Gossip. We love it and we hate it. No song has ever laid that out more clearly than Timex Social Club’s 1986 smash Rumors. Produced on a shoestring budget by a guy named Jay King and released on a tiny independent label, the song struck enough of a chord that it became a Top 10 pop hit and landed Top 5 R&B as well. You couldn’t sneeze in New York City that summer without hearing this song.
The story is simple-the guy singing hates busybodies and wants the rumors to stop. That’s all. Is he wrong about that? Just because Michael moves a certain way, it doesn’t mean he’s gay! And stop telling lies about the singer and the girl next door!
Timex Social Club is widely viewed as a one-hit wonder, but Jay King morphed TSC into Club Nouveau, who had a hit with an odious remake of Bill Wither’s Lean on Me a year after Rumors hit. Meanwhile, two Nouveau members, Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy, became a hit production team, working on Tony Toni Tone’s first album and discovering En Vogue. A little “rumors” can go a long way, apparently.
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