Chart Performance
On its release in November 1981, "Genius of Love" became a huge hit in the clubs and on the R&B and dance charts worldwide, soon earning the Tom Tom Club LP a Gold Sales Award in 1982. Like its predecessor "Wordy Rappinghood", it peaked at #1 in the U.S. Hot Dance Play chart, and also reached #2 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. It later went on to peak at #31 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the Tom Tom Club's only entry on the US Billboard Hot 100. Although primarily associated with the dance club culture of the early 1980s, the track was also a surprise hit on the US Mainstream Rock chart where it peaked at #24.
"Genius of Love" was not quite as popular in the United Kingdom as some of the Tom Tom Club's other releases, as it only reached #65 in the UK Singles Chart (both of the other two singles released from the Tom Tom Club LP achieved Top 30 placings in the UK). However, despite its relatively low chart position, the song still received a great deal of airplay on UK radio (although the radio version was heavily edited due to the song's length, and also in part due to its references to the recreational drug, cocaine) and the full-length version became a club favorite in Britain, helped by the popularity of the accompanying music video. A song based on the keyboards-and-bass rhythm in "Genius of Love" was later used in a long-running TV advertising campaign in the UK by the Bird's desserts company between 1985 and 1992, the commercials featuring a spin on the psychedelic animation of the Tom Tom Club video using rudimentary CGI. In 2002, it was also used in a popular TV commercial for Kia Motors.
The single also became a major club success all around Europe, and peaked at #28 in New Zealand, the first of three Top 40 hits for the band there.
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