Toni Basil “S/T” & “Word of Mouth” albums with tracks written by Allee Willis

Submitted by denny April 11th, 2010
Certifikitsch Winner

Self titled lp by Toni Basil with several songs written by Allee Willis. Track listing is as follows: Over My Head, I Don’t Hear You, Easy For You To Say, Suspense, Go For The Burn (written by Allee Willis), Space Walkin The Dog, Street Beat (written by Allee Willis), Do You Wanna Dance, Best Performance (written by Allee Willis).

The following album has only one track written by Allee Willis and that track is “Shoppin’ A to Z”.

12 Responses to “Toni Basil “S/T” & “Word of Mouth” albums with tracks written by Allee Willis”

  1. Allee Willis

    Toni Basil, one of my best friends for years and years coming up in the music business, is one of the most severely underrated artists ever. Most people know her for her 1981 hit, “Mickey”, where she brought cheerleading smack dab into the center of pop culture. I even used to judge cheerleading competitions with her in the parking lot of Tower Records on Sunset Blvd. But Toni was also the first choreographer to popularize mixing different styles of dance when she did a ballet/ street dance version of “Swan Lake” on Saturday Night Live in 1976. Her dance group, The Lockers, started Locking and Popping. She’s choreographed institutional performers known for their signature moves like Mick Jagger, Tina Turner and Bette Midler, whose Las Vegas show she choreographs to this day.

    I always loved and still love “Street Beat”. Toni and I along with our third co-writer, Bruce Roberts, went to Locke high school in LA to record live marching band drum patterns which we used as the basis of the drum tracks on the record. This was many many years before Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk”. Toni’s video of this is completely brilliant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXPu19VpKwM.

    Denny, I’m surprised you haven’t tracked down “Shoppin’ From A-Z” yet. I’m even in the video. Verrry long hair and green pants. There’s a very very low resolution ratty copy on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx5GbvQXJHI V

  2. denny

    I ALWAYS thought this woman’s work was underrated. There were albums I carried around with me back in the day and these were in the pile. Funny, I have been on a mission to educate myself “on all things Allee” and am floored who you are associated with. I mean really….”Walked through the doors, give the box boy a smile, grabbed a silver buggy and I boogied down the aisle”…..I love Toni B. Does she post kitsch at all?

    • Allee Willis

      Toni doesn’t collect kitsch per se but has beyond excellent taste and leans toward it whether she collects it or not.

  3. Nessa

    Oh wow, no kidding Allee, you’re behind ‘Shoppin’ From A-Z?’ I had no idea. I have a wacky semi-Japanese version of that song on a CD from an artist named Shinohara Tomoe…

    I definitely want to shop at whatever store you’re all at in that video. My shopping trips are usually a lot less interesting.

    • Allee Willis

      I never even heard of the Shinohara Tomoe version of Shoppin’. Will have to track it down! I’ve often said that the songwriter is the last to know…

      We shot the video in an abandoned Ralphs supermarket on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. It had just closed and they left the inventory in the store for us to shoot. Within 24 hours of us finishing the place was a shell.

      • Nessa

        Oh gosh, I had two copies of the CD but I just sent the extra to my friend about 3 weeks ago! I definitely would give it to you if I still had it. The album is called Megaphone Speaks and it comes up on Ebay pretty frequently.

  4. denny

    It’s been years since viewing this video! omg. We used to dance in friends basements to this.

  7. denny

    I actually punched in the name and used my judgement as to what was what…