"Wordy Rappinghood" is the debut single by American new wave band

Tom Tom Club 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. Their best known songs include "Wordy Rappinghood", "Genius of Love", and a cover of T ...

, from their 1981 self-titled debut album. It uses part of a traditional Moroccan children's song and game, "

A Ram Sam Sam "A Ram Sam Sam (A rum sum sum)" is a popular Moroccan children's song and game, that gained popularity around the world, other variants were used like "Aram" instead of "A Ram" and "Zam Zam" instead of "Sam Sam". Lyrics, movements and meaning ...

", made popular by the 1971

Rolf Harris Rolf Harris (born 30 March 1930) is an Australian entertainer whose career has encompassed work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality. He often used unusual instruments in his performan ...

recording. In the United States, the song topped the ''Billboard'' Disco Top 80 chart along with "

Genius of Love "Genius of Love" is a 1981 hit song by Tom Tom Club from their 1981 eponymous debut album. It reached number one on the '' Billboard'' Disco Top 80 chart. Background "Genius of Love" is Tom Tom Club's second single. Although the album had not ...

Structure, instrumentation and production

The song opens with the sound of a

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

and features jarring

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

chords and a distinctive

drum break In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece. A break is usually interpolated between sections of a song, to ...

. The words of the fifth verse are spoken in French: "Mots pressés, mots sensés, mots qui disent la vérité, mots maudits, mots mentis, mots qui manquent le fruit d'esprit" which translate as: "hurried words, sensible words, words that tell the truth, cursed words, lying words, words that lack the fruit of the mind."

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, Tal ...

and

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 ...

of Tom Tom Club had bought a house in

Nassau, Bahamas Nassau ( ) is the capital and largest city of the Bahamas. With a population of 274,400 as of 2016, or just over 70% of the entire population of the Bahamas, Nassau is commonly defined as a primate city, dwarfing all other towns in the country. ...

, next door to

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell (born 22 June 1937) is an English businessman and former record producer, and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll ...

, owner of

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

, and it was Blackwell who arranged the recording in his

Compass Point Studios Compass Point Studios was a music recording studio in the The Bahamas, 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, musici ...

. Frantz and Weymouth brought in

Steven Stanley Steven J. C. Stanley (born July 11, 1958), is a Jamaican audio engineer, record producer and keyboardist who has worked in the reggae, dub and rock music genres since 1975, most notably with Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and Black Uhuru. Stanle ...

, a 21-year-old keyboard player who had been the sound engineer on

Ian Dury Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 27 March 2000) was a British singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Ian Dury and the Blockheads an ...

's album ''

Lord Upminster ''Lord Upminster'' is the second solo studio album by the English rock and roll singer-songwriter Ian Dury. It was released by Polydor Records in September 1981. It was recorded over a period of one month at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, B ...

'', and bass player Monte Browne, a former member of

T-Connection T-Connection was a funk and disco group from Nassau, the Bahamas, who scored two hits on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 between 1977 and 1979. They did better on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where they had five Top 10 hits, including "D ...

Track listings

*US 12" single :A. "Wordy Rappinghood" (Special 12" Version) – 6:39 :B. "Spooks" – 6:28 *European 7" single :A. "Wordy Rappinghood" – 3:50 :B. "Wordy Rappinghood" (You Don't Ever Stop) – 4:05 *European 12" single :A. "Wordy Rappinghood" (Remix) – 6:42 :B. "Elephant" – 5:11

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chicks on Speed version

"Wordy Rappinghood" was covered by German

electroclash Electroclash (also known as synthcore, retro-electro, tech-pop, nouveau disco, and the new new wave) is a genre of music that fuses 1980s electro, new wave and synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) ...

group

Chicks on Speed Chicks on Speed is a feminist music and fine art ensemble, formed in Munich in 1997, after members Australian Alex Murray-Leslie and American Melissa Logan met at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Though Chicks on Speed reached cult status th ...

and released as the second single from their album '' 99 Cents'' in 2003. Their version featured guest vocals by other female musicians such as

Miss Kittin Caroline Hervé (born 1973), known professionally as Miss Kittin, is a French electronic music producer, DJ, singer, and songwriter. Since rising to prominence in 1998 for her singles " 1982" and "Frank Sinatra" with The Hacker, she has worked ...

Kevin Blechdom Kevin Blechdom (born Kristin Grace Erickson; 1978 in Florida) is an American experimental electronic musician and performance artist. She is based in Santa Cruz, California. Early life and education Kristin Grace Erickson was born in 1978 in Fl ...

