Tom Tom Club Explain the Success of 'Genius of Love'

TomTomClub.net

When Nacional Records head Tomas Cookman approached his friends in Tom Tom Club about reissuing their 2002 concert album 'Live @ the Clubhouse,' he suggested they package the record with remixes of their 1981 single 'Genius of Love,' one of the most sampled songs of the hip-hop era.

"We were expecting maybe one or two, but we got 11, and we liked them all," Chris Frantz, drummer for Tom Tom Club -- and before that, Talking Heads -- tells Spinner. "Some of them are just amazing."

A testament to Tom Tom Club's genre-blurring sound -- a dub-hip-hop-disco-rock fusion Frantz and his wife, bassist Tina Weymouth, have cultivated over the course of five studio albums and nearly three decades -- the 'Genius Remixes' disc features contributions from a wide range of artists. The collection bolsters 'Genius of Live,' which was reissued on Sept. 28.

"There are many favorites, but I think the one I would say the one that really captures us most of all is the one by Money Mark," Franz says, praising the work of the frequent Beastie Boys collaborator. "So we decided to put that one first."

"With all due respect to Money Mark, the others are also great," he adds. "Ozomatli, I love. I love the first one we got, which was by DJ Bitman, kind of a reggae-style one. I love Senor Coconut. I love the Pinker Tones. I don't think anybody got paid to do these. They did these just because they really like the song. That song was enormously influential in Latin America, as well as the American hip-hop world."

Asked why 'Genius of Love' was and is such a universally loved track, Weymouth says it's just "one of those things."

"It's a mystery what makes a song a hit, what makes it memorable," she says. "Other people could probably tell you why for them. For me, it was always just that I loved the pacing of the rhythm. It's really great to dance to. I love what it's all about. But also the parts of it: It just sounds so simple and light and full of air, but it's actually a really wonderful composition, musically. I shouldn't say that myself."