Song of the Week – Genius of Love, Tom Tom Club

Ignored            Obscured             Restored

I was watching TV and saw this HomeGoods commercial:

If you’re over 50 years old, you probably recognize the music as “Genius of Love” by Tom Tom Club, the Talking Heads offshoot featuring Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz.  I would guess Esquire magazine’s, Bria McNeal is not over 50. In an article titled “The 45 Best Songs of 2022,” she wrote about Big Energy’s song “Latto”:

Latto dominated the charts this year with “Big Energy,” a song that can carry you from your late night TikTok scroll all the way to the club. The track samples Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy,” and reimagines it for a new era of bad b*tches. Her braggadocious lyrics combined with the track’s tantalizing melody make it an undeniable hit. 

So, what’s my problem?  It’s that she doesn’t seem to know that the Mariah Carey song also samples “Genius of Love.”  That is an inexcusable omission in my book.  She should have said something like “The track uses the same sample of Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” that was the foundation for Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy.”

In the arts, it is important to give credit where credit is due!

Check ‘em out:

Enjoy… until next week.