Tin Tin (band)
Encyclopedia
Tin Tin was a pop
/rock
band
formed in the UK in 1966, by expatriate Australia
n musicians.
, who named the band after the popular belgian cartoon The Adventures of Tintin
. Through a friendship with Maurice Gibb
of the Bee Gees
, who would later produce both of their singles and both of their albums, the duo was signed to a one-album contract with music producer Robert Stigwood
's organization. Maurice produced their 1969
debut album and played on about half the tracks, which bore a marked resemblance to the tight harmonies of the Bee Gees.
", with lead vocals by Kipner was belatedly released a single in the spring of 1971
, hitting #20 on the Billboard Hot 100
. The song featured just eight lines of nursery rhyme
-like lyrics repeated over distorted piano
and synthesizer
backing. The song gradually builds in intensity adding acoustic guitar
, bass guitar
, drums
, a string orchestra
, and finally brass instrument
s, and is now Tin Tin's best-remembered song.
American tour. Further releases sold poorly and the duo broke up shortly afterward. Toast, while seldom played on oldies
radio
today, is regarded by some critics as one of the finest and most ambitious singles by a one hit wonder, and a late psychedelic
classic.
In 1973, Tin Tin unleashed a hard rock power pop single, "Talking Turkey" which completely bombed in the UK and US (issued on Polydor in both countries) telling a fictional story of International spy intrigue.
After Tin Tin disbanded in 1973, Kipner went on to write and produce songs for Chicago
("Hard Habit to Break
"), Olivia Newton-John
("Physical
" and "Twist of Fate
"), Christina Aguilera
, 98 Degrees
and Dream.
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
/rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
formed in the UK in 1966, by expatriate Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n musicians.
Beginning
The band was formed by Steve Groves and Steve KipnerSteve Kipner
Steve Kipner is a multi-platinum-selling songwriter and record producer with hits spanning over a 40 year history, including chart-topping songs such as Olivia Newton-John's "Physical", Chicago's Grammy-nominated "Hard Habit to Break", "Genie In A Bottle" by Christina Aguilera, for which he won an...
, who named the band after the popular belgian cartoon The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
. Through a friendship with Maurice Gibb
Maurice Gibb
Maurice Ernest Gibb, CBE was a musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He was born on the Isle of Man, the twin brother of Robin Gibb, and younger brother to Barry. He is best known as a member of the singing/songwriting trio the Bee Gees, formed with his brothers...
of the Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
, who would later produce both of their singles and both of their albums, the duo was signed to a one-album contract with music producer Robert Stigwood
Robert Stigwood
Robert Stigwood is an impresario and entertainment entrepreneur who relocated to England in 1954...
's organization. Maurice produced their 1969
1969 in music
-Events:Perhaps the two most famous musical events of 1969 were concerts. At a Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California, a fan was stabbed to death by Hells Angels, a biker gang that had been hired to provide security for the event...
debut album and played on about half the tracks, which bore a marked resemblance to the tight harmonies of the Bee Gees.
Toast and Marmalade
The LP sold poorly until the dreamy ballad "Toast and Marmalade for TeaToast and Marmalade for Tea
Toast and Marmalade for Tea is a song written by Australian musician Steve Groves. It was a Top 20 U.S. hit for Groves's group Tin Tin in 1971.1970: TIN TIN - Toast And Marmalade For Tea b/w Manhattan Woman The song's distinct distorted piano melody was discovered accidentally when an engineer...
", with lead vocals by Kipner was belatedly released a single in the spring of 1971
1971 in music
-Events:*February 1 – after months of feuding in the press, Ginger Baker and Elvin Jones hold a "drum battle" at The Lyceum.*February 8 – Bob Dylan's hour-long documentary film, Eat the Document, is premièred at New York's Academy of Music...
, hitting #20 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. The song featured just eight lines of nursery rhyme
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
-like lyrics repeated over distorted piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
backing. The song gradually builds in intensity adding acoustic guitar
Steel-string acoustic guitar
A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...
, bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, a string orchestra
String orchestra
A string orchestra is an orchestra composed solely or primarily of instruments from the string family. These instruments are the violin, the viola, the cello, the double bass , the piano, the harp, and sometimes percussion...
, and finally brass instrument
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
s, and is now Tin Tin's best-remembered song.
After Tea
After the single's unexpected success, Tin Tin toured with the Bee Gees on their 19721972 in music
-Events:*January 17 – Highway 51 South in Memphis, Tennessee is renamed "Elvis Presley Boulevard"*January 20 – The début of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at The Dome, Brighton, is halted by technical difficulties,...
American tour. Further releases sold poorly and the duo broke up shortly afterward. Toast, while seldom played on oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
today, is regarded by some critics as one of the finest and most ambitious singles by a one hit wonder, and a late psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
classic.
In 1973, Tin Tin unleashed a hard rock power pop single, "Talking Turkey" which completely bombed in the UK and US (issued on Polydor in both countries) telling a fictional story of International spy intrigue.
After Tin Tin disbanded in 1973, Kipner went on to write and produce songs for Chicago
Chicago (band)
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...
("Hard Habit to Break
Hard Habit to Break
"Hard Habit to Break" is a song written by Steve Kipner and John Lewis Parks produced and arranged by David Foster and recorded by the group Chicago for their 1984 album Chicago 17, with Bill Champlin and Peter Cetera sharing lead vocals. Released as the second single from the album, it reached...
"), Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
("Physical
Physical (Olivia Newton-John song)
"Physical" is a song by Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, released in September 1981. The song was an immediate success, shipping 2 million copies in the United States, being certified Platinum, and spending 10 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, ultimately becoming Newton-John's...
" and "Twist of Fate
Twist of Fate (Olivia Newton-John song)
"Twist of Fate" is an early-1984 hit from Olivia Newton-John that headed the soundtrack for the film, Two of a Kind, starring Newton-John and John Travolta. It was written by Peter Beckett & Stephen Kipner and produced by David Foster for the film. It reached number four in Australia and Canada,...
"), Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
, 98 Degrees
98 Degrees
98 Degrees is an American adult contemporary boy band consisting of four vocalists: brothers Nick and Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre, and Jeff Timmons. The group was formed by Timmons in Los Angeles, California....
and Dream.
Members
- Steve KipnerSteve KipnerSteve Kipner is a multi-platinum-selling songwriter and record producer with hits spanning over a 40 year history, including chart-topping songs such as Olivia Newton-John's "Physical", Chicago's Grammy-nominated "Hard Habit to Break", "Genie In A Bottle" by Christina Aguilera, for which he won an...
(keyboardKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
s, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
) - Steve Groves (guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, percussion, vocals) - Johnny Vallins (bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, guitar, vocals) - Geoff Bridgford (drumDrumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s)
Singles
- "Toast and Marmalade for Tea" (#20, 1970)
- "Shana" (1971)
- "Is That the Way" (1971)
- "Talking Turkey" (1973)