Tommy James and the Shondells and Herman’s Hermits to play MN State Fair

Tickets are priced from $53.75 to $33 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday via Etix or by phone at 800-514-3849.

The concert takes place on the first Monday of the State Fair, a night when ’60s pop stars are typically booked. In recent years, it’s been the Happy Together package tour led by the Turtles.

James was 12 in 1959, when he started the band that became the Shondells five years later. The group scored their first hit, “Hanky Panky,” in 1966 and returned to the charts with “Mirage,” “Sweet Cherry Wine” and “Crystal Blue Persuasion.”

Three of the band’s biggest hits found a second life in the ’80s through covers by Tiffany (“I Think We’re Alone Now”), Billy Idol (“Mony Mony”) and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (“Crimson and Clover”). Prince also took a stab at the latter on his 2009 album “Lotusflow3r.”