I was a fan of Tom Tom Club back in the early 80's. Their big hits were 'Wordy Rappinghood' and 'Genius of Love.' Those songs were very revolutionary.

I never knew anything about this group. I never even knew what they looked like. Looking at their album covers, I understand why. They never appeared on they cover of them.


I did some surfing and found some interesting facts.
http://www.tomtomclub.com/history.html



Talking Heads 1974 - 1981
The Tom Tom Club was created by Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth in 1981. Graduates from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1974, they moved to New York City where they founded Talking Heads as a trio with David Byrne in 1975. Chris played drums, Tina played bass and David sang and played guitar. In November of 1976 they signed to Sire Records and released their first singles. In 1977 they were joined by Jerry Harrison (of the original Modern Lovers) from Boston. Jerry played guitar and keyboards. It was in early 1981, after five years of touring internationally and four studio albums they wrote and recorded with Talking Heads--Talking Heads: 77 (1977); More Songs About Buildings And Food (1978); Fear Of Music (1979); and Remain In Light (1980)--that Chris and Tina were encouraged by Jerry and David, who had each left the group to make solo albums, to do likewise. So they signed with Island Records, then owned by industry legend Chris Blackwell, one of the first people to fully appreciate the value of a great rhythm section in and of itself. In March 1981 they flew down to Compass Point Studios, Bahamas, to record.

Tom Tom Club March + August 1981
When legendary reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry failed to show up for the scheduled recording sessions, Blackwell allowed Chris and Tina to produce the album themselves with Jamaican engineer Steven Stanley, just 23, at the controls. First they laid down the basic tracks of drums, bass, keyboards and guitar. Then they asked a young Bahamian, Monte Brown, to play guitar on "Wordy Rappinghood" and "Genius of Love." In the studio next door, Chris Blackwell was producing Grace Jones making her classic Nightclubbing album that featured an array of great musicians. So when overdubbing hand claps to "Genius of Love," Chris and Tina thought it would be fun to invite Jamaica's famous "Riddem Twins" of drums and bass, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, to clap with them. Ezikiah "Sticky" Thompson added his percussion magic to "Lorelei" and Tyrone Downie added piano to "L'Elephant." Then, Adrian Belew, who had played with Talking Heads on tour, joined Chris and Tina on vacation to play guitar on several songs. Tina's "Sweetbreath" sisters, Lani and Laura Weymouth, who'd previously contributed their voices to Talking Heads' "Air," flew from New York to harmonize with her. Tina's brother, Loric, sent words of inspiration from overseas for "Booming and Zooming." When asked to describe the eclectic hybrid of music, Chris and Tina thought to call the funky blend "fresh" and "freestyle." On the spot, those tags became part of the dance and hip-hop nomenclature of the day.

Words! What are words worth? May 1981
The Tom Tom Club's first fresh single was "Wordy Rappinghood." Released in spring 1981, "Wordy Rappinghood" was an unusually original mix of schoolyard rap over a funky groove that went into the top of the charts in seventeen countries. Never released as a single in North America, the originality of the song was at first deemed a novelty by entrenched older critics of the time. However, like Blondie's song "Rapture" from the same period, "Wordy Rappinghood" turned out to be seminal in bringing mainstream attention to the new spirit of hip-hop. Today "Wordy Rappinghood" remains a classic with djs and collectors the world over. Recently covered by international electroclash artists Chicks On Speed, this song continues to make friends and influence people in all the right places.

With a hippity hop and a hippity low 1981-1982
Tom Tom Club's second single was the remarkable "Genius of Love." Although the album had not been released in North America, over a hundred thousand copies of the single sold as imports from Island UK, at which point Sire made a deal to release the single and the album in North America in late 1981. Bubbling up from the underground with dozens of unsolicited remixes and versions--most notably, GrandMaster Flash & The Furious Five's "It's Nasty/Genius of Love" in 1982--this song was a huge hit all around, in the clubs and on the R&B and dance charts, soon earning the Tom Tom Club LP (Island and Sire) a Gold Sales Award in 1982.

There's no beginning and there is no end . . .
Like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, "Genius of Love" has a monster hit life all its own. It was unexpectedly sampled again in 1988 in a Hank Shocklee remix of "Tomorrow People," the single from Conscious Party (Virgin) by Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers. The sample took "Tomorrow People" to No. 1 and earned Conscious Party a Platinum Sales Award as well as a Grammy. This was the first time a reggae artist had sold a million records. Conscious Party was also Chris and Tina's first production of an artist outside of their own bands, Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads.

