the early sixties. They were originally called the Playmates but alas…there was another band in the area with the same name. They ended up naming themselves after the Buick Riviera.

The song was written by Henry Glover and recorded first by Joe Jones and his version made it to #89 on the Billboard Charts. Instead of guitars, Joe Jones’s version used horns. It’s also been covered by The Ramones, The Beach Boys, Frankie Avalon, The Shondells, and dozens more.

Marty “Bo” Fortson left shortly after this single came out to join the Marines and go off to Vietnam. The other band members dropped out one by one under pressure from their parents to go on to college and stop playing this rock ‘n’ roll.

The song was written by Hendry Glover. Glover was a producer for an independent record label King Records. At one time, record mogul Morris Levy of Roulette Records was listed as a co-writer but that got taken off. Levy was the founder and owner of Roulette Records, which had known ties to the mafia. After the Jones version failed to gain popularity the Rivieras ran with it.

The Ramones covered this one as well.

California Sun

Well I’m going out west where I belong
Where the days are short and the nights are long

Where I’ll walk
And they walk
I’ll twist
And they twist
And I’ll shimmy
And they shimmy
And I’ll fly
And they fly
Where they’re out there having fun
In the warm California sun

Well, I’m going out west
Out on the coast
Where the California girls
Are really the most

And I’ll walk
And they walk
I’ll twist
And they twist
And I’ll shimmy
And they shimmy
And I’ll fly
And they fly
Where they’re out there having fun
In the warm California sun

Well, the girls are frisky
In old ‘Frisco
A pretty little chick
Wherever you go

And I’ll walk
And they walk
I’ll twist
And they twist
And I’ll shimmy
And they shimmy
And I’ll fly
And they fly
Where they’re out there having fun
In the warm California sun
Where they’re out there having fun
In the warm California sun