Tony Sales
Encyclopedia
|
Tony Fox Sales is an American rock
musician
. A bass guitar
ist, Sales and his brother, Hunt Sales
, played with Todd Rundgren
, Iggy Pop
and Tin Machine
with David Bowie
.
comedian
Soupy Sales
(January 8, 1926–October 22, 2009) and Barbara Fox (born c.
1928), Tony grew up in Detroit, Michigan, with his younger brother, Hunt Sales
(born 1954).
His first musical group
was with Hunt, a drummer
, in Tony and The Tigers. The band also included Jon Pousette-Dart, son of artist Richard Pousette-Dart and later the leader of the Pousette-Dart Band. The band appeared on a TV show
hosted by Steve Allen
in 1965 and performed two song
s, "I'll Be On My Way" and "When The Party's Over," vintage clips of which are featured on YouTube
.
Tony and The Tigers released
the song "Turn It on Girl," which was a minor local hit
in Detroit, appeared on the show Hullabaloo
a couple times, December 20, 1965, hosted by Jerry Lewis
, and April 4, 1966, hosted by their father, Soupy Sales. The band also appeared on the local Detroit/Windsor
dance show Swingin' Time hosted by Robin Seymour
.
in the newly formed group, Runt, and recorded
two album
s. They recorded the album Kill City
with Iggy Pop
in 1975. They provided the rhythm section
for Pop's album Lust for Life
(1977), which was produced
by David Bowie
, who also played keyboard
. The brothers joined Pop on his subsequent tour, recorded as TV Eye Live 1977
and released in 1978.
He and Anulka Dziubinska
were married on August 20, 1978, in Los Angeles
. He and his brother, Hunt, did some recordings together. Sales had a car accident in 1979 and was in a coma for over eight months. His recordings with Hunt were stored away. He recovered from his injuries and went back into music.
Sales and Taryn Power
, daughter of the late movie star
Tyrone Power
and actress Linda Christian
, had two children, Anthony Tyrone "Tony" Sales (born September 4, 1982) and Valentina Fox Sales (born September 10, 1983).
In 1982, Sales joined a band named Chequered Past, which included singer/actor Michael Des Barres
(later of Power Station
), ex-Sex Pistols
guitarist Steve Jones
, and Blondie
’s bass player Nigel Harrison
and drummer Clem Burke
. According to Des Barres, the choice of name was not an idle one. "All the members have been through a lot," he told the Los Angeles Times
at his house in Hollywood
, including the fact that Sales had fully recovered from a debilitating auto accident. After an album released by Chequered Past in 1984 flopped the band broke up shortly afterward.
Sales joined David Bowie
, Reeves Gabrels
and Hunt Sales in Tin Machine
in 1988. The New York Times
said of the band's first album, "Tin Machine sounds as if it was made by people working together, not by a producer with a computer." On November 23, 1991, Tin Machine appeared on Saturday Night Live
, which was hosted by then child actor Macaulay Culkin
. Tin Machine recorded three albums and did two tours before it broke up in 1992. Bowie later stated that his memories of Tony and Hunt Sales' contribution to Lust for Life led him to invite them to join Tin Machine.
Throughout the 1990s, Sales recorded and produced and was a member of the short-lived all-star band The Cheap Dates, which included actor Harry Dean Stanton
, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter
and Slim Jim Phantom
.
Sales and Hunt's recordings from the late 1970s were released in 2008
by Perseverance Records
as a solo album
, Hired Guns. An e-book
about them, Quintessentially Soul Brothers: The Sales Brothers In Their Own Words by Stephanie Lynne Thorburn, was published in 2009.
Tony Sales lives in the Los Angeles area.
And with Andy Fraser of the band Free, "Till the Night is Gone"
Tony Fox Sales is an American 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...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. A bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
ist, Sales and his brother, Hunt Sales
Hunt Sales
Hunt Sales is an American rock and roll drummer who has played with Todd Rundgren, his brother Tony Sales, Iggy Pop and Tin Machine.- Personal life : Hunt Sales is the son of 1950s/60s television comedian Soupy Sales...
, played with Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
, Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
and Tin Machine
Tin Machine
Tin Machine was a hard rock band formed in 1988, famous for being fronted by singer David Bowie. The group recorded two studio albums before dissolving in 1992, when Bowie returned to his solo career...
with David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
.
Early life and career
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of 1950s/'60s TVTelevision program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his...
(January 8, 1926–October 22, 2009) and Barbara Fox (born c.
Circa
Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
1928), Tony grew up in Detroit, Michigan, with his younger brother, Hunt Sales
Hunt Sales
Hunt Sales is an American rock and roll drummer who has played with Todd Rundgren, his brother Tony Sales, Iggy Pop and Tin Machine.- Personal life : Hunt Sales is the son of 1950s/60s television comedian Soupy Sales...
(born 1954).
