Tom Tom Club is an American new wave band founded in 1981 by husband-and-wife team

Chris Frantz Charton Christopher Frantz (born May 8, 1951) is an American musician and record producer. He is the drummer for both Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, both of which he co-founded with wife and Talking Heads bassist, Tina Weymouth. In 2002, Frant ...

and

Tina Weymouth Martina Michèle Weymouth ( ; born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and a founding member and bassist of the new wave group Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club, which she co-founded with her husband, ...

as a side project from

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads

. Their best known songs include the UK top 10 hit " Wordy Rappinghood" and the US top 40 hit " Genius of Love", both from their 1981 debut album, and a cover of

The Drifters The Drifters are an American pop and R&B/soul vocal group. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, formed in 1959 and ...

' "

Under the Boardwalk "Under the Boardwalk" is a pop song written by Kenny Young and Arthur Resnick and recorded by The Drifters in 1964. It charted at number four on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart on August 22, 1964. The song has since been covered by many othe ...

" that reached the UK top 30.

History

Formation and debut

Originally established as a side project from

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads

, Tom Tom Club comprised a loose aggregation of musicians, sound engineers, and artists of the

Compass Point All Stars Compass Point Studios was a music recording studio in the Bahamas, founded in 1977 by Chris Blackwell, the owner of Island Records. The concept of the studio was of a recording facility supported by in-house sets of artists, musicians, producers ...

family, including Tina Weymouth's sisters and guitarist

Adrian Belew Robert Steven "Adrian" Belew (born December 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, he is noted for his unusual approach to the instrument, his ...

, the latter of whom toured with Weymouth and Frantz in the expanded version of Talking Heads in 1980 and 1981. Named after the dancehall in

the Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

where they rehearsed for the first time while on hiatus from Talking Heads in 1980, Tom Tom Club enjoyed early success in the dance club culture of the early 1980s with the hits " Genius of Love" and " Wordy Rappinghood", both of which were taken from their self-titled first album released on

Sire Sire is an archaic respectful form of address to reigning kings in Europe. In French and other languages it is less archaic and relatively more current. In Belgium, the king is addressed as "Sire..." in both Dutch and French. The words "sire" an ...

and

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

in the United States and

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

elsewhere in 1981. Despite being dismissed by Talking Heads frontman

David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...

for its more commercial direction, the album was a moderate success, peaking at No. 23 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and certified gold by the

RIAA 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/o ...

. "Genius of Love" has been sampled or reinterpreted by many artists, including

L'Trimm L'Trimm was a Miami bass hip-hop duo composed of Bunny D and Lady Tigra. Originally from Coconut Grove, Florida (origin neighborhood of the City of Miami), they recorded three albums for Atlantic Records: '' Grab It!'' in 1988 (which is certi ...

, Redman,

Funkdoobiest Funkdoobiest was an American hip hop group from Los Angeles, California, composed of rappers Jason "Son Doobie" Vasquez, Tyrone "Tomahawk Funk" Pacheco and DJ Ralph "Tha Phunky Mexican" Medrano. They were of Soul Assassins. The group has relea ...

Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers were a Jamaican-American reggae family group whose line-up consisted of the children of musicians, Bob Marley and Rita Marley, which includes lead singer Ziggy Marley with Sharon Marley, Cedella Marley, and S ...

in "Tumblin' Down", the 12" Remix, and

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey ( ; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Songbird Supreme" by ''Guinness World Records'', Carey is known for her five-octave voc ...

in her hit single "

Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

" as well as Mark Morrison in " Return of the Mack". "It's Nasty" (1982) by

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were an American hip hop music, hip hop group formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1978. The group's members were Grandmaster Flash, Kidd Creole (not to be confused with Kid Creole), Keef Cowboy, ...

was one of the early

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

versions of the song; however, it was re-recorded by a live band, as interpolation and not sampling (using the actual original recording) was the more common practice at the time. Another version, "Genius Rap" (1981), by Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, was the first cover version.

