Toni Basil

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Toni Basil
Background information
Birth name	Antonia Christina Basilotta
Born	September 22, 1943 (Age 63)
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genre(s)	Pop, Dance
Occupation(s)	Singer, Dancer, Choreographer
Years active	1966–present
Associated acts	Paula Abdul
Website	Toni Basil Site

Toni Basil (born Antonia Christina Basilotta on September 22, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a musician, video artist, actress, and choreographer.

Music career

Her recording career began in 1966 with a rare one-off single for A&M Records, the title song from the film Breakaway. Although she appeared three times as musical guest during the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1975–76, it wasn't until 1982 that she released a follow-up, the international smash "Mickey". This song is, in fact, a cover of "Kitty", a 1979 release by UK band Racey, written by British hitmakers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. "Mickey" itself would be covered in a parody by "Weird Al" Yankovic as "Ricky" (a homage to Lucy and Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy). Furthermore, "Mickey" was actually recorded in 1979, and when her record label wanted to release the song in 1982, Basil was reluctant, believing the song already sounded "dated". But the label persevered, and pop-music history was made.

The music video for "Mickey" was one of the most popular of the early MTV videos. In the video, Basil wore a cheerleader uniform from Las Vegas High School, the school from which she graduated ^[1]. She has a special fondness for the song today and its enduring popularity. Basil has said on more than one occasion that she would gladly put on the cheerleader uniform she wore in the video again if she was asked to. In 2003 VH1 ranked "Mickey" Number 5 on its list of the 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders. It is also the school fight song for John W Hallahan All Girls Catholic High School.

Toni Basil's '80s recording career consisted of only two albums: 1982's "Word of Mouth" (which spawned a second Hot 100 single with "Shoppin' from A to Z") and 1983's "Toni Basil" (which yielded Basil's third and final Hot 100 chart single "Over My Head"). To date, there have been no fewer than five Toni Basil best-of collections released on CD.

In 1999, DJ and Producer Jason Nevins' dance remix of Mickey was a big night club hit in Europe and Australia.

Basil is frequently credited with bringing street dance to prominence with The Urban Campbellocking group, The Lockers. She choreographed David Byrne's memorable, marionette-style dance from the music video for the Talking Heads song "Once in a Lifetime". She worked with Talking Heads again to direct and choreograph the music video for the song "Crosseyed and Painless". She also choreographed David Bowie's Diamond Dogs Tour in 1974 and Glass Spider Tour in 1987, and has worked with Bette Midler for many years, most recently on her 2005 Australian Kiss My Brass tour. Dancers included: Melissa Hurley, Viktor Manoel, Constance Marie, Craig Allen Rothwell (aka Spazz Attack), and Stephen Nichols. She has also choreographed a series of commercials for The Gap (clothing retailer) set to the music from West Side Story.

Acting career

Toni Basil has appeared in movies such as Easy Rider (as prostitute Mary, the brunette) and Five Easy Pieces, on television (including episodes of Laverne & Shirley and Baywatch), and has worked as a choreographer for movies such as American Graffiti, The Rose, The Monkees' film Head (in which she appeared as the (unbilled) dancer in the Daddy's Song sequence) and Legally Blonde, and earlier the Beach Party series produced by AIP. In addition to her appearance in Head, she appeared in Village of the Giants, the cult film Rockula with Thomas Dolby and the 1987 B-Movie Slaughterhouse Rock.

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