Tom Tom Club
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Tom Tom Club | |
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Charles Pettigrew Wally Badarou | |
Website | tomtomclub |
Tom Tom Club is an American new wave band founded in 1981 by husband-and-wife team Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth and as a side project from Talking Heads.[3] 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' "Under the Boardwalk" that reached the UK top 30.
History
Formation and debut
Originally established as a side project from
"Genius of Love" has been sampled or reinterpreted by many artists, including L'Trimm, Redman, Funkdoobiest, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers in "Tumblin' Down", the 12" Remix, and Mariah Carey in her hit single "Fantasy" as well as Mark Morrison in "Return of the Mack". "It's Nasty" (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was one of the early hip-hop 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 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 The Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk", 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 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,
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
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.
The Good, the Bad, and the Funky and present activities
The group's next album,
In 2002, Frantz and Weymouth, along with their former Talking Heads bandmates, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 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. 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, Kinky, Mexican Institute of Sound, Money Mark and The Pinker Tones.
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.[9][10]
Discography
Studio albums
Year | Album | Chart positions | Certifications | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [11] |
US R&B [11] |
AUS [12] |
CAN [13] |
NZ [14] |
SWE [15] |
UK [16] | |||
1981 | Tom Tom Club | 23 | — | 51 | — | 18 | 32 | 78 | |
1983 | Close to the Bone
|
73 | 49 | — | 96 | 31 | 42 | — | |
1988 | Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom
|
114 | — | — | 60 | — | — | — | |
1992 | Dark Sneak Love Action
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
2000 | The Good, the Bad, and the Funky
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
2012 | Downtown Rockers
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. |
Live albums
- 2003: Live @ the Clubhouse
- 2010-09-28: Genius of Live
Singles
Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [11] |
US Dance
[11] |
AUS [12] |
AUT [18] |
BEL [19] |
FRA
[20] |
ITA [21] |
NL
[22] |
NZ [14] |
||||
1981 | "Wordy Rappinghood" | 102 | 1 | 44 | — | 1 | 9 | 18 | 2 | 35 | 7 | Tom Tom Club |
"Genius of Love" | 31 | — | — | 26 | — | — | — | 28 | 65 | |||
1982 | "Under the Boardwalk" | — | 31 | — | 6 | 3 | — | 42 | 9 | 3 | 22 | |
1983 | " The Man with the Four Way Hips "
|
106 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 82 | Close to the Bone |
"Pleasure of Love" | — | 23 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
1988 | "Don't Say No" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 79 | Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom |
"Suboceana" | — | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
1989 | "Call of the Wild" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
1992 | "Sunshine and Ecstasy" | — | 9 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Dark Sneak Love Action |
"You Sexy Thing" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
2000 | "Love to Love You Baby" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | The Good, the Bad, and the Funky |
"Happiness Can't Buy Money" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
2007 | "Mistletunes" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. |
See also
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
References
- ^ "Forgotten Classic: Tom Tom Club 'Tom Tom Club'". Classical Albums Sunday. March 15, 2019. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
If Talking Heads was the antidote to conceptually dull rock 'n roll, Tom Tom Club was the remedy to its art school preoccupation. Formed in 1981 by husband and wife duo, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, the rhythm-section splinter group sought a more honest and explicit connection to their funk and r&b roots.
- ^ a b Paul, Alan (July 31, 2020). "Chris Frantz on the Rise and Fall of Talking Heads". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ "Timeline | Biography - Official web site of the Tom Tom Club". Archived from the original on February 22, 2013.
- ^ ISBN 1-85227-969-9.
- ^ Greene, Andy (July 6, 2020). "Talking Heads Drummer Chris Frantz on His New Memoir and the Last Time He Saw David Byrne". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
- ^ Farber, Jim (July 21, 2020). "Chris Frantz: 'If you knew David Byrne, you would not be jealous of him'". The Guardian. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
- ISBN 0-89820-166-7.
- ^ "The Core: Tom Tom Club". Relix.com. October 25, 2010. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
- ^ Jasminoy, Fernando (2 December 2014). Música: Un argentino en Harlem: Pablo Martín, guitarrista de Tom Tom Club [Music: An Argentine in Harlem: Pablo Martín, guitarist of Tom Tom Club] (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 5 January 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
Desde 2011, el guitarrista de Tom Tom Club, la banda alternativa de Chris Frantz y Tina Weymuth, baterista y bajista de los Talking Heads, es Pablo Martín, un músico e ingeniero de sonido argentino que vive en Harlem, Nueva York.
[Since 2011, the guitarist of Tom Tom Club, the alternative band of Chris Frantz and Tina Weymuth, drummer and bassist of the Talking Heads, is Pablo Martín, an Argentine musician and sound engineer who lives in Harlem, New York.]{{cite book}}
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ignored (help) - ^ "News | WATCH: New Tom Tom Club EP". The Quietus. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
- ^ a b c d "Tom Tom Club > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums". AllMusic. Archived from the original on September 4, 2012. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
- ^ ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ "Results - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". RPM. Retrieved June 23, 2015. (See issue October 01 1983 for Close to the Bone and May 22, 1989 for Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom.)
- ^ a b "Discography Tom Tom Club". Charts.nz. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
- ^ "Discography Tom Tom Club". Swedishcharts.com. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
- ^ a b "Official Charts Company - Tom Tom Club". Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
- ^ "American certifications – Tom Tom Club". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
- ^ "Discographie Tom Tom Club - austriancharts.at". Austriancharts.at (in German). Retrieved June 23, 2015.
- ^ "ultratop.be - Discografie Tom Tom Club". Ultratop.be (in Dutch). Retrieved June 23, 2015.
- ^ "InfoDisc: Tout les Titres par Artiste". Infodisc.fr (in French). Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
- ^ "Hit Parade Italia - Indice per Interprete: T". Hitparadeitalia.it (in Italian). Retrieved June 23, 2015.
- ^ "Discografie Tom Tom Club - dutchcharts.nl". Dutchcharts.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved June 23, 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-904994-10-7.
External links
- Official website
- Tom Tom Club collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
- Tom Tom Club at AllMusic
- Tom Tom Club discography at Discogs
- Tom Tom Club discography at MusicBrainz