90's Artist of the week- Tony! Toni! Tone!

Three words. Spelled three different ways. All with the same meaning. In the 90s there was a shift away from the live instrumentalist in popular R&B music. Gone were the sounds of the session musicians found in so much of the music from the previous decade. With a few exceptions live bands started to fade from the landscape of urban radio. Three young men from Oakland, CA stood as one of the last examples of the sound and cohesion of live musicianship.

Family members Raphael Saadiq (Charles Ray Wiggins), Dwayne Wiggins and Timothy Christian Riley formed the group Tony! Toni! Tone! in 1988 and were almost immediately successful.  Featuring a funky groove line reminiscent of classic Blues and Southern R&B mixed with a healthy dose of Hip-Hop sensibilities they arrived with a sound that resonated with audiences.  From their first album Who? straight through their last studio release 1996's House of Music, The Tony's charted an astonishing 18 of 19 officially released singles. With hit singles like It Never Rains (In Southern California), Little Walter, Anniversary, (Lay Your Head on My) Pillow, Feels Good, Let's Get Down, and numerous others the group had its hands all over the 90's R&B scene.  

Check out this week's 90's Artist of The Week