Max B Charley Wingate (born May 21, 1978), better known by his stage name Max B (short for Max Biggaveli), is an American rapper and singer. He is best known for his solo ''Public Domain'' and ''Million Dollar Baby'' series of mixtapes, and introduc ...

also sampled "Genius of Love" in his single "Get Outta Jail". Early British pressings of the first Tom Tom Club album featured shorter versions of "Genius of Love" and "Wordy Rappinghood", but to capitalize on the club success of these songs, Island Records reissued the album with the full 12-inch versions in 1982. A new single, a cover version of

' "

", which was the group's second and final UK Top 40 hit, replaced another song "Booming and Zooming". The US version did not contain these modifications until the album was released on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

in the 1990s. "Genius of Love" was featured in the 1984 Talking Heads concert film '' Stop Making Sense'' (filmed in December 1983). Frantz and Weymouth were credited as Tom Tom Club, but in this case the band was simply Talking Heads minus Byrne.

''Close to the Bone''

The following year, the group released a follow-up, '' Close to the Bone'', which was similar in style to their first album but did not fare as well, though " The Man with the Four Way Hips" was a minor hit on urban radio in the United States. The album was released on cassette and vinyl and was not released on CD until May 2009, as part of a Deluxe Edition package of Tom Tom Club's first album. The original British vinyl album was released in six different colors. One of the album's singles, "Pleasure of Love", was sampled in "Turning You On", by the

Treacherous Three The Treacherous Three was a pioneering American hip hop group that was formed in 1978 and consisted of DJ Easy Lee, Kool Moe Dee, L.A. Sunshine, Special K and Spoonie Gee (who left in the late 1970s), with occasional contributions from DJ D ...

. As it happened with "It's Nasty", the sample was re-recorded by a live band rather than just taken from the original recording.

''Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom'' and ''Dark Sneak Love Action''

There was then a four-year gap until the band's next album, the first version of '' Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom'', released in 1988. By this stage, the band's non-US deal with Island had expired and the album was released outside the United States on

Fontana Fontana may refer to: Places Italy *Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone *Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone * Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino *Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi ...

/ PolyGram. On the album, the group adapted a more conventional rock style with a harder edged sound and a hint of menace in the lyrics of some songs. The group's line-up was also solidified along more conventional commercial lines. Whereas the previous two albums had been recorded by a loose collective of a dozen musicians, the band was now reduced to the trio of Weymouth, Frantz, and Weymouth's sister Laura Weymouth. Members Bruce Martin and Victoria Clamp were part of the recording of this album and there were a number of prominent guest musicians on the record, including

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

and Talking Heads' front man

on a cover of Reed's "

Femme Fatale A ( , ; ), sometimes called a maneater, Mata Hari, or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and Seduction, seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype ...

". The fourth member of Talking Heads,

Jerry Harrison Jeremiah Griffin Harrison (born February 21, 1949) is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and entrepreneur. He began his professional music career as a member of the band the Modern Lovers, before becoming keyboardist and guitarist for ...

, also featured on some tracks. As with ''Close to the Bone'', the album was not a commercial success although "Suboceana" received some radio play, mainly in the UK, and the single "Don't Say No" made the UK Singles Chart (Tom Tom Club's fifth, and to date final, single to do so). The album was the first Tom Tom Club album to be issued on CD and the Japanese CD version featured an added bonus track, the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

"Devil, Does Your Dog Bite?", which was also featured on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

to the film ''

Married to the Mob ''Married to the Mob'' is a 1988 American crime romantic comedy film directed by Jonathan Demme, written by Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns, and starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell, Mercedes Ruehl, and Alec Baldwin. P ...

''. "Suboceana" and "Don't Say No" were also remixed for dance clubs in Deep House and Acid House styles respectively by

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

pioneer Marshall Jefferson in 1988. The following year, in a bid to recapture the attention of the US market, the group and Sire Records decided to issue a radically altered version of the album in the United States. The US version of ''Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom'' replaced four songs with four others, one of which, "I Confess", was a total overhaul of the original album's "Mighty Teardrop". The running order of the rest of the album was shuffled while the artwork was revamped. However, the changes had little effect on the album's US commercial success. In 1991, Frantz and Weymouth built the Clubhouse, a painting and music studio, over their garage near Gamecock Island, Connecticut. In 1992, they released the fourth Tom Tom Club album, '' Dark Sneak Love Action'', which included a cover of

Hot Chocolate Hot Chocolate are a British soul band formed by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson. The group had at least one hit song every year on the UK Singles Chart from 1970 to 1984. Their hits include " You Sexy Thing", a UK number two which also made ...

's "

You Sexy Thing "You Sexy Thing" is a song by British soul band Hot Chocolate. It was written by lead singer Errol Brown and bass guitarist Tony Wilson and was produced by Mickie Most. The song was released in October 1975 as the second single from their seco ...

