The Toy Box

Retro Spins: Rick Springfield - Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet

I often go back and read prior Retro Spins, only to be mortified by how terribly they were written. Such is the case with my very first Rick Springfield post for his 1981 album, Working Class Dog, and I'm sure that one day I'll do the very same thing with this one.

Australian born Richard Lewis Springthorpe was thirteen when he learned guitar and began joining various bands. Being the child of an army officer saw him travelling the world, living on various bases, and it was in doing so that he met Pete Watson, and joined his group, Rockhouse, which changed its name to MPD Ltd. They would spend the summer of 1969 touring around Vietnam to entertain the troops, and upon returning to Australia, Watson and Springthorpe formed Wickedy Wak with MPD Ltd. alum Danny Finley, and new members, Phil Blackmore, and Dick Howard.

Prior to the end of that year, Richard would take over as lead guitarist for the band Zoot. With him would come the motto, "Think Pink – Think Zoot", which had him and fellow members, Beeb Birtles, Darryl Cotton, and Rick Brewer wearing head to toe pink satin.

Zoot circa 1969

While the change brought about public notice, ushering in a slew of female fans, it came at the loss of the band not being taken seriously as a musical act. Though they would release numerous singles, including the popular hard rock cover of The Beatles Eleanor Rigby, which peaked at number four on Go-Set's Top 40, the band would ultimately break up in 1971.

Sparmac Records would sign him to a solo deal, and in doing so, Springthorpe officially became Rick Springfield. His 1972 debut, Beginnings, would be a solid starting point, peaking at number fifteen in Australia, while also charting in Canada and the USA. It would further become his first of seven top forty albums on the Billboard 200.

Despite this solid start, his success would be hampered by rumors that Capitol Records paid people to purchase Springfield's albums, which led to some radio stations boycotting his music. These rumors were never substantiated, but the impact to his career was negative regardless.

Rick shifted to Columbia Records for his second album and released 1973's Comic Book Heroes. While it wouldn't fare well commercially, a subsequent article in Circus Magazine boosted his popularity among the teeny bopper crowd, putting him in the category with the likes of David Cassidy and Donny Osmond.

By the end of the year, an interesting twist had happened. Springfield found himself staring as himself in the animated series, Mission: Magic. The show would run for sixteen episodes and follow a group of kids who were part of The Adventure Club through a basic premise of solving mysteries, fixing problems, or helping people in need, all alongside Rick himself.

The Australian exclusive album, Mission: Magic, on the label, Wizard, would serve as both his third studio release, and a soundtrack to the series. It's been re-released multiple times since under a slew of different titles, and sometimes not including every track. This was followed by the album, Wait For Night, which provided the top fifty hit, Take A Hand.

In February of 1981, Rick dropped his album, Working Class Dog, and then promptly went to work as Dr. Noah Drake in March on General Hospital. Five months later, Jesse's Girl reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, catapulting him into stardom. This was followed by the Sammy Hagar penned, I've Done Everything For You, which landed at number eight, and in early 1982 by, Love Is Alright Tonight, which reached number twenty. As a whole, the album became his next top forty Billboard 200 hit, and his biggest seller in his career.

Though he clearly had a music career ahead of him, Rick continued to work on General Hospital until 1983. In between this, he released two more albums, 1982's Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet, and 1983's Living In Oz. Before we get to the latter, let's pause at '82.

Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet provided Springfield with his third top forty Billboard 200 album. It further spawned the Billboard Hot 100 hits, Don't Talk To Strangers, What Kind Of Fool Am I, and I Get Excited.

This is a rock and roll album through and through, and with it comes some satisfying tunes, such as Calling All Girls, What Kind Of Fool Am I, and Don't Talk To Strangers. But as a whole, it's enjoyable.

At least I think it was. Truthfully, with how much history I was hammering through, and typing all of the above, my focus was a bit taken away from it. I was a little caught off guard when it ended because I hadn't really noticed how much time had passed, let alone most of the songs.

Regardless, I'm standing by what I said. It was enjoyable, and I'm down with continuing forward to his next album. As noted above, that's 1983's Living In Oz. At the risk of getting too far ahead, and having written so much already, we'll call this one done.

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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.

Retro Spins: Tom Tom Club - Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom

Today is my last Tom Tom Club Retro Spin, and I'm a bit relieved about that. It's not that their music has necessarily been bad. Rather, it's too hit or miss. Songs are either decent, but never really great, but most of the time, they're just hollow, and annoying. This is mainly driven by the co-vocals of the Weymouth sisters, which sound like you're stuck in a car with a group of girls who won't stop singing. If that's your thing, more power to you, but it's not for me.

