Tony! Toni! Toné! was an American

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

/ R&B band from

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

, popular during the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s. During the band's heyday, it was composed of

D'wayne Wiggins D'wayne Patrice Wiggins (born February 14, 1961) is an American singer, guitarist, and record producer best known as the founding member of the 1990s soul/R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné! Early life Wiggins was born in Oakland, California; spec ...

on lead

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

, his brother

Raphael Saadiq Raphael Saadiq (; born Charles Ray Wiggins; May 14, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He rose to fame as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! In addition to his solo and group ...

(born Charles Ray Wiggins) on lead vocals and

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, and their cousin Timothy Christian Riley on

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s, keyboards, and background vocals. Additional original founders are Choreographer/Bassist Elijah "EB" Baker, Songwriter/Producer/Keyboardist Antron "Ice Cream" Haile, and Producer/Jazz Guitarist John "Jubu" Smith. Originally, the band went by "Tony, Toni, Toné" as a joke, until they realized it "had a nice ring to it". After their debut album '' Who?'' in 1988 followed by '' The Revival'' in 1990, the group achieved their greatest commercial success with the

double platinum Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

certified '' Sons of Soul'' in 1993. Tony! Toni! Toné! disbanded after the release of their fourth album '' House of Music'' (1996), which critics cite as their best work.

History

1988–1992: ''Who?'' and ''The Revival''

Their first album, '' Who?'', produced and co-written by Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy, was released in 1988. The album went

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

and had several hit singles. The first of these, "

Little Walter Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), known as Little Walter, was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning him ...

" went to #1 on the R&B charts. The next three singles, " Born Not to Know", "Baby Doll" and "For the Love of You" were all Top 10 R&B singles. ''Who?'' was a modest success. It charted for 44 weeks on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

'' Top Pop Albums, peaking at number 69, Billboard.com ''

''. Retrieved on 2011-06-17. and produced four singles, including the R&B hit "

". On December 5, 1989, the album was certified

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

(RIAA), for shipments of 500,000 copies in the United States.RIAA - Recording Industry Association of America

. Retrieved on 2011-06-17. As of August 1993, it has sold over 700,000 copies in the US. Inspired by live instrumentation,

turntablism Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA sys ...

, and classic

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became ...

, Tony! Toni! Toné! recorded and produced their second album, '' The Revival'', mostly themselves and released it in 1990 to commercial success. Released on May 8, 1990, by

Wing Records Wing Records was a record label subsidiary of Mercury Records founded in 1955, that found its greatest success during the late 1950s. In 1986, the label was revived by Mercury's parent company, PolyGram and the label had brief success with R&B si ...

, ''The Revival'' charted for 64 weeks on the ''

'' Top Pop Albums, peaking at number 34 on the chart." The Revival - Tony! Toni! Toné!. ''

''. Retrieved on June 17, 2011. The group's second album '' The Revival'' was released in 1990 and reached

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

status. The album spawned several #1 R&B hits with " It Never Rains (In Southern California)", "

Feels Good "Feels Good" is the title of a number-one R&B single by Tony! Toni! Toné! featuring a rap verse by Mopreme Shakur. The hit song spent two weeks at number one on the U.S. R&B chart. It was also their first top-ten hit on the U.S. ''Billboard'' H ...

", "

The Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narra ...

", and " Whatever You Want" all topping the R&B charts. "Feels Good" was the group's first single to breach the Top 10 of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and went gold. The album's second single "Feels Good" was released on June 19 and certified

on November 13 after it had shipped 500,000 copies.RIAA Gold & Platinum Searchable Database - Tony! Toni! Tone!
.

. Retrieved on June 17, 2011. The single topped the R&B chart for two weeks and reached number nine on the ''Billboard''

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

in the fall of 1990, going on to sell over one million copies. In late 1990, the album's fourth single "It Never Rains (In Southern California)" became a number-one R&B hit and also peaked at number 34 on the Hot 100. ''The Revival'' broadened the group's exposure to fans beyond their initial R&B audience. However, they became ambivalent about their newfound mainstream success and their music being labeled "retro" by critics. In an interview for ''

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

'' magazine, lead singer and bassist Raphael Wiggins expressed his dissatisfaction with the music industry, saying that "every record company wants to get a group and put 'em in a Benz with a car phone and a beeper, show them dressing in three different outfits, put them in a video shot on a beach with lots of swinging bikinis. You won't ever see us on a beach. We're just down-to-earth, funky, like-to-play guys." Before considering a follow-up album, the band recorded several songs for film soundtracks, including "Me and You" for ''

Boyz n the Hood ''Boyz n the Hood'' is a 1991 American coming-of-age hood drama film written and directed by John Singleton in his feature directorial debut. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long, Regina King, and An ...

