Tighter, Tighter

This was written and produced by Tommy James after the dissolution of his group The Shondells. In our interview with Tommy James, he told the story of the song: "I was dying to get back in the studio, and I had written a song called 'Tighter, Tighter.' It was going to be my single. And right about that time, my wife's friend was managing a group called Alive 'N Kickin' from Brooklyn. And they were a good group, a really good group, I went out to see them a couple of times in different places. And I was going to produce them at some point, but sometime in the future. I didn't have the time for it right now, didn't have the head for it. So I went in and I laid down a track of this song called 'Tighter, Tighter,' and I just didn't like the way it was coming out, it just wasn't right. Somehow – it didn't happen to me very often, but I just miscalculated the vocal, and I didn't like the way I sounded on it. I really believed the song was a hit - I had written it with Bob King, my new songwriting partner at that time. And so I remembered this group. They had a male and a female lead singer that would switch off leads. So I re-wrote the song as a duet. I called them up and said, 'You guys, can you come down here and add your players on top of what we've already done, and I think you've got a hit with this.' So they came in and that's just what we did. We put their guitar player on, we put their keyboard player on, we added some horns, and Pepe and Sandy sang the lead, and then Pepe, Sandy and I did backgrounds. And it came out beautiful, we took it to (James' record label) Roulette, Roulette put it out, and it went #1 immediately. It was a big hit record for them. It ended up being the first group outside of the Shondells that I produced. I produced a few other acts, Patti Austin, a group called Troy, which was Benny Mardones who later had a hit with 'Into The Night' in the late '70s. I was producing a few people and having some fun. And then I basically went back in and recorded as a solo act from that point on."

Bruce Sudano, the keyboard player of the group, is married to Donna Summer. (thanks, Neil - Skokie, IL)