If you thought the twelve "man" lineup from 1983's Close To The Bone was impressive, 1988's Boom Chi Boom Boom boasts a whopping sixteen, and among them was a guest appearance from Talking Heads bandmate, David Byrne. Tina Weymouth, and Chris Frantz once again lead the charge, but are joined by Mark Roule, Gary Pozner, Laura Weymouth, Wally Badarou, Steve Scales, Jerry Harrison, Eddie Martinez, Jay Berliner, Glenn Rosenstein, Heidi Berg, and Tiny Valentine, with guest appearances by Lou Reed, and as noted, David Byrne.

The album would come on the tail end of the 80's, 1988 or 1989, depending on your country of origin. Your location would also dictate the tracks included, with the USA and Canada versions, released in 1989, being severely edited from the original European and UK releases (1988). Further, those songs which did make the cut were altered from their original order.

Songs, Born for Love, Broken Promises, and Mighty Teardrop, which were originally on the 1988 released albums were removed, with Call of the Wild, Kiss Me When I Get Back, Wa Wa Dance, and I Confess being added in the USA and Canada. In turn, those four were not included on the European and UK releases. Lastly, the Bob Dylan penned, She Belongs To Me, which was on the 1988 release was only included on the CD versions in 1989. That's a lot, and hopefully I wrote it coherently.

Am I looking forward to this one? No, I am not, but as Lando said before diving into the belly of the Death Star II, "Here goes nothing."

Tom Tom Club seems to pull out all the stops on this one. The goofiness is back, the gibberish lyrics, but mixing it all together is a vast variety of sound. Rock, rap, dance, pop, it's all here, and somehow, for the most part, it strangely seems to work.

It does feature some good stuff worth adding to the shuffle list, with Kiss Me When I Get Back being my favorite. However, this was more so for the instrumentation than the vocals. Additionally, I enjoyed Wa Wa Dance, I Confess, Suboceana, Shock The World, and Little Eva. It's worth noting that Subcoceana appears to be the title track for the album, featuring the words, boom boom chi boom boom throughout it.

Beyond that, there's not much more to say. It was decent, and I wouldn't call myself a fan of Tom Tom Club when it's all said and done.

When Talking Heads broke up in 1991, Weymouth and Frantz returned to Tom Tom to record 1992's Dark Sneak Love Action. However, after doing so, they shifted their attention to building a private recording studio, and forming a new band, The Heads. They released No Talking, Just Head in 1996, and were promptly met with a lawsuit by David Byrne. The case would be settled out of court, but this would effectively cut short any future plans for the group.

Four years later, Tom Tom Club released The Good, The Bad, And The Funky (2000), but then shifted to releasing live albums, EP's, and singles, until 2012's Downtown Rockers. Though they remain active, they don't seem focused on releasing any new albums.

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Retro Spins: Tom Tom Club - Close To The Bone

Today, I'm continuing my journey through Tom Tom Club. I left off yesterday reserving my judgement of the band, not sure if their music was genius or gibberish. I'm hoping today to answer that question.

The massive lineup of musicians present on the last album shifted a bit with members departing, but in doing so, all the more joined. 1983's Close To The Bone boasts a whopping twelve bandmates, which include founding members Tina Weymouth, and Chris Frantz, along with Alex Weir, Wally Badarou, Tyrone Downie, Raymond Jones, Rupert Hine, Steve Scales, Lani Weymouth, Laura Weymouth, Steven Stanley, and Roddy Frantz.

Unlike its platinum selling predecessor, the self-titled Tom Tom Club, their second album would not perform as well. Not only did it not receive any sales certifications, but as a whole didn't chart as well.

What's interesting about this particular album is that for the longest time it wasn't available on CD. It was made briefly available in Europe and the UK as a two-disc deluxe release packaged with their debut in 2009 from Island Records. This, however, quickly went out of print, and not being available in the USA made it difficult, and expensive to come by. It was only just recently released in the USA by Rhino Records, July 24, 2026, to be exact, and only as part of a box set which includes the entire discography of Tom Tom Club, entitled Let There Be Love.

Opening track, Pleasure Of Love starts out seems to want to be a sequel to their hit, Genius Of Love. Musically, it sounds almost like the same song, tweaked just enough through the vocals to stand on its own.

Things then shift to a funkier sound, and from there, the album kind of comes into its own, for a bit. On The Line Again clearly serves as the album's intended title track, with its chorus of close to the bone repeated throughout. This is followed by the equally fine tune, This Is A Foxy World. Though it comes later in the album, The Man With The 4-Way Hips stands out for its unique vocal sound effects.

It's when the Weymouth sisters unite their vocals that things stop working for me. It sounds almost like a seance, or a group of high schoolers singing together in a car. It sounds like Bananarama almost, but not in a good way.

Further, while they get away from the gibberish that plagued their debut, once again they put forth very basic lyrics that sound almost childish. This is where things really baffle me because instrumental wise, everyone knows what they're doing. Most of it comes crashing down from the poorly written word things strung together.

