For the football player of the same name see Tommy James . Tommy James (born Thomas Gregory Jackson, 29 April 1947, Dayton, Ohio) is an American pop-rock musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, most known as leader of the 1960s rock band Tommy James and the Shondells. Early life and career In 1958, at age eleven, Tommy's family moved to Niles, Michigan. In 1959, when he was twelve, James formed his first band called Tom and the Tornadoes. In 1963, the band changed their name to The Shondells. By 1964, a local DJ at WNIL radio station in Niles formed his own record label, Snap Records. The Shondells were one of the local bands the DJ recorded at WNIL studios. One of the songs was the Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich ditty "Hanky Panky," which was recorded as The Raindrops. The song was a hit locally, but the label had no resources to promote it nationally and was soon forgotten. In 1965, a DJ in Pitts

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