His first musical group
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...
was with Hunt, a drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
, in Tony and The Tigers. The band also included Jon Pousette-Dart, son of artist Richard Pousette-Dart and later the leader of the Pousette-Dart Band. The band appeared on a TV show
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
hosted by Steve Allen
Steve Allen
Steve Allen may refer to:*Steve Allen , American musician, comedian, and writer*Steve Allen , presenter on the London-based talk radio station LBC 97.3...
in 1965 and performed two song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
s, "I'll Be On My Way" and "When The Party's Over," vintage clips of which are featured on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
Tony and The Tigers released
Release (music)
In the music industry, a release is usually a term referring to the creative output from an artist available for sale or distribution; a broad term covering the many different formats music can be released in, and different forms of pieces .The word can also refer to the event at which an album or...
the song "Turn It on Girl," which was a minor local hit
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
in Detroit, appeared on the show Hullabaloo
Hullabaloo (TV series)
Hullabaloo is an American musical variety series that ran on NBC from January 12, 1965 through August 29, 1966. Similar to Shindig! it ran in prime time in contrast to ABC's American Bandstand.-Overview:...
a couple times, December 20, 1965, hosted by Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
, and April 4, 1966, hosted by their father, Soupy Sales. The band also appeared on the local Detroit/Windsor
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
dance show Swingin' Time hosted by Robin Seymour
Robin Seymour (DJ)
Robin Seymour was a former WKMH/CKLW Radio Personality and Television Music Show and Host of 'Teen Town" and "Swingin' Time" in Detroit...
.
Career
In 1970, the Sales brothers joined Todd RundgrenTodd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
in the newly formed group, Runt, and recorded
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
two album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s. They recorded the album Kill City
Kill City
Kill City is a 1977 album by Stooges vocalist Iggy Pop and guitarist James Williamson. "Johanna" and "I Got Nothin'" were both performed live during 1973-74 by the James Williamson-era Stooges.-Recording:...
with Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
in 1975. They provided the rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
for Pop's album Lust for Life
Lust for Life (album)
Lust for Life is a 1977 album by Iggy Pop, his second solo release and his second collaboration with David Bowie, following The Idiot earlier in the year. As well as achieving critical success, it was Pop's most commercially popular album to date, and remains his highest-charting release in the UK...
(1977), which was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, who also played keyboard
Musical keyboard
A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...
. The brothers joined Pop on his subsequent tour, recorded as TV Eye Live 1977
TV Eye Live 1977
TV Eye Live 1977 or is a live album by Iggy Pop originally released in 1978. Iggy took a $90 000 advance from RCA Records to finish out his contract with a live album. According to allmusic.com, the album was assembled from soundboard tapes. Iggy Pop doctored them in a German studio, quickly and...
and released in 1978.
He and Anulka Dziubinska
Anulka Dziubinska
Dziubinska worked as a dental nurse in Preston, but found the routine too restrictive. In 1970, she was a finalist in the Miss United Kingdom beauty contest...
were married on August 20, 1978, in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. He and his brother, Hunt, did some recordings together. Sales had a car accident in 1979 and was in a coma for over eight months. His recordings with Hunt were stored away. He recovered from his injuries and went back into music.
Sales and Taryn Power
Taryn Power
Taryn Stephanie Power is an American actress and the younger daughter of the actor Tyrone Power and his second wife, Mexican actress Linda Christian.Deutsch, Linda . , Lewiston Evening Journal...
, daughter of the late movie star
Movie star
A movie star is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters...
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
and actress Linda Christian
Linda Christian
Linda Christian was a Mexican movie actress, who appeared in Mexican and Hollywood films. Her career reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. She played Mara in the last Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film Tarzan and The Mermaids...
, had two children, Anthony Tyrone "Tony" Sales (born September 4, 1982) and Valentina Fox Sales (born September 10, 1983).
In 1982, Sales joined a band named Chequered Past, which included singer/actor Michael Des Barres
Michael Des Barres
Lord Michael Philip Des Barres is a British actor and rock singer. He is known for playing the recurring role of Murdoc on the television show MacGyver and for replacing the late Robert Palmer in the band Power Station, fronting the band at the 1985 Live Aid concert...
(later of Power Station
Power station
A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....
), ex-Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
guitarist Steve Jones
Steve Jones (musician)
Stephen Philip "Steve" Jones is an English rock guitarist, singer and actor, best known as guitarist and founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols.-Childhood:...
, and Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
’s bass player Nigel Harrison
Nigel Harrison
Nigel Harrison is an English musician, and best known as the bass player of the rock band Blondie....
and drummer Clem Burke
Clem Burke
Clem Burke is an American musician who is the drummer for the band Blondie. Recruited by Chris Stein and Debbie Harry when they were first forming Blondie, Burke remained with the band through its first stage and later returned for its late 1990s reunion and then its extensive 2009 tour.Following...
. According to Des Barres, the choice of name was not an idle one. "All the members have been through a lot," he told the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
at his house in Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
, including the fact that Sales had fully recovered from a debilitating auto accident. After an album released by Chequered Past in 1984 flopped the band broke up shortly afterward.
