Tommy James On His Brush With Roger Ebert

Music artist Tommy James was saddened to hear about the passing of Roger Ebert, so he shared a personal story on Facebook.

In 1968, we shot a color video for “Mony Mony.” Many years later, MTV was playing the song as a "Closet Classic.” They only had a black and white version, which had been used by the British show "Top of the Pops." 

From that point forward, MTV was looking for the color version and so was I. The word got around about our search. 

In the late 80s, Roger Ebert was in the Paramount vault and found the color version and he sent it to me. Apparently, it had been sent to LA for a show about 20 years earlier. 

I called Roger and thanked him profusely. It wasn’t a long conversation, but I always felt like I owed him big for finding it. 

Roger will be missed.