We show that the plasmon resonances in single metallic nanoshells and multiple concentric metallic shell particles can be understood in terms of interaction between the bare plasmon modes of the individual surfaces of the metallic shells. The interaction of these elementary plasmons results in hybridized plasmons whose energy can be tuned over a wide range of optical and infrared wavelengths. The approach can easily be generalized to more complex systems, such as dimers and small nanoparticle aggregates. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.