Overall, I'm not seeing myself becoming a fan of Tom Tom Club, and truthfully, I'm glad tomorrow's Retro Spin is the last from them. That may sound harsher than intended. It's not like they're Martha And The Muffins terrible, they're just not really resonating as much as I hoped.

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Retro Spins: Tom Tom Club - Tom Tom Club

When Talking Heads bassist Tina Weymouth, and drummer Chris Frantz initially launched the band Tom Tom Club, it was only meant to be a side project. One which served as a creative outlet for the two as they dealt with David Byrne who had taken full creative control of the Heads. However, as their self-titled debut took off in dance clubs, and peaked at number twenty-three on the Billboard 200, it became clear that they were here to stay.

For the adventure Weymouth would bring along sisters Lani, Laura, and Loric, but in addition several other members of the Compass Point All Stars family would join. This included Adrian Belew, Monte Brown, Tyrone Downie, and Uziah Thompson.

Depending on what format you buy will dictate not only the tracks you get, but subsequently the runtime. Using the original vinyl as the definitive version, if you bought the cassette version, the final track, Booming And Zooming would be replaced by a cover of Under The Boardwalk. However, the CD version would include both of these tracks, plus three bonus tracks. However, the bonuses would just be a remix and extended version of already included songs.

Wordy Rappinghood pretty much sums up the 80's. Pure nonsense gibberish, all set to a beat and synthesizer. It was stupidly fantastic in its own way. This is followed by the equally goofy lyrical Genius Of Love. The irony of this is that I never cared for either of these songs, but yet they were the reason I bought the album.

As a whole, the album approaches the music with a very nursery rhyme and childish style. Candidly, it can be annoying at times because it doesn't feel like the band itself is taking things seriously, but rather just goofing off in the studio, yet somehow producing a full record in the process. Of course, you could also go to the opposite spectrum, embrace it, and find pure joyful bliss in the simplicity of pop music.

For me, it's a relative miss. While I got into the first two tracks, as things continued in this manner, it wore thin fast. Sorry, but I need more substance to my music than just goofy sounds and rambling. It's perhaps clear why David Byrne took control of Talking Heads. If he left Weymouth and Frantz to their own devices, their music and legacy may have crumbled fast.

With that harshness stated, I will say that As Above, So Below, Lorelei, and On, On, On, On... were a pretty decent tune, and I admittedly will add Wordy Rappinghood and Genius Of Love to my shuffle. Again, those two are what I bought the album for.

I don't know. I'm on the fence with Tom Tom Club right now. On one hand, I want to say their musical geniuses for taking basic lyrics, gibberish, and solid musicianship to create a unique listening experience. However, on the other, I want to say it's so basic that it's dumb. Maybe it's both, and perhaps it depends on what your own mood is when you play through it. I'll reserve judgement until I hear their follow-up, 1983's Close To The Bone.

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Retro Spins: Talking Heads - True Stories

Today I'm wrapping up Talking Heads with the part soundtrack, part studio album, True Stories. Conceived by David Byrne as a film, which starred not only the band, but a young John Goodman, among other cast members.

Upon its release, the musical film would flop. Though critics would praise its vignettes style storytelling, it simply didn't produce the box office return needed to be a success. Since then, it's become far more popular on home video releases, even reaching cult classic status.

As for the album, it began a rapid decline for the band. While it sold what most would consider reasonably well, reaching gold status, it far underperformed expectations. It did, however, produce their biggest Billboard hit, Wild Wild Life, which peaked at number twenty-five.

Things start out with Love For Sale, which is a decent song, but even at four and a half minutes felt like it was much longer than it needed to be. This is followed by the overly produced Puzzlin' Evidence. It's with the latter that I started to feel like I was listening to a B-52's album, which wasn't necessarily a compliment.

Over production seemed like the name of the game for the entire first side of the record. But more so out in left field was the inclusion of the St. Thomas Aquinas Elementary School Choir on Hey Now. What was happening? Where were the quirky songs that made the band what they were?

When side two comes around, it kicks off with the track I bought the album for, Wild Wild Life. It's probably my favorite from Talking Heads. Things also finally start to finally sound like a Heads record with the hit being followed by Radio Head. Fortunately, things stay relatively in familiar territory from there, and the second side is far superior to the first. In fact, I'll go ahead and call the entire second half good.

With that said, this is definitely not my favorite album from the band. Somewhere along the line, they seem to have lost their way, and as a result the music suffered for it. I don't know if they were trying too hard to be part of mainstream rock, or if internal issues were ripping them apart creatively. Whatever it was, for sure there was a steady decline.

As I noted yesterday, when Talking Heads released their critically acclaimed concert video, Stop Making Sense, fans of the band had no reason to suspect that 1984 would be the last year they'd tour together. Though they remained intact, and released 1985's Little Creatures, 1986's True Stories, and 1988's Naked, rifts had long since grown between members.

