Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Written or sung by Tom/Dick/Harry or including one of these names in the lyrics.”

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Although she was responsible for writing the bassline and intended to play it on record, Genius of Love co-writer and lead singer, Tina Weymouth, had to wake up the assistant engineer – he was asleep under the console – when her right arm seized up in a terrible cramp during the abbreviated 1981 recording session. “Chris (Frantz) was mad, but I really couldn’t play; my hand wouldn’t even close. So we did what we had to do. These things happen.”

Genius of Love became a commercial success and reached number one on the Billboard Disco Top 80 chart, number two on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard), and number thirty-one on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The lyrics and video imply that the singer is in jail although why she’s imprisoned is not explained. The singer tells her fellow inmates about her boyfriend whom she describes as the “genius of love”.

FUN FACTS

• • Genius of Love was the first song I danced to with my late husband, Dennis.
  • The lyrics pay tribute to many notable African-American musicians and singers, including George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Smokey Robinson, Bob Marley, Sly and Robbie, Kurtis Blow, Hamilton Bohannon, and James Brown.
  •  In May 2016, a version of the song by Tinashe was used in a television advertising campaign for Target Corporation.
  •  Frank Zappa, in an interview with MTV, mentioned that the music video was his favorite at the time, due to it being “animated and clever.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.