Tommy James

American pop-rock singer Tommy James has sold 100 million records worldwide over the past four decades and is currently working on a Broadway show set for autumn 2011.

Tommy is also a musician, singer, songwriter and record producer, however, to many he is known as the lead in 1960’s outfit Tommy James and the Shondells. The band is responsible for some of the greatest pop-rock tunes (emphasis on pop!) of its day, churning out classics like ‘Sweet Cherry Wine’, ‘Hanky Panky’, ‘I think We’re Alone Now’ (originally written by Ritchie Cordell and a signature hit for teeny popster Tiffany in 1987), ‘Crimson and Clover’ (famously covered by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts), as well as the ultimate party cracker, ‘Mony Mony’.
Despite all their hits, the music scene slowly but surly changed and Tommy James and the Shondells disbanded toward the end of the 60’s, with Tommy continuing solo – scoring several hits more over the next few decades.

In 1980 he released the album Three Times In Love and the single of the same name made Nr. 19 in the US-charts. In 1990, he released the album Hi-Fi.
Angel Air Records have released both albums on one CD, with a selection of songs of an artist who has had no less than 13 solo chart singles, 23 Gold singles and 9 Gold and Platinum albums.
The first half of the CD (the Three Times In Love album) is comprised of 9 tracks including the title track. Opener ‘You Got Me’ being a particularly catchy tune. ‘Lady In White’ thankfully lacks the soppiness of Chris De Burgh’s ‘Lady In Red’ – that is reserved for ‘It’s Magic’!
‘It’s Alright For Now’ is another one of those earworms one can’t help humming along to – loathe it or love it. It also has some fun and witty lyrics: “It’s a wham-bam / Had such a lovely evening / And I thank you M’am / I oughta be leaving”.

Second part of the CD offers the album Hi-Fi’ and is comprised of a further 9 tracks, out of which opener ‘Go’, ‘Annie Come Knockin’ and ‘Backtrack’ are the standout songs here. The mellow and ballad-style ‘Ordinary Girls’ boasts some beautifully emotional lyrics, while ‘Heartbeat In The Night’ highlights Tommy’s singing talents in a particularly powerful way. In contrast, ‘Burnin’ For You’ appears to be a tad pompous and overproduced – then again, a lot of pop rock songs and power ballads of the early 90’s were.
All in all, it’s a very good selection although the lyrical content of most songs (love, romance, heartbreak etc) is somewhat repetitive.
There is nothing edgy about this album, just well-crafted and catchy tunes that have a timeless appeal and are aimed for the mainstream (or for karaoke, or for Valentine's!). To date, over 300 artists have recorded versions of Tommy James’ songs.

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