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Title details for Me, the Mob, and the Music by Martin Fitzpatrick - Available

Me, the Mob, and the Music

One Helluva Ride with Tommy James and the Shondells

by Martin Fitzpatrick
Tommy James
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available
Everyone knows the hits: "Mony Mony," "I Think We're Alone Now," "Crimson and Clover," "Crystal Blue Persuasion." They are nuggets of rock and pop history. However, few know the unlikely story of how these hits came to be. Tommy James had been performing in rock bands in the Michigan area since the age of twelve. Prompted to record a few songs by a local disc jockey in 1964, Tommy chose an obscurity titled "Hanky Panky," which became a minor local hit that came and went.


Then, in 1966, the record was rediscovered by a Pittsburgh DJ who started playing it on heavy rotation, prompting a tremendous response. Soon every record mogul in New York was pursuing Tommy and the band. Then an even odder thing happened: every offer except one disappeared, and Tommy found himself in the office of Morris Levy at Roulette Records, where he was handed a pen and ominously promised "one helluva ride." Morris Levy, the legendary "godfather" of the music business, needed a hit, and "Hanky Panky" would be his. The song went to number one; Tommy went on to do much more; and Levy continued to reign.


Me, the Mob, and the Music tells the intimate story of the complex and sometimes terrifying relationship between the bright-eyed, sweet-faced blonde musician from the heartland and the big, bombastic, brutal bully from the Bronx, who hustled, cheated, and swindled his way to the top of the music industry. It is also the story of this swaggering, wildly creative era of rock 'n' roll—when the hits kept coming and payola and the strong arm tactics of the mob were the norm—and what it was like, for better or worse, to be in the middle of it.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 3, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400196326
      • File size: 226504 KB
      • Duration: 07:51:52

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      David Colacci is fond of stressing the final word of a sentence in a way that lends an aura of significance to it and to whatever he is reporting. Colacci's delivery of this musical biography of the sixties is crisp and well paced, and he brings a necessary degree of professionalism to James's narrative. Still, rambunctious and entertaining as that story is, one sometimes longs for the immediacy and actuality of the author's own voice. However, few listeners will object or feel shorted by what promises to be a widely enjoyed title. D.A.W. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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