Growing
up as an Air Force brat exposed Tommy Heath, best known as 80s
pop-rocker, Tommy Tutone, to a smorgasbord of musical
influences. From his grade school days in Texas listening to
Buddy Holly and Elvis, to high school in Montana when surf and
folk music held his attention, on to his early college days in
Japan when he was caught in the tidal wave of Beatle-mania that
hit that country with a vengeance.
Emerging into American culture shoulder-to-shoulder with MTV
back in 1982, Tommy Tutones hit single,"867-5309 (Jenny)"
launched his band on a speed-of-sound trajectory to a permanent
place in pop history. Yet the mega-hit also left the somewhat
shy, soft-spoken performer with the label of
"one-hit-wonder", an unfortunate marker for an artist
whose catalog of songs reflects a diversity and rich texture
that takes the listener far beyond the simple pop rhythms of
Jenny.
Getting his other work, which just as effectively captures the
cache of the times as Jenny, before an audience has always been
a priority for Heath but the crowd usually bests him with chants
of "Jenny-Jenny" half-way through the set.
"I'm always happy to play Jenny for a crowd but I make sure
they get a full dose of my other music both new and classic
first ", Heath related.
The 1998 release of tutone.rtf (Rich Text
Files) on the new San Francisco-based indie label, Secret Disc,
went a long way in re-educating die-hard fans and enlightening a
new generation of listeners with tracks such as "The
Grifter's Prayer", about a desperate guy praying for
one big lucky financial windfall, "Happy
Birthday Anyway", "The
World Ain't Flat", and a sequel
"Jenny's Calling".
With three albums of work from the 80s, a European-released pop
meets R&B album entitled Nervous Love in the mid-90s,
and immortality status from any number of New Wave compilations,
Tommy has never stopped writing, recording and performing. Thus,
the tag "come back" doesn't really resonate with this
artist whose phone number song served as the soundtrack to the
lives of millions over a decade and a half ago.
"Its not so much a come-back", says Tommy,
"Lets say I'm resurfacing."
Growing
up as an Air Force brat exposed Tommy Heath, best known as 80s
pop-rocker, Tommy Tutone, to a smorgasbord of musical
influences. From his grade school days in Texas listening to
Buddy Holly and Elvis, to high school in Montana when surf and
folk music held his attention, on to his early college days in
Japan when he was caught in the tidal wave of Beatle-mania that
hit that country with a vengeance.