'' (1991), "House Party (I Don't Know What You Come to Do)" for ''

House Party 2 ''House Party 2'' is a 1991 American comedy film and the sequel to the 1990 film ''House Party'' released by New Line Cinema. The film returns most of the cast of the first film such as Kid 'n Play and Full Force, along with new cast members ...

'' (1991), and "Waiting on You" for '' Poetic Justice'' (1993).

1992–1995: ''Sons of Soul''

Having fulfilled their creative intentions with ''The Revival'', Tony! Toni! Toné! wanted to pay homage to their musical influences with ''Sons of Soul''. In a 1993 interview for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Wiggins elaborated on their direction for the album, stating "We're paying homage to a lot of older artists who paved the way for us artists like

the Temptations The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top ...

Sly and the Family Stone Sly and the Family Stone was an American band from San Francisco. Active from 1966 to 1983, it was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music. Its core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi ...

, Earth, Wind and Fire. They're the people who inspired us when we were growing up, people like

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in '' Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Wit ...

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the hono ...

. We feel we're the sons of everything and all those people who came before us." He also explained the album's title as a declaration of them being descendants of those artists, "not in a grandiose sense, but from the standpoint that we really are the musical offspring of all that's come before us ... paying homage to our past, but creating in a contemporary environment." Tony! Toni! Toné! took a hiatus as a group after the commercial and critical success of ''Sons of Soul''. According to vocalist and bassist Raphael Wiggins, each member had pursued individual music projects, and "the group was trying to figure out where everybody's time, space and head was at." He,

, and Timothy Christian Riley worked on songwriting and production for other recording artists during the band's hiatus, including

D'Angelo Michael Eugene Archer (born February 11, 1974), better known by his stage name D'Angelo (), is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He first garnered attention after co-producing the single "U Will Know" ...

En Vogue En Vogue is an American vocal girl group whose original lineup consisted of singers Terry Ellis, Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron, and Maxine Jones. Formed in Oakland, California, in 1989, En Vogue reached No. 2 on the US Hot 100 with the single ...

, Karyn White,

Tevin Campbell Tevin Jermod Campbell (born November 12, 1976) is an American singer and songwriter. He performed gospel in his local church from an early age. Following an audition for jazz musician Bobbi Humphrey in 1988, Campbell was signed to Warner Bros. R ...

, and

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip

. Raphael Wiggins adopted the surname "Saadiq" for his professional name in 1994—"man of his word" in Arabic—and released his solo single "

Ask of You "Ask of You" is a song by American singer Raphael Saadiq, released as a single from the ''Higher Learning'' soundtrack. It was Saadiq's biggest solo hit, peaking at number 19 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number 2 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' H ...

" in 1995. Their work outside the band led to rumors of a break-up during the time between albums. Tony! Toni! Toné! eventually regrouped and began recording ''House of Music'' in September 1995.

1996–1998: ''House of Music''

In 1996, the group released their final studio album to date, '' House of Music''. The album lacked the strong singles of earlier entries, only getting "Thinking Of You" & "Let's Get Down" into the top 10 on the R&B charts, with "Thinking Of You" hitting #22 on the Hot 100, though it eventually reached platinum status. '' House of Music'' expanded on Tony! Toni! Toné!'s previous traditional R&B-influenced work by emphasizing live instrumentation and ballads. In the opinion of '' Daily Herald'' writer Dan Kening, the album continued the band's mix of contemporary R&B and old-fashioned soul, deeming it "half a tribute to their '60s and '70s soul music roots and half a masterful blend of modern smooth balladeering and danceable funk." Released on November 19, 1996, ''House of Music'' reached number 32 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and spent 31 weeks on the chart. In its first eight weeks, the album sold 318,502 copies in the US. Tony! Toni! Toné! inaugurated its release with a satellite press conference and in-store performance at a small retail outlet in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

. They also embarked on a tour of

historically black college Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

s and Black Independent Coalition record shops after " Let's Get Down" had been sent to R&B and

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

radio on October 28 as the album's

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

; its

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

was released to outlets such as

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

, The Box, and

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

. Tony! Toni! Toné! performed the song on the sketch comedy show ''

All That ''All That'' is an American sketch comedy television series created by Brian Robbins and Mike Tollin. The series originally aired on Nickelodeon from April 16, 1994, to October 22, 2005, lasting ten seasons, and was produced by Tollin/Robbins ...

