Tommy James and the Shondells

June 3, 2009

I love old people radio. If I’m not tuned into sports talk of some sort (or NPR if they’re broadcasting Car Talk), I do my best to find an oldies station while driving.

I don’t love it all, and “oldies” can include everything from 50s rockabilly to Late 70s disco kinda crap.

I’m more of a 50’s-60’s person myself, and the dial especially doesn’t change when Tommy James and the Shondells are on. 

I was inspired to write this post when the NYT crossword today included the clue: “When repeated, a Billy Idol hit”.

I had no idea what it was (since White and Wedding are two different words), so I had to use the across clues to narrow it down to “_ONY”. The first thing you obviously think is “Mony Mony” but I couldn’t imagine Billy Idol singing that song.

Well, apparently he did (I eventually got the final across clue and it HAD to be MONY):

I also would have assumed that the following picture/album didn’t exist, but here’s what I get for assuming:

It’s a nice day for a White Christmas.

But I digress. TJ and the S’s are responsible for “I Think We’re Alone Now” (covered by Tiffany, mall performance queen, recipient of a dhigh hug on WKU’s south lawn),

“Mony Mony” (covered by Billy Idol above),

and a member of my 100 “Top 10 songs of all time” entries, “Crimson and Clover” (covered by Joan Jett)

In short, Tommy James FTW.  Their version of each song is hands down better than the crappy covers by the other artists. Cri-i-i-m-s-o-n a-an-d C-l—o-o-ver,  O-o-v-e-e-r and o-o-o-ver.

I don’t think Joan Jett knew what they were talking about. I don’t.

Last link: I found this piece of crap while searching for the real artists. Almost made me puke. Whoever owns the rights to this song, please lock the rights in a safe and never open it again.

…”and watch how you play” includes a clip of someone pushing chips across a casino table. I think those provocative ladies missed the point entirely.

Posted in music. Written by dhigh