Burning Sensations was a short-lived Los Angeles area rock band. The group is best known for its MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 hit "Belly of the Whale", the music for which blends a rather unique fusion of rock and calypso styles, and for covering the Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Michael Richman is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970 he founded The Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key, generally acoustic backing...

 song "Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso (song)

"Pablo Picasso" is a song written by Jonathan Richman for the proto punk group The Modern Lovers. The song was recorded in 1972 at Whitney Studios in Los Angeles, and produced by John Cale, but was not released until 1976, on the Modern Lovers' self-titled debut album...

", which was included in both the 1984 film and soundtrack of director Alex Cox

Alex Cox

Alexander Cox is a British film director, screenwriter, nonfiction author and sometime actor, notable for his idiosyncratic style and approach to scripts...

's Repo Man starring Harry Dean Stanton

Harry Dean Stanton

Harry Dean Stanton is an American actor, musician, and singer. Stanton's career has spanned over fifty years, which has seen him star in such films as Paris, Texas, Kelly's Heroes, Dillinger, Alien, Repo Man, The Last Temptation of Christ, Wild at Heart, The Green Mile and The Pledge...

 and Emilio Estevez

Emilio Estevez

Emilio Estevez is an American actor, film director, and writer. He started his career as an actor and is well-known for being a member of the acting Brat Pack of the 1980s, starring in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire...

.

History

Burning Sensations formed in 1982 and disbanded in 1987. The founder and leader of Burning Sensations, Tim McGovern, was previously a member of The Motels

The Motels

The Motels are a New Wave music band from the Los Angeles area best known for "Only the Lonely" and "Suddenly Last Summer", each of which peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982 and 1983, respectively. Their song "Total Control" reached #4 on the Australian charts in 1980...

. He is currently fronting the classic rock band Knucklehead in the Pacific Northwest.

Members

Burning Sensations included:

• Tim McGovern - lead vocals, guitar synthesizers
• Rob Rio Hasik - bass, guitar, synthesizer
• Barry "The Hatchet" Wisdom - Drums
• Morley Bartnof - keyboards, backing vocals
• Jeff Hollie - saxophones, backing vocals
• Michael Temple - hand-drums-timbales, percussion

Discography

• Belly of the Whale EP (1982)
• Burning Sensations LP (1983) – Capitol/EMI Records, produced by Tim McGovern and David Jerden
  • "Not Cloudy All Day"
  • "Beat Temptation"
  • "Belly of the Whale"
  • "Maria (You Just Don't Know What You're Dealing With)"
  • "Sea Shanty"
  • "Is This What You Mean?"
  • "Down on the Corner"
  • "I Don't Live Today" (Writer: Jimi Hendrix
    Jimi Hendrix
    James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
    
    )
  • "Afrobilly (Live It Up)"
  • "Envy"
• Repo Man Soundtrack (1984)