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DISGRACELAND

Tommy James and the Shondells: Mony Mony and Mafia-Sanctioned Hits

DISGRACELAND

Jake Brennan

Society & Culture, Music, True Crime

4.613.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tommy James came up during a time when the music industry was in part controlled by New York’s Italian mafia. And for a period in the 1960s, that power was centralized at Roulette Records. The record label was run by convicted extortionist Morris Levy and operated in partnership with the Genovese crime family. Tommy James’ hits were sanctioned by the mob, the same mob that would threaten not only his career, but his life. To see the full list of contributors, see the show notes at ⁠www.disgracelandpod.com⁠. This episode was originally published on August 17, 2021. To listen to Disgraceland ad free and get access to weekly bonus content and more, become a Disgraceland All Access member at ⁠disgracelandpod.com Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - ⁠GET THE NEWSLETTER⁠ Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND: ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠X⁠ (formerly Twitter)  ⁠Facebook Fan Group⁠ ⁠TikTok To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Double Elvis.

0:07.1

I'm going to tell you exactly what you need to do.

0:09.2

Dominate your finances.

0:11.4

Sunday morning, listening to questionable financial advice from the Fintock Bros on his social feed.

0:18.0

Drowning in green.

0:19.8

Scale, scale, scale, scale, scale, scale.

0:21.8

This is the moment Isaac chose to search Barclay's life skills,

0:25.3

get some better money intel, and save up for that new skateboard.

0:29.5

We're helping young people become money confident.

0:32.5

Search Barclay's life skills.

0:34.6

Barclays, make money work for you.

0:37.9

Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.

0:53.2

The stories about Tommy James and the Chondelles are insane.

0:57.0

He was obsessed with guns. His hits were sanctioned by the mafia.

1:02.0

He was heavily addicted to pills and a one-time supplier of speed to the vice president of the United States.

1:09.0

Tommy James came up during a time when the music industry

1:13.1

was in part controlled by New York's Italian mafia. And for a period in the 1960s, that power was

1:20.4

centralized at Roulette Records. The record label was run by convicted extortionist Morris Levy

1:26.4

and operated in partnership with the

1:28.5

Genovese crime family. This was where Tommy James made some of his greatest hits,

1:34.6

great music. Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great music.

1:40.9

That was a preset loop from a Melotron called Frank's Nice and Sleazy MK2.

...

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