>>>Billboard Magazine recently named "Crimson And Clover" one of The Top 500 Greatest Pop Songs Ever ... it wasn’t crafted with that purpose in mind. (kk)
Nor Kent, as you know, and have written about in Forgotten Hits, was it ever "completely crafted," thanx to John Rook and Larry Lujack of WLS Chicago.
Having been there when this took place, I can say this account from Popsike.com is pretty accurate:
"Tommy James made a rough mix of "Crimson and Clover" to show to Roulette Records Executive Morris Levy for evaluation. The band was still intending to improve on the mix with ambient sound and echo. A few days later, James stopped at WLS radio in Chicago - who he had previously had positive experiences with - to get their reaction.
After an interview discussing the single, he was convinced (by Program Director John Rook) to play the rough mix for WLS off-air. Unbeknown to James, the station recorded the song, and they (Larry Lujack) played it on-air (that same afternoon and Chuck Buell continued to play it that evening - CB) in November, 1968, as a "world exclusive."
Morris Levy initially pleaded with WLS not to play the record prematurely before its release, but listener response changed his mind. Roulette Records produced a specially pressed single and shipped it to listeners who called about the song. Eight hundred copies of the song were also sent to WLS for promotional purposes."
This is the only image of that special "WLS WPR" record I could find. Not surprising, it's in the Forgotten Hits Archives!
(Isn't it interesting tho that most "old, mysterious historical photos" are so often "blurry!")
CB
(which stands for I "Can't-Believe-I-Don't-Have-A-Copy-of-This-Record Boy!")
Well, I actually did find a better looking photo than the one you sent (see below) …
It comes from a piece we did a while back talking about the rarity of this record, which has come up a few times over the years here in Forgotten Hits!
(The site you referred to, Popsike, shows that a copy of this 45 sold at an auction a few years ago for $73 … so not quite as valuable as we may all have been led to believe!)
Still, I did manage to dig up a couple of previous pieces that mentioned this whole situation …
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2019/01/crimson-and-clover.html
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2014/10/more-tommy.html
‘60’s FLASHBACK:
WLS literally "bootlegged" a copy of Tommy's unreleased hit "Crimson And Clover" and started airing an early mix off a demo Tommy brought to the studio in late '68. (Tommy was pretty pissed at the time ... WLS taped their interview with Tommy and, as such, now had a copy of Tommy's soon-to-be-released single! Tommy was in the limo on his way back to the airport when he heard is song already being played after just leaving the station!)
Yes, the
AM Wars of the '60's were legendary ... and we had the best of BOTH worlds here
in Chicago with WLS and WCFL constantly trying to one-up each other by snagging
the latest scoop. So sad that today radio has become nothing more than a
game of following the leader ... back then these guys couldn't WAIT to get the
upper hand with a hot, new release! It's like all the excitement ... and
creativity ... is gone. (kk)
Here's the way Tommy James remembers the incident in
his book "Me, The Mob And The Music":
We went into the studio and produced the "Crimson
And Clover" single in December. The night I finished it, I made
a rough mix, right off the board. We were going to come back in a week to
mix in a lot of ambient sound, a lot of echo. We wanted it to be a more
profound statement than was on the mix.
That weekend, The Shondells and I played a date in Chicago and we were met at the airport by a limousine. As we were driving to our hotel, I stopped by WLS on the off chance that Program Director John Rook was there. I wanted to get some reaction to "Crimson" from a radio station that had always been so good to us. John was in that afternoon and invited me to sit with him. He made a big deal out of me being there. I did an interview and talked about the new single. I should not have done it, but I played him the rough mix when we were off the air. He flipped over the record. "Let me go get Larry Lujack in here. We just hired him." Lujack would go on to be one of WLS's top DJs. Rook played Lujack the rough mix and without my knowledge or approval, pushed a record button on the tape recorder and made himself a copy. Lujack loved it. They handed me back the tape and we parted with promises to call each other next week.
By the time I had gotten into the limo, the radio was tuned to WLS and Larry Lujack was announcing in his best DJ voice: "World exclusive ... Tommy James and the Shondells ... brand new single ... 'Crimson And Clover'." He was playing the rough mix on the radio as a world exclusive. I knew I was never going to hear the end of this from Jim Stagg (over at WCFL - kk.) I was warned on "Mony" not to give WLS an exclusive.
Monday Morning, when I stopped by at Roulette, a five-foot funeral wreath was sitting outside Red Scwartz's office with a banner that read: "Condolences on the death of Tommy James and the Shondells at WCFL Radio." It was from Jim Stagg at the rival station. Morris came right out and said, "What the fuck?" I told them both what had happened. Red called Rook and told him about the wreath. Jim Stagg wouldn't take Red's call. Rook said, "Fuck Jim Stagg ... I’ll play it every twenty minutes!" And then added in radio lingo, "He'll have to go on the record." And that is what he did. This was still the rough mix. I never got a chance to remix the record.
Morris had DJ copies sent to all the radio stations in the United States. He wouldn't let me do a final mix. So the single of "Crimson And Clover" that we all know was from the tape of a rough mix that was never supposed to see the light of day.
"Crimson and Clover" took off and was the biggest record we ever had. Jim Stagg left WCFL not too long afterward. As it turned out, it was more his funeral than mine.
-- Tommy James
Maybe THAT'S why Roulette Records let WLS press up 10,000 special promotional copies to give away to their listeners!!! They truly DID break the record worldwide (thanks to a little underhanded maneuvering) ... but that was the name of the game as it related to successful Top 40 Radio back in the 1960's! (kk)
I have been a Tommy James fan since Day One when I heard "Hanky Panky" for the very first time in 1966. (I have told the story before how my brothers and I used to mime to the record when it came on the radio, strumming gardening instruments like rake and shovels outside my dad's old tool shed, pretending that it was us singing the song for the benefit of anyone who happened to pass by!!!) Hey, we were kids ... but we LOVED this record. My original copy was a white label 45 on Snap, the original label pressing from Michigan!
We're going to see Tommy James in concert on the 11th at The Genesee Theatre ... yet another sold out show ... and we can't wait. (Taking the in-laws this time around for their 50th wedding anniversary present. Thanks to Tommy's long-time manager Carol Ross, they'll even get to meet Tommy backstage before the show ... so thanks again, Carol!) kk
