Tommy James & The Shondells' first hit song, "Hanky Panky", was recorded for
Snap Records, a small Michigan label, in 1964, but nothing came of it
and the group broke up. Two years later, a DJ in Pittsburgh mistakenly
played the record on the air instead of the one he meant to play, and he was soon inundated by calls from listeners wanting to know who did the
song. It quickly shot to #1 in the Pittsburgh area and then took off in
the rest of the Northeast. James, not being able to find any of the
members of the original Shondells who had recorded the song, hurriedly
put together a new group. The "Hanky Panky" masters were bought by
Roulette Records of New York, which distributed it nationwide and
signed James & The Shondells to a contract.
