(l to r) Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and Ellie's sister, Laura.
Note: Although Laura was not a member of the Raindrops, she was brought in for photographs to make the group look larger. She also did personal appearences and "lip synched" with the group.
Special thanks to Ellie Greenwich for the photograph of the Raindrops.
Ellie told me the story about how the group was appearing at Pallisades Park with WABC Deejay Bruce Morrow (Cousin Brucie). They were lip synching a song and the record stuck. There were a few red faces after that!
In the fall of 1963, they released the song THAT BOY JOHN. The song started climbing the charts, and then in November, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Following the assassination, most radio stations thought that it might be considered in poor taste to play a song called THAT BOY JOHN, so the song made it's final appearance on the charts at #64.
But, a young singer, Thomas Jackson of Dayton Ohio heard the "B" side of the record. His group recorded it and it became a local hit in the mid-west. Three years later, Pittsburgh Pa. Deejay Porky Chedwick found the record, liked it and began playing it. It started to catch on so he invited the singer and his group to Pittsburgh. By then his group had lost interest in music, so the singer came to Pittsburgh, alone. He found a local group, the Raconteurs and asked if they wanted to sing with him. The singer, Thomas Jackson was better known as Tommy James, his group the Shondells. Their song, HANKY PANKY, topped the music charts for two weeks in July of 1966.
2005 John Anthony