Considering its release date of September 1981, Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love" came to my attention at about the same time that I had really gotten into music in general. Its New Wave nature with some slow funk and those hushed vocals have left an impression that has stayed with me all these decades, as well as its music video that will remain one of the trippiest that I've ever seen, especially with that hyper pup. If I'm not mistaken, I first caught it on an episode of CITY-TV's "The New Music", the local music show that often presented some of the more cutting-edge videos of the day.
I would later find out that Tom Tom Club was a side project of Talking Heads with guitarist and singer Tina Weymouth and her husband, fellow Talking Head Chris Frantz, at the front. "Genius of Love" was the second single from their debut album "Tom Tom Club". Although I did catch some of the names dropped in the song such as James Brown, I also later realized that the song was a love letter of sorts to other Black artists including Smokey Robinson and Hamilton Bohannon. I don't think I ever heard "Genius of Love" on the radio but much later on, part of the song was used for Mariah Carey's hit "Fantasy". On US Billboard's Top 100, the original single peaked at No. 31.
What was being released in Japan in September 1981?
Tsukasa Ito -- Shojo Ningyo（少女人形）
Toshihiko Tahara -- Kanashimi 2 (TOO) Young （悲しみ２「ＴＯＯ」ヤング）
Kenji Sawada -- Stripper （ス・ト・リ・ッ・パ・ー）
