TOMMY JAMES - A Christian Of The World

Original Released on LP Roulette SR 42062 
(US 1971)

This Tommy James' second album after the breakup of the Shondells was his most successful solo project. "Christian Of The World" is a mix of inspirational near-gospel music with harder rock 'n' roll songs. The first hit was "Church Street Soul Revival" followed by "Adrienne". While the first two singles did well, it was the third that went Top 10. "Draggin' The Line" was issued in the summer of 1971, and the persistent bass line and James' strong vocal helped make it a Top 5 hit. A fourth single from this album, "I'm Comin' Home", also did well in the fall of 1971. The genius of Tommy James is that along with his perfect radio voice and ability to construct and deliver hits, he knows how to nick riffs right and left and reformulate them to suit his compact pop essays. "Christian of the World" is another top-notch Tommy James album; unfortunetly, it has not received the critical acclaim it deserves. "Christian of the World" was a total departure from anything Tommy had ever done before. While it's true, other 'mainstream' pop and country performers had, on occasion, recorded traditional Gospel music...no other rock artist had ever attempted anything as bold as an album of new 'Christian oriented' songs. Today this genre would be called Christian Contemporary, but in 1971, the year of its release, this was unheard of.