". The album focused on the burgeoning

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

music scene. A single, "Sunshine and Ecstasy", featured remixes by

Roger Sanchez Roger Sanchez (born June 1, 1967) is an American house DJ, remixer and producer. He won a Grammy Award for his remix of "Hella Good" by No Doubt in 2003, and is best known for his song " Another Chance", which was an international hit in 2001. ...

''The Good, the Bad, and the Funky'' and present activities

The group's next album, '' The Good, the Bad, and the Funky'', was released in 2000 and featured

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of

Donna Summer Donna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music ...

's " Love to Love You Baby" and

Lee "Scratch" Perry Lee "Scratch" Perry (born Rainford Hugh Perry; 20 March 1936 – 29 August 2021) was a Jamaican record producer, songwriter and singer noted for his innovative studio techniques and production style. Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development ...

's "Soul Fire". One of the album's tracks, "Who Feelin' It", was also featured in remixed form in the soundtrack album of the 2000 film ''

American Psycho ''American Psycho'' is a black comedy horror novel by American writer Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. The story is told in the First-person narrative, first-person by Patrick Bateman, a wealthy, narcissistic, and vain Manhattan investmen ...

''. Among the musicians on ''The Good, the Bad, and the Funky'' are Jamaican singer Mystic Bowie, Charles Pettigrew and

Toots Hibbert Frederick Nathaniel "Toots" Hibbert, (8 December 1942 – 11 September 2020) was a Jamaican singer and songwriter who was the lead vocalist for the reggae and ska band Toots and the Maytals. A reggae pioneer, he performed for six decades and ...

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. The album's release was followed by one European and several American tours. Tom Tom Club also recorded a cover of Phish's "Sand" for a benefit CD, helping them bring in a new, jamband audience. In 2002, Frantz and Weymouth, along with their former Talking Heads bandmates, were inducted into the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...

. A complete live concert was released in 2003 on the double CD ''Live @ the Clubhouse'', recorded at Tom Tom Club's regular hide-out studio, the Clubhouse in Connecticut, in front of an audience of fifty guests. Since then, Tom Tom Club has done incidental live shows. In 2007, the band released a special Christmas single called "Mistletunes", containing two specially recorded Christmas songs: " Il est né" and "Christmas in the Club", which featured Mystic Bowie and scratcher/ turntableist Kid Ginseng (Weymouth and Frantz's son, Robin). The single was released by Dutch indie label La La Land Records, which was founded by the former Tom Tom Club merchandise crew. In 2009, a deluxe expanded edition of the band's first album was released, with ''Close to the Bone'' added on disc 2. That marked the first time the latter was ever released on CD in its entirety. On September 28, 2010, the band released ''Genius of Live'' on

Nacional Records Nacional Records is an independent record label founded in 2005, based in Los Angeles. Nacional is home to Rock, Hip Hop, Electronic, Musica Mexicana, Pop and other diverse sounds from around the world and sometimes down the block. After 20 years ...

. The album featured tracks from the album ''Live @ the Clubhouse'' as well as remix tributes of "Genius of Love" by such artists as Ozomatli,

Nortec Collective Nortec Collective was a musical ensemble formed by various individual one- or two-man production projects. The group came together in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Their genre mixes electronic music with musical elements and instrumentation o ...

, Kinky, Mexican Institute of Sound,

Money Mark Mark Ramos Nishita (born February 10, 1960), known professionally as Money Mark, is an American producer and musician, best known for his collaborations with the Beastie Boys from 1992 until 2011. Early life Born in Detroit to a Japanese-Hawai ...

and

The Pinker Tones The Pinker Tones is an alternative pop band from Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. They have released six albums. Songs like "Sampleame" and "The Whistling Song" are some of their greatest hits with many of them being included in the FIFA associations ...

. Their first studio material in twelve years, ''Downtown Rockers'', was released in 2012 on Nacional Records and featured guitarist Pablo Martin and keyboard player Bruce Martin.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

* 2003: ''Live @ the Clubhouse'' * 2010-09-28: ''Genius of Live''

Singles

References

External links

*
Tom Tom Club collection
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

's live music archive * * * {{Authority control American dance-rock musical groups American new wave musical groups Fontana Records artists Island Records artists Musical groups established in 1981 Rykodisc artists Sire Records artists Talking Heads PolyGram artists Nacional Records artists Reprise Records artists Warner Records artists American alternative rock groups College rock musical groups Mixed-gender bands