Back from the dead!
The story of Tommy James is filled with ups and downs, joy and tears as a passionate and talented young man worked tirelessly for a career in the music business. But ultimately it is also a powerful story of God’s love, guidance and protection in the minefield world of rock’n’roll.
Tommy James and the Shondells are known as one of the most successful psychedelic rock groups of the 1960s music bonanza. Between 1966 and 1970 they recorded 23 singles, (all gold discs in the US) and nine albums. Four of their singles reached the coveted number one slot in the world’s three largest popular music markets. Hanky Panky (1966), Crimson and Clover (1968) and Crystal Blue Persuasion (1969) reached #1 in the US and Canada, Mony Mony (1968) made the #1 slot in the UK.
Born Again
The whole journey began when a nine-year-old Tommy asked his mother to buy him a guitar. He told CBN in a 2010 interview,
“I begged my Mom for the guitar—and got it! I saw Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, and ‘rock’n’roller’ suddenly became a job opportunity. All I ever wanted to do was play rock’n’roll. I got my first electric guitar when I was 10 and started my first band when I was 12.”
The young singer/songwriter became something of a local celebrity as he played regularly with his band on the music circuit.
Hanky Panky breakthrough
Looking back, Tommy said he later realised that God was always there directing and guiding him even when he was unaware. Hanky Panky was initially recorded in a local studio and released on a small local label in 1964, two years before it became a huge hit. He credits divine intervention as the reason the song became a success. It was initially played by local DJs in his hometown of Niles, Michigan, but it got nowhere. In an interview with CBN in 2010, Tommy said,
“It was a big hit in four square blocks in 1964 and then it died! I graduated from high school in ’65 and took my band on the road… right in the middle of our tour in Janesville, Wisconsin in the spring of ’66 the club went belly up, the IRS shut them down, and we were lucky to get out with our equipment. But that’s how the Good Lord would work it because I went back to Niles feeling very rejected and very down. And at that very moment when I got home I got a call that changed my life. Fenway distributors in Pittsburg rang and told me that Hanky Panky was sitting at number one! They had dug it up from a record cemetery… and they were playing it at ‘teen dance’ clubs. They bootlegged it, sold 80,000 copies in 10 days, and we were sitting at number one. Only in America! The longer I am in this business the longer I realise that what a trillion to one shot that was!”
Hanky Panky went on to sell over three million copies and became a worldwide hit.
Close encounters of the divine kind
Raised a Catholic, Tommy had some Christian foundations, but he admits that he was really more interested in a music career and the study of UFOs than faith. Tommy was nineteen when the band had their breakthrough with Hanky Panky. The band signed a contract with Roulette records and the hit singles just kept coming. Drugs became part of the daily regime as they kept the band alert for the long evenings and their hectic touring schedule.
But, despite success at a young age, Tommy was not entirely satisfied with life. He was an avid reader with an inquisitive mind and he was open to God, faith and spiritual things. Unable to get to sleep in his hotel room one night in 1967, he picked up a Gideons Bible.
“I just ran my thumb through the pages and said, ‘God, talk to me!’ I landed on Ezekiel and was just blown away… I really had a hunger for God.”
He was immediately hooked. He started watching Billy Graham crusades on TV and was challenged by the simple message of Jesus and a personal relationship with God. Tommy put his hand on the TV set and prayed as Billy gave the invitation to receive Christ into his life. He became a ‘born again’ Christian that night and started to include the Christian message in his songwriting.
Preaching the gospel with rock music
Chrystal Blue Persuasion was a worldwide hit in 1969. Tommy says the song is directly inspired by the Bible and in particular by the books of Ezekiel, Isaiah and Revelation.
“That song is about becoming a Christian… the lake of crystal in Revelation—the ‘Crystal Blue Persuasion’ meaning the truth and being persuaded by the truth.”
The whole band got saved!
Tommy’s transformation did not go unnoticed by the rest of the group. Soon all five members of the band realised that God was on their case and, one by one, they all became committed Christians.
Sweet Cherry Wine (1969) reached #7 in the US and #6 in Canada. The song is about the blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Communion. Tommy says it remains a powerful, evangelistic song decades later. He usually plays it at the end of a concert and he is able to share with the audience the meaning of the song and tell them that God will accept them as they are. Tommy adds that Jesus accepted him just as he was, even though he was still dabbling in drugs and drinking excessively for many years after his conversion experience.
The band were invited to play at the prestigious Woodstock festival in 1969, but they declined due to their heavy touring and recording schedule.
Blessed by ‘the mob’
Although he was unaware of the fact when he and the band joined Roulette Records, Tommy gradually realised that the record company was owned by ‘the mob’ (gangsters). He said,
“This is a really crazy story… I don’t know why The Lord chose to bless me through these people, but he did! It just shows you that God is everywhere and uses situations in the way he chooses. Things you would never in a million years think God would be blessing turned out to be.”
Death of a star
But the life of a rock star came with considerable mental and physical stress. Five years of gruelling recording and touring, took its toll and by 1970 they were all flagging. They took drugs to stay awake and Tommy drank heavily at times. At the end of a concert in Birmingham, Alabama, in March 1970, he collapsed from exhaustion. Medical staff could not find a pulse and he was pronounced dead.
Amazingly, his pulse returned after a short time and he survived, albeit shaken and far from well. Tommy realised he needed to leave the band and recuperate if he was going to survive. The remaining members of the band continued to record and tour for another year, releasing an album and producing a minor hit single.
The Lord is my Shepherd.
Tommy believes that God has been with him all of his life, “not only as a guide, but as a shepherd and a Father.” His music has enabled him to share the gospel in a simple way to people who would not otherwise go to a place where they would hear it. At the end of a concert he says, “keep looking up, Jesus is coming”—which then opens up conversation about Christian faith with fans when they come to see him after a performance.
Lyrics
A selection of Tommy’s lyrics show how he included aspects of his faith in songs heard by many millions of people.
Crystal Blue Persuasion (1969):
Look over yonder what do you see?
The sun is a-rising most definitely
A new day is coming, people are changing
Ain’t it beautiful? Crystal blue persuasion
Better get ready to see the light
Love, love is the answer and that’s all right
So don’t you give up now so easy to find
Just look to your soul and open your mind
Crystal blue persuasion
It’s a new vibration
Crystal blue persuasion
Crystal blue persuasion
Maybe tomorrow when he looks down
On every green field and every town
All of his children and every nation
There’ll be peace and good brotherhood
Ball of Fire (1969)
Look up children, look and see
Sining down on you and me yeah
And the ball of fire in the sky
Keeps watching over you and I, way up high
And the ball of fire in the sky
Keeps watching over you and I, way up high
Oh can’t you hear the angels calling?
Oh yeah listen
Shining through eternity
As it was so it shall be
Sweet Cherry Wine (1969)
Everyone, we got to get together, now
Oh, yeah, love’s the only thing that matters anyhow
And the beauty of life can only survive
If we love one another
Oh, yeah, yesterday my friends were marching out to war
Oh, yeah, listen, now, we ain’t a-marching anymore
No, we ain’t going to fight, only God has the right
To decide who’s to live and die
Watch the mountain turn to dust and blow away
Oh, Lord, you know there’s got to be a better way
And the old masquerade is a no soul parade
Marching through the ruins of time
To save us, he gave us
Sweet cherry wine, so very fine
We’ll drink it right down
Pass it all around
So stimulating, so intoxicating
Sweet cherry wine
Everybody’s gonna feel so fine
Drinking sweet cherry wine
Watch Crystal Blue Persuasion (LIVE performance):
Story by Ralph Burden
Photo: Tommy James in 2010, royalty free
