Tommy James-Morris Levy-Roulette Records. What happened.

[Rick Cooper 559]

Interesting article about Morris Levy, boss of Roulette, and his dealings with Tommy James. The story of how the record Hanky Panky went from local plays to million seller eighteen months after a DJ picked up on it sounds familiar. 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/22/tommy-james-pop-star-robbed-interview

[Jimmy Mack 119]

how many times has this happened that we dont know about as well as the ones we do know about 

[Tattoodave 4,178]

12 hours ago, Jimmy Mack said:

How many times has this happened that we don't know about, as well as the ones we do know about?

I take it that's a rhetorical question? Or are you expecting a guesstimate?

 

I was feeling pedantic, so I altered the grammar in the question too.

[Kenb 718]

@Rick Cooper - it is a wild story.

When i was putting the final touches to Northern Connections 23 (Soulsations) in Sept 2020, i went back to some notes/material that shed even more light on Tommy, The Shondells, Hanky Panky, that was appropriate stuff to the story behind the Soulsations and variants. But didn't include all of it, So here's a tad more...

Jack Douglas (Jack Deafanbough), a local DJ, operated Snap Records. Tommy worked part-time in Mrs Bruno Frucci's record store. Hanky Panky was recorded in December 1964 at a Niles, Michigan radio station. Jack sold the record to the Pittsburgh promoter, who in turn sold it to Roulette. Between about Jan 1965 to Jun 1966 over 700K records had sold...but the group hadn't received a cent. The deal was 1 to 6 cents a record.

Tommy James (Jackson) was teamed for personal appearances in 1966 with 'non-Hanky Panky Shondells (originals)' organised by Roulette.

the story of these guy's is fascinating. How they split-the bands they ended up in - etc, but enough for now.