Genius of Love
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| "Genius of Love" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by Tom Tom Club | ||
| from the album Tom Tom Club | ||
| Released | 1981 | |
| Format | 7" single 12" |
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| Recorded | 1981 | |
| Genre | Pop/Rock-New Wave | |
| Length | 5:34 (7") 7:24 (12") |
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| Label | Island | |
| Writer(s) | Tom Tom Club | |
| Chart positions | ||
"Genius of Love" is a 1981 (see 1981 in music) song by Tom Tom Club from their eponymous debut album, Tom Tom Club.
Contents |
[edit] Song
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 Records's UK, at which point Sire Records made a deal to release the single and the album in North America in late 1981.
With the dreamy, sighing, yet curiously flat and emotionless lead vocals of Tina Weymouth and sister Laura Weymouth, Genius of Love 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.
This song was one of the most sampled rhythm tracks in all of hip-hop with dozens of unsolicited remixes and versions, as GrandMaster Flash & The Furious Five's "It's Nasty/Genius of Love" in 1982 and Mariah Carey's Fantasy in 1995.
Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel's produced the animated music video, which took off from the cartoony style of the Tom Tom Club album cover, was one of MTV's first classics.
The song makes its most notable appearance during the Tom Tom Club's section of the Talking Heads film Stop Making Sense.
The song's narrator implies that her boyfriend is a "maven of funk mutation" and compares him to James Brown, Bob Marley, Smokey Robinson, Hamilton Bohannon, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Sly and Robbie, Kurtis Blow.
[edit] Singles
- Genius of Love / Lorelei (Instrumental) UK, 1981 (7"/12")[1]
- Genius of Love / Lorelei (Instrumental) Netherlands, 1981 (7"/12")[1]
- Genius of Love / Lorelei (Instrumental) Germany, 1981 (7")[1]
- Genius of Love / Lorelei (Instrumental) USA, 1981 (7"/12")[1]
[edit] Charts
| Billboard (1982) | Peak |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[2] | 31 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs[2] | 2 |
[edit] In the media
- The X-Ecutioners covered this song in 2002 in their song "Genius of Love 2002" from their Built from Scratch album.
- The song was sampled by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five for their song "It's Nasty," and by Mariah Carey for her song "Fantasy."
- Played in a 2003 commercial for the Kia Spectra.
