Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Tommy James on tour with the Shondells in New Jersey, 1968.
Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
He made hits such as I Think Weâre Alone Now and Mony Mony, but a gangster label boss kept up to $40m of his royalties. As his complete Roulette recordings are rereleased, why no hard feelings?
Fri 22 Jan 2021 04.00 EST
Last modified on Wed 27 Jan 2021 10.38 EST
âI hope youâre ready, kid, because youâre about to go on one hell of a ride,â Morris Levy, the boss of Roulette Records, told Tommy James as the teenager signed a contract with the label. It was 1966 and James, 19, a small-town boy with the fastest-selling hit single in Pittsburghâs history, had arrived in Manhattan the previous morning to find every label wanted to sign him. The next day, all offers were retracted â except Rouletteâs. Levy â a notorious gangster whose label had prospered in the early 50s with Frankie Lymon and Count Basie â was referred to without irony as the Godfather and, when he put the word out that James was his, no record executive dared to cross him.