Over the course of over forty years in the music business Tommy James has sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide. His rise to fame in the 60’s, with his band The Shondells, saw him place no less than seven songs in the American top 40. “Hanky Panky” in 1966 and “Crimson and Clover in 1969, both hit number one, while “I Think We’re Alone Now”, “Mony Mony”, “Crystal Blue Persuasion”, “Sweet Cherry Wine” and “Mirage” all graced the charts.

With the peace and love generation of the 60’s in the rear view mirror, Tommy folded up The Shondells in 1970 and focused on getting his solo career off the ground. In an attempt to bring Tommy’s post Shondells albums back into the public eye, Angel Air Records out of the UK has been going through Tommy’s back catalogue and issuing a series of two ‘fer one releases.

Originally issued in 1976 on Fantasy Records, In Touch sounds a bit dated by today’s standards. The album does feature Kenny Laguna on keyboards, before he would go on to becoming known as Joan Jett’s primary collaborator and producer. The Tower of Power horns also put in an appearance as well. This unfortunately doesn’t take away from the fact that much of In Touch is comprised of tepid sounding, adult contemporary ballads. The only real saving grace are James’ up tempo renditions of Suzy Quatro’s “Devil Gate Drive” and a couple of Garry Glitter’s biggest hits “ Do You Wanna Touch Me? (Oh Yeah), which of course Joan herself would cover a few years down the road, and “”I Love, You Love, Me Love”. Other than that though, there’s not a lot to really get excited about here.

Midnight Rider, released the following year, also on Fantasy, found Tommy moving into to the soft, west coast sound that was so prevalent throughout the 70’s. Tommy’s voice is once again in fine form as his velvety smooth vocals dominate throughout. The biggest difference this time around though, is James’ collaboration with producer / songwriter Jeff Berry, which yields better results. Yeah, so the sound is still a little on the slick / light side, but songs like “Love Is Gonna Find A Way”, “Midnight Rider” and “Bobby, Don’t Leave Me Alone” are tracks worthy of mention here. Timothy B. Schmitt and Michael McDonald also contribute background vocals throughout. Overall this album fares slightly better than its predecessor.

Three Times In Love: C | Hi-Fi: F

A change of scenery, and record label, found Tommy moving back to NYC and switching over to Millennium Records (RCA), which was headed up by Jimmy Ienner, for his first album of the 80’s, Three Times In Love (1980). He also brought with him to NYC, the soft, county / west coast, rock sound that he had established on Midnight Rider. He scored himself a #1 hit on the Adult Contemporary charts with the title track, as well as a couple of other chart climbers with “You Got Me” and “You’re So Easy To Love”. Not an essential purchase by any stretch of the imagination, but more or less just more of the same. Coincidentally, Three Times In Love proved to not only be his first album of the 80’s, but it was also his last.

Although James’ solo career had effectively stalled in the 80’s, there certainly wasn’t a shortage of other artists having hits with his music. Joan Jett, Tiffany (remember her?) and Billy Idol all rode Tommy’s music to the top of the charts, and more importantly kept those royalty checks coming in. Hi-Fi (1990) marked Tommy’s return to making new music, but unfortunately this album is not only a decade too late as far as production qualities are concerned, but the songs just aren’t very good as well. If you thought his 70’s solo output was perhaps a little too slick for you, then just wait until you hear this one. Actually I take that back, because you don’t really want to hear this album.

In the end these Angel Air re-issues are really targeted for die-hard Tommy James fans only. Even then I have hard time envisioning his fans going completely bonkers over these albums, but hey, that’s just me. If you absolutely must have everything Tommy James has released, then by all means knock yourself out and grab a couple of these two ‘fer’s. I think I’ll just stick to my well worn copy of The Best of Tommy James & The Shondells.

By Ryan Sparks