Page "Tommy James" Paragraph 3

The men made the rounds of the major recording labels, getting initial potential offers from most companies they visited.

One label, Roulette Records, gave no initial response because its head, Morris Levy, was out of town until evening ; Roulette was one of the last stops on their visit.

By the next morning, Mack, Rubin and James were now receiving polite refusals from the major record companies after the enthusiasm for the record the day before.

James said, " We didn't know what in the world was going on, and finally Jerry Wexler over at Atlantic leveled with us and said, ' Look, Morris Levy and Roulette called up all the other record companies and said, " This is my freakin ' record.

" ( laughs ) and scared ' em all away – even the big corporate labels.

'" Their only option would be to sign with Roulette.