httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN1t5qdBUzs

Tom Tom Club, “Genius of Love” (single rather than extended club mix)

Today is Tina Weymouth‘s birthday (born 1950).  Tina is known primarily as the bassist for Talking Heads from the time of its inception in the early 70s until its slow demise in the early 90s.  But with her side project, The Tom Tom Club, she had a monster hit in 1981 with “Genius of Love.”  This was the early days both of video and of rap as an emerging mainstream genre.  The video remains charming (like most videos associated with anyone from Talking Heads, it is quite precocious), and the song, as unlikely as that may seem, was one the most sampled tracks by rap artists throughout the 80s and 90s.  It still occasionally re-emerges from time to time.

A real treat for Talking Heads fans after the jump.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDtFTysmExg

Talking Heads performing “Psycho Killer” live at CBGB in 1975, two years before their first breakout album, Talking Heads ’77.