american soul r b group tony tony tony sometimes referred to as the tonys
composed of dwayne patrice wiggins his brother charles ray wiggins also known as raphael
and their cousin timothy christian riley was born and bred in the bay oakland california to be exact
both dwayne and raphael sang lead vocals and played guitar and bass respectively timothy
the more low-key of the trio shined on drums and keyboards surprisingly no one in the group
is actually named tony dwayne was the one to come up with the group's name that really started off
as a joke he used to sport a particular style of dress and hairdo courtesy of the curly cat
the teachers at school took notice and began referring to him as the sophisticated italian man
he looked like giving him the moniker of tony then one day when the guys were at a wedding
reception about to perform the mc asked them what their name was so he could properly introduce them
they didn't have one so they just said tony tony tony and it's stuck dwayne first
picked up a guitar at the age of 10 and together with his family sang wrote songs
and developed his love of music throughout his childhood they were officially on their way when
they signed their first deal with wing records a subsidiary of mercury records in the late 80s
their debut album titled who was released in 1988 and produced several hits the biggest of them
all was their debut single little walter which shot all the way to number one on the r b chart
born not to know baby doll and for the love of you also captured top 10 spots on the same chart
their follow up the revival came two years later the album created even bigger hits with the blues
it never rains in southern california and whatever you want however it was the
single called feels good that finally gave the group their first top 10 hit on the hot 100.
before considering a follow-up album the band recorded several songs for film soundtracks
including me and you for coming of age hood drama film boys in the hood house party i don't know
what you come to do for comedy film house party 2 and waiting on you for romantic drama film
poetic justice after the release of their third album 1993's son of soul the group decided to
take a break and pursued individual projects all three worked on songwriting and production for
other recording artists during the band's hiatus including r b stars d'angelo and vogue karen white
tevin campbell and hip-hop group a tribe called quest also around this time raphael adopted
the surname siddique meaning man of his word in arabic he says he did it to be his own individual
and separate himself from his brother since people were constantly getting them confused for one
another he also released his first solo single ask of you it made it into the top 20 on the hot 100
and appeared on the 1995 soundtrack for the drama film higher learning tony tony tony reunited and
released their last studio album today house of music in 1996. only two singles were released
thinking of you and let's get down but they both did well on the r b chart making it into the top
five in 2003 tony tony tony minus rafael served as guest artist on alicia key's second album
the diary of alicia keys on the single diary the song gave the group their first top 10 hit in over
a decade and a grammy nomination dwayne would be the first of the trio to drop a solo album
his titled eyes never lie was released in 2000 raphael became a much sought-after r b producer
and decided to focus more of his time scoring hits for other artists dwayne and timothy then decided
to keep the tonys going by introducing childhood friend singer songwriter musician amar khalil as
the new lead singer of tony tony tony in 1998. raphael's voice though wouldn't stay quiet for
long he along with don robinson of r b group and vogue and ali shaheed muhammad of hip-hop group a
tribe called quest came together in 1999 to form the super group lucy pearl they released their
self title debut album the following year and had instant success with the singles dance tonight
and don't mess with my man the former track also earned them a grammy nomination then dawn abruptly
left she was ultimately replaced by another r b singer by the name of joy the new lineup
released a couple of songs that went nowhere lucy pearl was then no more raphael went on to release
five solo albums of his own between 2002 and 2019. after meeting actress writer and producer issa rae
he got the opportunity to be the music composer on the popular hbo show she co-created co-wrote and
stars in insecure in 2017 2019 would be a year that provided some very eye-opening information
for fans of tony tony tony that summer raphael sat down with new york's power
105.1 radio morning show the breakfast club and revealed that he never wanted to leave the group
the real reason was because of other issues like money and other people's behavior like the record
executives that pushed him in that direction one exec in particular thought he could easily
replace raphael and gave lead singer from fellow r b group mint condition stokely williams a call
to offer him the job he didn't go for it around the same time he also sat down with sway calloway
on his serious xm show sway in the morning and made a surprise announcement
that he would be getting back together with dwayne and tim to make a new tony tony tony
album in november the three original members were supposed to come together for the first time
in 15 years to perform at the kblx bay area reunion concert unfortunately the concert ended
up being cancelled but the group did show evidence of their rehearsal time on social media by far
the most eventful moment of them all happened when a documentary titled loyalty no royalty
the breakup of tony tony tony was released the story is told and produced by the other three
original members of the group yes tony tony tony was originally a six-member group not three
the other three former members of the band revealed a lot of juicy shocking
and heartbreaking tidbits of how the group came to be and the real reason they got pushed out
duane who was older and out of school was doing his own thing in one part of town while raphael
was in another part since they had different mothers one day he decided that he wanted to
put a group together so he brother raphael cousins tim elijah baker and antron hale
plus childhood friend carl wheeler came together as the original incarnation of tony tony tony
things were moving along nicely until it was time to record their debut album first names of the
people that should have been given songwriting credit were noticeably absent then it became
obvious that carl and tron and elijah weren't getting the money they should have when dwayne tim
and raphael were able to purchase homes and cars and they couldn't it was the beginning of the end
the next thing elijah and antra knew they were fired believing that if the main three could
do their own family members like that there's no telling what was about to come his way so
carl up and left too childhood friend and guitar player john jubu smith would come into the picture
to pick up the slack in 1990 right around the time when the group was completing their second album
apparently fences were mended or at least mended enough by 96 with elijah and carl as they rejoined
the band to put out tony tony tony's fourth and final album house of music the six of them
including jubu surprisingly all appeared on the album cover something that was never done
before not long after the release of the album though the hammer would come down next on rafael
according to the other band members dwayne and tim got rid of him and invited amar khalil to
take his place he would serve as the lead singer for the group for the next 20 years
his reign would come to an abrupt end though after a show on new year's eve 2018. tensions were high
during the show itself which wasn't a surprise to aimar because he'd already felt the buildup
prior he sent out a carefully worded email to the group members and management about how he
wanted to go about things moving forward the reply he received was an electronic pink slip
raphael's last solo project his fifth studio album titled jimmy lee was released in 2019 it's named
after and inspired in part by his brother who died of a heroin overdose today music isn't the only
thing rafael has going on he's also the co-founder of video game developer company illfonic
and is currently working on a new ghostbuster game to coincide with the release of the next
installment of the supernatural comedy franchise producers of the documentary loyalty no royalty
now have a lawsuit pending against the remaining members for fraud and theft of advance and royalty
money earned before they're firing only time will tell if they'll be able to recoup what they
feel has been owed to them for the last 30 years that album that raphael said they wanted to do a
couple of years ago didn't happen but that hasn't stopped the tony tony tony train from moving along
the current lineup consists of seoul original member dwayne wiggins plus dyson tate riley
and frank stickhams they've continued to perform regularly and bring fans all the hits they know
and love throughout 2021 thanks for watching please like share and comment also don't forget
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