Troy Shondell

In 1961 Troy Shondell’s swamp-pop single “This Time (We’re Really Breaking Up)” remained on the charts for four straight months. Within seven days of its release, fans had already purchased ten thousand copies; by the end of the year the tally exceeded three million. That runaway success left a clear mark on the rising rock-and-roll scene: several young groups adopted the singer’s surname. In Michigan, future hit-maker Tommy James, who would later score with “I Think We’re Alone Now” and “Mony Mony,” fronted a band called the Shondells. Illinois musician Jim Peterik, later of Survivor and the Ides of March, likewise christened his outfit after Shondell. Down in Louisiana, Warren Storm and Rod Bernard, recording for La Louisianne, paid the same tribute when they named their own act.

Yet the million-selling record was not Shondell’s initial brush with fame. On Halloween 1960 his father suffered a fatal heart attack, forcing the singer to return home and assist his mother with the family enterprise. Until that moment he had been steadily building a career that began in his mid-teens in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Under his birth name, Gary Shelton, he cut his debut single, “My Hero,” for the Smash label; the following year Mercury issued “Kissin’ at the Drive-In.”

Midwestern audiences had already embraced him. Chicago’s Brass Rail, long a jazz-and-blues stronghold, booked Shelton for its first venture into rock and roll, and the engagement stretched to sixteen weeks. Two independent sides, “The Trance” and “Goodbye Little Darlin’,” soon followed. In 1959 he served as an opening act on the Shower of Stars tour alongside Chuck Berry, the Impalas, Frankie Ford, Frankie Avalon, and the Skyliners.

Shondell’s musical education started early: at age four his father taught him trumpet, and four years later introduced him to the piano. The elder Shondell continued to champion his son’s ambitions in later years. The singer credited his father, along with Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Buddy Holly, as primary influences. After his father’s death, Shelton composed “Still Loving You,” which Bob Luman turned into a country hit.

Well into the new century Shondell remained active on the nostalgia circuit and at other live events. From his Nashville base he also wrote and produced material. Alongside Jimmy Clanton, Ronnie Dove, and Ray Peterson, he belonged to the collective known as the Masters of Rock ’n’ Roll. Shondell died in Picayune, Mississippi, on January 7, 2016, at the age of seventy-six.