Says James: "When we went into the studio to do it, we actually finished the record in about 5 ½ hours. And the record we just happened to be working on at that moment, at the end of the campaign, was 'Crimson and Clover.'"Īs Tommy explains, we were never supposed to hear the mix of this song that became a hit. So if we were gonna sell albums, we had to completely reinvent ourselves. Also that year the industry went from 4-track to 24-track in about the same period of time. But the point was we knew we had to sell albums. Morris (Levy) usually would name the album the same title as the single, so it would get kind of a head start. And then it was usually named the single, which I thought was a great idea. The album, up to that point, had been whatever wasn't the single. We had to sell albums, which is something Roulette had never really done. And we realized while we were out on the campaign that if our career was gonna continue, we had to make a move.
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 there was this mass extinction of all of these other acts. It was Led Zeppelin, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Joe Cocker, Neil Young. In 90 days, when we got back, it was all albums. But the point was that it was almost all singles. It was the Association, it was Gary Puckett, it was the Buckinghams, the Rascals, us, I'm leaving several people out. But it was an incredible experience.īut when we left in August, all the big acts were singles acts. And this really was the first time, I think, a rock act and a politician ever teamed up. What have we gotten ourselves into? We had been asked to join him. 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. The convention where all the kids got beat up. And we met up with him right after the convention. 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. 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. Tommy James (from his Songfacts interview): "'Crimson and Clover' was so very important to us because it allowed us to make that move from AM Top 40 to album rock. He wrote it, produced it, and played all the instruments with the drummer." Tommy says, 'come here,' so I went in the room, listened to what he'd been doing and said, 'Oh, my God.' Everybody kind of deserted Tommy, and he went off and just did this incredible song. There was the Brill building, and in the basement was this great studio. I'll never forget it, it was in Allegra studios on 1650 Broadway.
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You can't go trying to do it yourself, you don't know how to write hit songs.' So he went off with the drummer and created this song. It will be the end of your career.' We went to Tommy and said, 'Look Tommy, if you don't get someone to write the songs for you, you're going to be dead meat. In those days, the legend, Morris Levy, said he was not going to be pushed around and said, 'Fine, you want to quit, quit. Bo wasn't getting paid from Roulette Records, so he went on strike and refused to make any more Tommy James records.
Kenny told us how this song came together: "Bo Gentry wrote all these songs for Tommy James, from 'I Think We're Alone Now' right on through 'Mony Mony.' There were other co-writers, but Bo was the genius, the driving force. He played keyboards and sang backup as a member of The Shondells. Kenny Laguna is a songwriter and producer who has worked with Joan Jett ever since she started as a solo artist.
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