''; on the music variety program ''

Soul Train ''Soul Train'' is an American musical variety television show. It aired in syndication from October 2, 1971, to March 25, 2006. Across its 35-year history the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip hop artists. The series ...

'', they performed "Let's Get Down" and "Annie May". "Thinking of You" was released as the second single on March 11, 1997, by which time ''House of Music'' had sold 514,000 copies, according to

Nielsen SoundScan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

. On August 6, the album was certified

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

by the

(RIAA). The single "Me & You" appears on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

to the motion picture ''

''. Following the release of '' Sons of Soul'', the group was a part of the R&B supergroup

Black Men United Black Men United (B.M.U.) was a collaboration of many African-American male R&B, neo soul and soul music artists. Their only song "U Will Know", written by a young D'Angelo, was released in 1994. It was featured in the film ''Jason's Lyric'', an ...

, along with

Silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from th ...

and H-Town. The song "U Will Know" appeared on the soundtrack for the movie '' Jason's Lyric''.

Other endeavors

Raphael Saadiq released his first solo effort, the Top 20 ''

'' hit "Ask of You" for the ''

Higher Learning ''Higher Learning'' is a 1995 American drama film written and directed by John Singleton and starring an ensemble cast. The film follows the changing lives of three incoming freshmen at the fictional Columbus University: Malik Williams ( Omar Epp ...

'' soundtrack, in 1995. Around the same time, Saadiq became a much-sought-after R&B producer, scoring hits for

, Total,

The Roots The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...

, and others. Later in the 2000s, he started a solo career, releasing two albums: ''Instant Vintage'' (2002) and ''Ray Ray'' (2004). He was replaced by Amar Khalil in the band. Regarding changing his surname to 'Saadiq' for a solo career, in February 2009 Raphael stated to writer Pete Lewis of

Blues & Soul ''Blues & Soul'' is a British music magazine, established in 1967 by John Abbey. ''The Independent'' has noted ''Blues & Soul'' as being the equal of magazines such as '' NME'' and '' Q''. ''Billboard'' magazine has called ''Blues & Soul'' "a ...

: "I just wanted to have my own identity". Lucy Pearl was an R&B supergroup formed in 1999 as the brainchild of Raphael Saadiq. The other members of Lucy Pearl were Dawn Robinson (

) and

Ali Shaheed Muhammad Ali Shaheed Muhammad (born August 11, 1970) is an American hip hop DJ, record producer, and rapper, best known as a member of A Tribe Called Quest. With Q-Tip and Phife Dawg (and sometimes Jarobi White), the group released five studio albums ...

(

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip

). They released their self-titled debut album in 2000. After two singles, "Dance Tonight" and "Don't Mess with My Man", Dawn Robinson left and was replaced by Joi. The new line-up released the track "Without You". The group split up shortly after, releasing no other material. In 2005,

became the bandleader for the '' Weekends at the D.L.'' television show hosted by comedian D. L. Hughley, which aired on the Comedy Central cable network until 2006. D'wayne Wiggins solo album, ''Eyes Never Lie'', sold approximately 150,000 units.

Reunions

In 2003, members of Tony! Toni! Toné!, except for Saadiq, were invited by

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Col ...

to be guest artists on her album '' The Diary of Alicia Keys''. The song that resulted from that session was called "

Diary A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal ...

." Released as a single in the fall of 2004, it gave them their first Top 10 US hit in eleven years and a nomination for

Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals The Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1970 and 2011. From 1967 to 1969 and in 1971 the award included instrumental performances. The award had several minor name changes: *From 1967 to 1968 th ...

at the

2005 Grammy Awards The 47th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2005, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording of the year beginning from October 1, 2003, through September 30, 2004. They were hosted by Queen Lati ...

Discography

Studio albums * '' Who?'' (1988) * '' The Revival'' (1990) * '' Sons of Soul'' (1993) * '' House of Music'' (1996)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tony! Toni! Tone! African-American musical groups American dance music groups American soul musical groups New jack swing music groups Mercury Records artists Musical groups from Oakland, California Musical groups established in 1988 1988 establishments in California Musical groups from the San Francisco Bay Area Musical groups disestablished in 1997 Sibling musical groups