REVIEWS

From 1966 through 1973, the hitmaking machine known as Tommy James placed more than 30 songs in the Billboard Hot 100, with eight of them reaching the Top 10. (Seven of the eight Top 10’s came when James was fronting the Shondells.) Understandably, then, James and the Shondells were known primarily as AM radio-focused singles acts, but the comprehensive Celebration box set — which collects all 140 sides the band and James recorded for Roulette Records — proves there was much more to Tommy James than the enduring hits “Mony Mony,” “I Think We’re Alone Now” and “Crimson and Clover.”

Spread over six discs are the eight LPs proper from James and the Shondells, James’ three eclectic early ’70s solo efforts, non-LP singles, rare tracks, and cuts from two James and the Shondells “best of ” collections that didn’t appear on any other albums. Celebration traces James and the Shondells’ maturation from a frat/garage rock combo on discs one and two (via tracks such as the No. 1 smash “Hanky Panky” and covers of “Good Lovin’,” “Ya Ya” and a rather embarrassing “Shout”) to psych purveyors and solid pop-rock craftsmen on discs three and four.

James and the band seemed to hit their stride on the and LPs: aside from containing two of their biggest hits, deeper cuts such as the super-poppy “Gingerbread Man,” “Sugar on Sunday” (a James co-write that became a 1969 hit for The Clique) and “One Two Three and I Fell” provide maximum bubblegum-pop pleasure. The band began dabbling in psychedelic sounds on (their only Top 40 album); along with the exotic, tremolo-loaded title track, there is the somewhat bizarre “I Am