Over and Over: "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells (NPR+)

More than any song we’ve covered yet in this series about songs that persist in culture, "Crimson and Clover" is a stealth classic. Maybe you heard it in 1968 after its rough mix was leaked by a radio station and it became a top-40 hit. Maybe you only know it from a popular rock ’n’ roll cover in 1980s, or when it became a singalong in an emo song in the 2000s. Maybe it’s not even the lyrics that you recognize, but those three heavy, insistent chords. But it’s a song that’s stuck around, that feels endlessly replayable, and that helped inspire the new name for this NPR Music series: “Over and Over.”

This week on Over and Over, NPR Music critic Ann Powers and editor Daoud Tyler-Ameen discuss “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and the Shondells, from 1968.

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