Organ used in Tommy James and the Shondells

Clavioline.

back sleeve of "I Think We're Alone Now" LP lists "Ronnie Rosman on piano, organ and cordovox"

hoping they mean this

http://www.combo-organ.com/Cordovox/CDX-0622a.jpg

Are those from the '70s, though?

In any case, Tommy's Facebook post from the 19th says Clavioline:

https://www.facebook.com/TJandtheShondells/?fref=ts

Maybe the Cordovox credit on the album referred to one of their accordions? That seems to be a lot of what comes up when you search for Cordovox.

A clavioline is not an organ though.

... ignore that, irrelevant!

Yeah, I was just thinking that wouldn't mean that the person responsible for the album credits wouldn't have identified it as one.

Maybe the Cordovox credit on the album referred to one of their accordions? That seems to be a lot of what comes up when you search for Cordovox.

― timellison, Monday, March 21, 2016 1:53 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i'll have a listen to the album again and see if there's anything that sounds like accordion.

i thought that photo did look 70s. just noticed the date the in lower left corner. doh!

albums rules btw. "Trust Each Other in Love" and "Baby Let Me Down"

ok i listened to the whole album and nothing on it sounds like an accordion. they also made amps.

this is a site on Cordovox organs but the earliest they have is 1974:
http://www.combo-organ.com/Cordovox/

killer version of "Shout" on this LP! guitar rhythm feels very VU at times.

Looks like cordovox made an accordion that was essentially an electric organ with the tone generators being contained in a separate box that looked like an amp. You can hear some of the sounds here
https://youtu.be/b9ik7J_W_qg?t=2m16s

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/cordovox-tone-generator-ever-heard-of-em.1278429/

The electric organ part seems to be totally independent of the accordion bellows, so he possibly could have had one chopped down and used it horizontally like a little compact organ.

"Ronnie Rossman played a Hammond B-3 organ and a second keyboard called a Chordovox, which was actually an electrified accordion on a stand that had an almost toylike quality to it."

https://books.google.com/books?id=I6pfS5VOa4kC&pg=PA68&lpg=PA68&dq=ronnie+rosman+accordion&source=bl&ots=iXWjLhlGYO&sig=63NbPZLZCV-av6Y9xhtKNgLh3y0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwicht-WwtLLAhUQ2GMKHbaGCLIQ6AEIPzAH#v=onepage&q=ronnie%20rosman%20accordion&f=false

This article says it was studio pro Artie Butler on an Ondioline: https://www.mixonline.com/recording/classic-tracks-tommy-james-shondells-i-think-were-alone-now-365955

Article docked a star for referring to Joe Mack/Joe Macho as *Joe Macko*

Two years before, the group had recorded their first single, “Hanky Panky,” which was recorded at a radio studio by a local DJ, Jack Douglas, and issued by a small local label. “The record just came and went,” he says. “I graduated from high school in '65, and I took my band on the road. We played Rush Street in Chicago and up through the Midwest, and we came home very out of work and depressed.”

But then James received that telephone call. “Hanky Panky” had sprouted new legs in Pittsburgh, thanks to numerous bootleg pressings from the original single. “They sold 80,000 pieces in 10 days, and it was the Number One record in Pittsburgh,” he recalls. James had a hit on his hands. “If I had missed that call, there wouldn't have been a Tommy James.”

i love this fact. without bootlegging, no "Hanky Panky", no "I Think We're Alone Now", no "Crimson & Clover", no "Mony Mony", etc. without a doubt the 60s and the 80s would've been less far fun

thanks for posting btw really enjoying the details of actually arranging/recording a pop song

wonder if that's the same Jack Douglas that produced Aerosmith