Eventually Jackson and the original Shondells graduated high school and parted ways and that was that. He formed the group The Shondells at age 12, and had a local hit in Niles with “Hanky Panky”, released on the obscure Snap label in 1963. But actually he was born Tommy Jackson in Dayton, Ohio and raised in Niles, Michigan. Pittsburgh, PA is often said to be Tommy James’ hometown. But “The Breakup Song” holds a special place in the memory of many fans of 80’s pop, probably due in part to its relative obscurity today. Their most successful hit was the #2 “Jeopardy”, which lives on due of course to its top ten placement. Greg Kihn Band: “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)”īaltimore, Maryland’s Greg Kihn Band hit the top 40 only twice in the 80’s. It was an era when radio ruled–before a car commercial, social music sharing site, or Glee were equally likely ways for a song to break through. Billboard Hot 100 charts of the 60′s and 70′s were a much more accurate reflection of a song’s popularity, before there were so many other ways for a song to enter the public consciousness (reflected by the number of pop charts Billboard now uses).
I’ll be citing the Billboard pop charts for reference. Our goal in this series of posts is to resurrect their memory to help in a small way to reverse the process of the “top tenning” of oldies formats, which reduce hit makers from previous decades to their most popular song or two and then overplay them until you almost loathe an artist you used to enjoy (think “Sweet Caroline” or “Don’t Stop Believin’”). Every era and genre of music has songs that were popular in their day, but whose footprints have been washed from the sand over time.
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