Time isn't present in that dimension . . .
In 1995 Mariah Carey also hit No. 1 with "Fantasy," her version of "Genius of Love." The "Fantasy" remix featured Ol' Dirty Bastard rapping over the original instrumental track. "Genius of Love" continues to be frequently sampled by various artists, including Tupac Shakur and Puff Daddy's roster of Bad Boy MCs and remix artists. More recently Chris and Tina recut it as "Genius of Love 2001" to replace the original multitrack master (unfortunately lost by their label) so that its individual parts could be sampled and scratched by New York City turntable crew The X-ecutioners for their album Built From Scratch (Loud Records).

Here is a partial list of songs sampling Tom Tom Club songs and the artists who sampled them:

Genius of Love:
2PAC & the Outlawz's "High Speed"
Almighty RSO's "Badd Boyz"
Ant Banks's "Roll Em Phat"
Ant Capone's "Murder Loc"
AtLaw's "Dose of the Mega Flex"
B Legit's "So International"
Black Eyed Peas' "Who Needs"
Boogie Monster's "Bronx Bombas"
Boogie Monster's "I Like It"
Busta Rhymes's remix for Erykah Badu's "One"
Cam'ron ft Kenny Greene's "Me, My Moms & Jimmy"
Da Blac Hole Of Watts' "Putting Watts On The Map"
Dr. Jeckyll's "Genius Rap"
Dream Warriors' "And Now the Legacy Begins"
Funkdoobiest's "Natural Fun" (aka "I'm Gonna Have Some Fun")
Funky Town Pros' "Genius Is Back"
GrandMaster Flash & the Furious Five's "It's Nasty/Genius of Love"
GrandMaster Flash & the Furious Five's "We Will Rock You"
Hardeman's "All Around The World"
Mack 10, featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard & Buck Shot Shorty, "For the Money"
Mariah Carey's "Fantasy"
Mark Morrison's "Return of the Mack"
Mase w/DJ Clue's "That's The Way"
Mellow Man Ace's "Linda"
Menajahtwa's "I Ain't Nasti"
Mike Gold's "Don't Stop"
Mz. Kilo's "Skills For Real"
NAS's remix for Jaheim's "Just In Case"
Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Fantasy" remix
Poppa Charm & Mr. Ku's "What Cha Gonna Do?"
Redman's "Brick City Mashin' "
RHKingpen's "A Shade of Red"
Rich Little's "President's Rap"
Second II None's "N----z Trippin' "
Smooth's Mr. Lee remixes "Mind Blowin' "
South Central Cartel's "How The West Coast Rocks"
Steve Hardeman's "All Around the World"
Speech's "Jungle Man"
Tha 9 & Co.'s "Life Is Crazy"
Threat's "Give it Up"
Tomboy's "Can I Shake It"
Too Short, E-40, Richie Rich & James A's "Let's Get The Money"
W.C. & The Maad Circle's "Curb Serving"
Wild Pony's "Poppin' In The Club"
XClan's "In the Ways Of Saal"
X-ecutioners "Genius of Love 2001"
Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers' Hank Shocklee Remix "Tomorrow People"
[Edited 1/9/05 8:47am]
[Edited 1/9/05 8:48am]
[Edited 1/9/05 8:49am]

he he..i used to LOVE the tom tom club!

I can actually remember people I knew back in the day insisting that Tom Tom Club sampled Grand Master Flash...

There is one correction that needs to be made to the data you found. The song that used "Genius of Love" was Ziggy Marley's "Tumblin' Down" remix, not "Tomorrow People" (an easy mistake -- both original versions were on the same album). I remember this because I loved that remix when it came out.

tom tom club rocks! i'm a big fan, and i wish they'd put out something new soon.

what cha gonna do when you get outta jail?

i'm gonna have some fun!

i bought this album back in july and i am very impressed with it.

I remember my journalism teacher in high school would bump the Tom Tom Club album. He used to play "Wordy Rappinghood" all the time. It was funny watching him jam to it.

I asked to borrow the CD, and I never returned it. It's still in my music collection. I want to return it to him, but he no longer teaches at that high school.

You can get it on CD?

I love that whole album!

CinisterCee said:

It was available at one point in time. I picked up a copy in the mid 90s. Not sure if it's still in print though. It had a few extra remixes on it too.

Tom said:

how fitting that "Tom" posts on this thread

my laughing mod-friend, there's no beginning and there is no end