Sales joined David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Reeves Gabrels
Reeves Gabrels
Reeves Gabrels is an American guitarist, known for virtuosity, versatility, and originality. His compositions and improvisations defy genre and "explore sonic extremes with a great, adaptive intuition for what each song needs most."...
and Hunt Sales in Tin Machine
Tin Machine
Tin Machine was a hard rock band formed in 1988, famous for being fronted by singer David Bowie. The group recorded two studio albums before dissolving in 1992, when Bowie returned to his solo career...
in 1988. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said of the band's first album, "Tin Machine sounds as if it was made by people working together, not by a producer with a computer." On November 23, 1991, Tin Machine appeared on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, which was hosted by then child actor Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Carson Culkin is an American actor. He became widely known for his portrayal of Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. He is also known for his roles in Richie Rich, Uncle Buck, My Girl, The Pagemaster, and Party Monster...
. Tin Machine recorded three albums and did two tours before it broke up in 1992. Bowie later stated that his memories of Tony and Hunt Sales' contribution to Lust for Life led him to invite them to join Tin Machine.
Throughout the 1990s, Sales recorded and produced and was a member of the short-lived all-star band The Cheap Dates, which included actor 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...
, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter
Jeff Baxter
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is an American guitarist, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s...
and Slim Jim Phantom
Slim Jim Phantom
Slim Jim Phantom is the drummer for Stray Cats. Alongside band mates Brian Setzer and Lee Rocker, he spearheaded the neo-rockabilly movement of the early 1980s.-Biography:...
.
Sales and Hunt's recordings from the late 1970s were released in 2008
2008 in music
2008 was a huge year in music history with the emergence of pop superstars Lady Gaga and Katy Perry into the mainstream. Also, this is the year that is widely agreed upon by critics as the start of the fall of hip hop from the mainstream and the rise of Synthpop into the mainstream due to acts such...
by Perseverance Records
Perseverance Records
Perseverance Records is a record label which releases film scores on CD and online. Releases are usually accompanied by extensive, well-researched booklets...
as a solo album
Solo album
A solo album, in popular music, is an album headlined by a current or former member of a band. A solo album may feature simply one person performing all instruments, but typically features the work of other collaborators; rather, it may be made with different collaborators than the artist is...
, Hired Guns. An e-book
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
about them, Quintessentially Soul Brothers: The Sales Brothers In Their Own Words by Stephanie Lynne Thorburn, was published in 2009.
Tony Sales lives in the Los Angeles area.
With Todd Rundgren
- RuntRunt (album)Runt is the self-titled debut of the band Runt, first released in 1970 on the Ampex Records label.Many regard the album as Todd Rundgren's debut solo album, as all later reissues credit the album to Todd Rundgren rather than to Runt...
(1970) - Runt: The Ballad of Todd RundgrenRunt: The Ballad of Todd RundgrenRunt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren is the second album by American singer-songwriter/musician Todd Rundgren, released in 1971. The album is perhaps Rundgren's most concise and straightforward, featuring mostly piano-led pop songs and ballads....
(1971) - Something/Anything?Something/Anything?Something/Anything?, released in 1972, is Todd Rundgren's third solo album. It peaked at #29 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold three years after its release, and remains the singer-songwriter's best-selling album...
(1972)
And with Andy Fraser of the band Free, "Till the Night is Gone"
With Iggy Pop
- Kill CityKill CityKill City is a 1977 album by Stooges vocalist Iggy Pop and guitarist James Williamson. "Johanna" and "I Got Nothin'" were both performed live during 1973-74 by the James Williamson-era Stooges.-Recording:...
(recorded 1975, released 1977) - Sister Midnight (recorded 1977, released 1999)
- Lust For LifeLust for Life (album)Lust for Life is a 1977 album by Iggy Pop, his second solo release and his second collaboration with David Bowie, following The Idiot earlier in the year. As well as achieving critical success, it was Pop's most commercially popular album to date, and remains his highest-charting release in the UK...
(1977) - TV Eye Live 1977TV Eye Live 1977TV Eye Live 1977 or is a live album by Iggy Pop originally released in 1978. Iggy took a $90 000 advance from RCA Records to finish out his contract with a live album. According to allmusic.com, the album was assembled from soundboard tapes. Iggy Pop doctored them in a German studio, quickly and...
(1978)
With Tin Machine
- Tin MachineTin Machine (album)Tin Machine is the debut album of Tin Machine originally released by EMI in 1989. The group was the latest venture of David Bowie, inspired by sessions with guitarist Reeves Gabrels...
(1989) - Tin Machine IITin Machine IITin Machine II is an album by Tin Machine, originally released by Victory Music in 1991.-Recording:The band reconvened following their 1989 tour, recording most of the album before taking a rest while David Bowie conducted his solo Sound+Vision Tour and filmed The Linguini Incident...
(1991) - Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, BabyTin Machine Live: Oy Vey, BabyTin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby is a live album by Tin Machine originally released by London Records in 1992. It was to be the group's last release, and was recorded on the 1991–1992 It's My Life Tour. The title, suggested by Hunt Sales, was intended as a play on U2's album Achtung Baby.The album...
(1992)
External links
- Tony Sales' Site on MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- [ Tony Sales] at Allmusic
- Tony Sales at the IMDbInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Sales Brothers Homepage
- Sales Brothers Resource Page
- Tony Sales' basses