This all began as early as 1978, when Brynes essentially took creative control of the band, alienated Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison, and then began bringing in other musicians between 1983 and 1984. Things got so bad that Weymouth and Frantz would launch their own band, Tom Tom Club as a creative outlet, while Harrison explored his own solo career.

By 1991, Byrne announced he was leaving the band in an interview with The Times, leaving his bandmates to find out via reading about it. There was no discussion, no follow-up, leaving the members furious with him. Byrne would then sue the three when he learned they were touring as The Heads in the mid-90's. This would be the final nail in the coffin between them all, and they wouldn't reunite or play together again until their 2022 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Watching the induction is a little tough because you can clearly see the rift between Bryne and his prior bandmates. They seemingly stand away from him as he gives his speech, and when they're all giving their own, he's off in the distance by himself. Honestly, I'm surprised that they played together that night.

Though it's been stated they have since reconciled their personal issues with each other and even appeared together again in 2023 for a brief interview. However, they've ruled out any future reunions or tours. But, as Sean Connery said, never say never.

As for me, having already listened to 1988's Naked, I'm off to find something "new" to listen to.

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Retro Spins: Talking Heads - Little Creatures

For as many waves as Talking Heads made in the 80's, it's interesting to see that they didn't have many hits peak on the Billboard Hot 100, only eight in total between 1978 and 1986. Further, none cracked the top twenty. Their biggest hit, Wild Wild Life, only peaked at number twenty-five, with their "worst", Psycho Killer, only landing at ninety-two. That was unexpected to learn.

As noted yesterday, I already listened to their 1983 released Speaking In Tongues, as such, today I'm jumping into 1985's Little Creatures. Additionally, I also covered that broad spectrum of their history in my listening session of 1988's Naked. However, there's a little to touch on before we dive in.

In 1984, Talking Heads recorded what critics would call the greatest concert video of all time, Stop Making Sense. As it opens, David Byrne steps onto an empty stage with a cassette tape player, and acoustic guitar. He announces he wants to play a tape for the audience, and pressing play, the mixing board begins a drumbeat. Byrne then begins to strum his guitar and sing Psycho Killer.

As he finishes, Tina Weymouth walks out on stage with him, and they perform Heaven. As they strum their last notes, an excited Chris Frantz jumps onto the stage, taking his seat at the drums. With three members playing, they perform Thank You For Sending Me An Angel.

Jerry Harrison then joins them, and together they perform Found A Job. Percussionist, Steve Scales, and backing vocalists Lynn Mabry, and Ednah Holt then step out from each side of the stage, and the song Slippery People is played. Last up are Alex Weir, and Bernie Worrell appear, and with everyone finally on stage together, the concert takes off with Burning Down The House.

Riding this success, Little Creatures would go on to become Talking Heads biggest selling album of all time. This was aided by the band fully embracing the MTV generation, and releasing several music videos, all of which featured their signature quirkiness.

Playing through it, it doesn't resonate with me as much as 1980's Remain In The Light, but it definitely gets immediate points for starting with the hit, And She Was. It's the tune I bought the album for, and if nothing else, I was happy to have gotten that from it.

Fortunately, that wasn't all. Though it was all new territory for me from there, I also enjoyed the songs, Lady Don't Mind, Perfect World, Stay Up Late, Walk It Down, and Television Man.

What I noticed right out of the starting gate was the immediately shift in style. While their 1980 album was more funky art rock, Little Creatures was embracing full a pop rock, and perhaps even radio friendly mainstream style. Mind you, I didn't hate it one bit, but it definitely caught me off guard on the heels of its predecessor.

Overall, I'm appreciating the band far more than I expected, especially in hindsight of my initial reviews of Naked and Speaking In Tongues. As I said in yesterday's post, I may need to give those two another shot.

For now though, I'm moving right along. My next stop is 1986's True Stories, which will be my last album from them. Until then, I hope you enjoyed not only this write up, but the plethora of music videos from both this album, and their prior. Like I said, they really embraced the MTV age, and there are a lot of them.

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Christmas Catalogs - Sears Wish Book 1976

Hey! You want to spend the next two years looking at the fantastic Christmas catalogs produced by Sears, JCPenny, and Montgomery Ward? Cause I do! Yeah, I said two years, cause that's a lot of catalogs! Join me on most Monday's each month as I post up one of those fabulous books starting with 1970, and ending with 1989.

Look through every page, feeling every bit of nostalgia. Chuckle at the look and style of the wardrobes those zanny past decade people wore. Gawk at the toys you used to have, but long since parted ways with. Bring back all those memories of hours spent laying on the floor, combing every inch as your young mind pined over everything you wanted. Reminisce over the Christmas that followed as you unwrapped those lucky few that you got.

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