Le Tigre Le Tigre (, ; French for "The Tiger") is an American electronic rock band formed by Kathleen Hanna (of Bikini Kill), Johanna Fateman and Sadie Benning in 1998 in New York City. Benning left in 2000 and was replaced by JD Samson for the rest ...

Adult. Adult (stylized as ADULT.) is an American band from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1998 by married couple Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller. The band integrates vocals with drum machines, analog synthesizers and electronic/ punk elements.Copela ...

Nicola Kuperus Nicola Kuperus is an American musician and artist. She is a member of the band ADULT. with her husband Adam Lee Miller (formerly of Le Car). ADULT. owns and manages Ersatz Audio, a record label based out of Detroit, Michigan. In 2003 she sang on ...

, and Tom Tom Club founding member

. This cover was sampled in the song "Really Rappin' Something" by

the Kleptones The Kleptones are a one-man English electronic music act fronted by music producer and DJ Eric Kleptone. They are best known for their Internet-exclusive mashup albums. Typically, Eric Kleptone mixes rock/R&B instrumentals with rap and hip-hop ...

from the album '' From Detroit to J.A.'' in 2005. In 2007, the Playgroup remix of Chicks on Speed's version appeared on the compilation album ''

FabricLive.33 ''FabricLive.33'' is a DJ mix compilation album by Spank Rock, as part of the FabricLive Mix Series. Track listing # Intro # Kurtis Blow – The Breaks – ''Universal'' # CSS – Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above (Spank Rock R ...

'' by

Spank Rock Naeem Juwan, better known by his stage name Spank Rock, is an American rapper and songwriter from Baltimore. He rose to fame with his 2006 album ''YoYoYoYoYo'', which was produced by former group member Alex Epton (XXXChange). A harbinger of po ...

''.

Critical reception

Christopher Lloyd of ''

Drowned in Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''D ...

'' described the song as an "ultra-catchy seven minute dancefloor killer".

Track listings

*European CD maxi single #"Wordy Rappinghood" (Radio Edit) – 4:20 #"Wordy Rappinghood" (The Playgroup Remix) – 5:23 #"Wordy Rappinghood" ( Dave Clarke's Non Techno Mix) – 3:37 #"Wordy Rappinghood" (The Playgroup Instrumental Mix) – 5:24 #"Wordy Rappinghood" (music video) *German 12" single :A1. "Wordy Rappinghood" (Album Mix) – 6:26 :A2. "Wordy Rappinghood" (Acapella Version) – 4:10 :B1. "Wordy Rappinghood" (The Playgroup Remix) – 5:23 :B2. "Wordy Rappinghood" (Dave Clarke's Non Techno Mix) – 3:37

Charts

Uffie version

French-American electronic artist

Uffie Anna-Catherine Hartley (born December 9, 1987), known professionally as Uffie (), is an American-French singer, songwriter, rapper, DJ, and fashion designer formerly signed to French electronic music record label Ed Banger Records. Uffie's music ...

covered the song in 2011. The single, produced by labelmate

DJ Mehdi Mehdi Favéris-Essadi (20 January 1977 – 13 September 2011), better known by his stage name DJ Mehdi, was a French hip hop and house music producer and DJ. He was signed to the label Ed Banger Records, founded by his friend Pedro Winter, in ...

, was released on April 18, 2011, through

Ed Banger Records Ed Banger Records (sometimes referred to as Ed Rec) is a French electronic music record label founded by Pedro Winter in 2003 as a division of Headbangers Entertainment. It focuses on house music, particularly French house, as well as alternati ...

Because Music Because Music is an independent record label with headquarters in Paris and London. Because Music SAS is the main label, with Because Music Ltd handling the British artist roster. Because Music was founded in 2005 by former president of Virgin F ...

and

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the 1 ...

. Her version was used in a global

Evian Evian ( , ; , stylized as evian) is a French company that bottles and commercialises mineral water from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. It produces over 2 billion plastic bottles per year. Today, Evia ...

ad campaign.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1981 songs 1981 debut singles 2003 singles 2011 singles Tom Tom Club songs Because Music singles Elektra Records singles Funk songs Island Records singles PolyGram singles Sire Records singles Songs about hip hop Songs about language Songs written by Chris Frantz Songs written by Steven Stanley Songs written by Tina Weymouth Uffie songs Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles Warner Records singles Songs based on children's songs

Structure, instrumentation and production

Track listings

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chicks on Speed version

Critical reception

Track listings

Charts

Uffie version

See also

References

External links