Tommy James and the Shondells: "Hanky Panky"

July 25, 1966 (1 week)

Just as Simon and Garfunkel experienced when "The Sound of Silence" made an unexpected climb up the chart after initially being a flop, Tommy James and the Shondells' "Hanky Panky" took its sweet old time becoming a hit. Originally simply known as The Shondells, they had been a high school garage rock band who gained popularity around Indiana, Michigan and Ohio in 1964 with their version of "Hanky Panky". They were unable to take things any further and the group wrapped things up when they graduated from high school.

I have my issues with garage rock. First, it all tends to sound the same. Second, it's dumb which isn't necessarily a bad thing per se but it does its charm wear off especially when combined with how damn simple it is. Then there's the fact that it's often described as 'punk' (or, slightly more accurately, 'proto-punk') when it's nothing of the sort. But worst of all is that there are too many garage rockers who are unable or unwilling to move on from it.

(Reading the above, I'm struck by how I could just as easily be describing why I'm not crazy about power pop. All right, power pop isn't particularly dumb and no one identifies Cheap Trick or Teenage Fanclub or Sloan as punks — thank god for that — but the first point and last are dead on)

Garage rock ought to be a stepping stone. If a band is able to carry on past high school then hopefully they'll get some paying gigs or maybe they'll either land day jobs or go to university and either have the disposable income to afford to buy more albums or they'll be able to expand their musical horizons. Whether they become successful or not, they should try to find a way out of the garage rock trap. Those who don't might as well just remain in their suburban car lots - and no doubt the bulk of them do.

To their credit, Tommy James and the Shondells would eventually move on from the youthful frolics of garage rock. Unfortunately, this doesn't do much for my appreciation of "Hanky Panky". Good garage rock is indeed stupid but it still needs to be stupidly fun and stupidly exciting, the way "Louie, Louie" is. As a teenager I might have been charmed enough by "Hanky Panky" to have given its simplicity a pass but I'm no longer so tolerant. It's quite possible it has aged well (I really can't say one way or another but I am prepared to accept that this might be the case) but I certainly haven't.

Pop music was beginning to split into many directions over the course of 1966. Bubblegum acts took over while at the same time a tougher sound was being recorded by the likes of The Who and The Velvet Underground (whose monumental debut album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, wouldn't be released until the following year when it would have stood out a lot more). It seems there must have been a sweet spot somewhere in there for a group like Tommy James and the Shondells to thrive. Honestly, garage rock at its core is just D.I.Y. bubblegum anyway — and certainly closer to it than it ever has been to punk. 

Score: 4