Toni Childs Union released

Union Toni Childs

Released: June 10, 1988 Peak: 63 US, 73 UK, 8 AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US Genre: adult alternative rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Don’t Walk Away (Childs, Phil Ramacon) [4:00] (8/6/88, 72 US, 80 CB, 17 MR, 53 UK, 17 AU) Walk and Talk Like Angels [5:48] (11/88, 70 AU) Stop Your Fussin’ [4:40] (10/88, 21 CO, 95 UK, 17 AU) Dreamer [5:01] Let the Rain Come Down (Childs, Ricketts, David Batteau) [4:51] Zimbabwae [6:18] (2/89, 74 AU) Hush (Childs) [4:04] Tin Drum [5:41] Where’s the Ocean? (Childs) [4:42] Songs written by Toni Childs and David Ricketts unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 44:52

Rating: 4.201 out of 5.00 (average of 5 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Union’s release in 1988 announced a bold, incendiary new voice in the singer/songwriter sweepstakes in Toni Childs.” AMG “The album was an infusion of rock/pop and world music with…strong African percussion.” WK It garnered her Grammy nominations for Best New Aritst and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. It spent two weeks at #1 in New Zealand and was certified gold in the United States in 1995. Childs wrote or co-wrote all the songs, drawing on “the vast experiences of her life and delivers them with an urgency that is hypnotically compelling. It’s all tied together by David Tickle’s production and aided by first-rate backing by musicians including songwriting collaborator David Ricketts, drummer Rick Marotta and guitarist David Rhodes.” AMG Childs and Ricketts were living and working together and the album “has much to do with their relationship. In a 1988 article that praised Childs’ originality and the craftsmanship of Union, Time magazine said, “if she can get an album like Union from a single relationship, the music she makes from the rest of her life should really be extraordinary.” WK The single Don’t Walk Away “kicks things off in high gear and Childs rarely looks back. Her take-no-prisoners vocal drives the funky, horn-driven track, which is backed by the gospel swell of the background vocalists.” AMG “Although the rest of the album is a little more sedate, Childs never loses the urgent edge to her dusky voice. Stop Your Fussin’ is sung to a restless lover over a Caribbean rhythm and Hush has a playful bounce to it.” AMG “Zimbabwae is a parable detailing African strife complete with chanting background vocals and Dreamer provides her with a bed of keyboards that shimmer like stars.” AMG It “is riveting right through the moody poetry of the final track, Where’s the Ocean?” AMG

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Toni Childs AMG All Music Guide review by Tom Demalon WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 1/17/2009; last updated 9/3/2021.