Today’s classic song of the day is one of Tommy James and the Shondells’ biggest hits. “I Think We’re Alone Now” was released as a single in January of 1967 and went all the way to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the Cash Box Top 100.
“I Think We’re Alone Now” was written by Richie Cordell, who wrote several other songs for Tommy James, including “Mony, Mony.” While the song was credited singularly to Cordell, it was actually written (and produced) by him and his regular songwriting partner, the uncredited Bo Gentry.
Cordell and Gentry played “I Think We’re Alone Now” for Tommy James as a mid-tempo ballad, but James decided to speed it up and perk it up a tad. In his own words:
“‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ was presented to me as a slow ballad by my producers, Richie Cordell and Bo Gentry. I was 19, but I heard the hook and thought it sounded like a hit. We did a quick demo, souping it up and making it much faster. When we played it to Morris Levy, the head of Roulette Records, he loved it, so we went back in the studio to record it properly. I recorded the vocal on Christmas Eve 1966, so we could get the song on the street for the new year.”
Many people, James included, consider “I Think We’re Alone Now” as bubblegum music. It may border on bubblegum, but I think it’s more sunshine pop; to my ears, it lacks the incessant plasticky cheeriness of true bubblegum tunes like the Archies’ “Sugar Sugar,” the 1910 Fruitgum Company’s “Simon Says,” and “Yummy Yummy” by the Ohio Express. It’s a good tune nonetheless, no matter its level of gumminess.
Here’s Tommy James again on “I Think We’re Alone Now” and the whole bubblegum thing:
“‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ was the first of what became known as our bubblegum hits. Richie and Bo would come to me with these really simple, almost nursery rhyme-type songs. I’d say, ‘I’m not singing that!’ and half an hour later I couldn’t get the tune out of my head. I learned how to make records with ‘I Think We’re Alone Now.’ We did the bass and drums first and then layered the rest—which we’d never done before—and made the choruses quieter so that the verses would explode out of a radio speaker. It became a signature sound for many other records.”
Twenty years later, teen pop sensation Tiffany recorded a cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now” that brought the song to a new generation of mall-shopping pre-teen girls. Tiffany’s version, released in August of 1987, was a smash hit worldwide, going all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Panama, South Africa, and the UK.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Tiffany’s extremely popular music video for “I Think You’re Alone Now.” Hard to believe she’s 53 years old now.
