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Clarification of Hopatcong, in New Jersey |
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Following the release of "[[Mony Mony]]", Tommy James wanted to change direction of the group's sound, and began producing his own material. At the time, James said this was out of "necessity and ambition", wanting to move from singles into albums. He departed from the group's principal songwriters Bo Gentry and [[Ritchie Cordell]], and was given complete artistic control by Roulette Records.
The title, "Crimson and Clover", was decided before a song had been written for it. The combination of unknown meaning came to James as he was waking up, comprising his favorite color – [[crimson]] – and his favorite flower – [[clover]]. (There is also a species of clover native to Europe called the [[crimson clover]].) A song to fit the phrase was written by Tommy James and bassist Mike Vale, but was scrapped. His following collaboration with drummer Peter Lucia, Jr. was more successful.
"Crimson and Clover" was recorded in late 1968 in about five hours and is one of the earliest songs recorded on [[multitrack recording|16-track]] equipment. Tommy James played most of the instruments, while Mike Vale played bass and Peter Lucia, Jr. played drums. The song contains a [[tremolo]] effect on the guitar, set so that it vibrated in time with the song's rhythm. Near the end of the recording, the band had an idea of utilizing the tremolo effect with vocals. To achieve this, the voice microphone was plugged into an [[Ampeg]] guitar amplifier with tremolo turned on, and the output from the amplifier was recorded while James sang "Crimson and clover, over and over".
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