Born to Laugh at Tornadoes


Born To Laugh at Tornadoes is a 1983 album by the art-funk band Was. Rolling Stone declared it "conceptually, the best album of the year" shortly after its release. Despite the glowing reviews, Tornadoes made little commercial impact in a year dominated by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Prince's 1999.
This album boasted an impressive array of guest vocalists, ranging from hard rocker Mitch Ryder, Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, rock band The Knack's lead vocalist Doug Fieger, Marshall Crenshaw and torch song vocalist/songwriter Mel Tormé.
The album also displayed a wide variety of musical styles, ranging from pop love ballads to rock, psychedelic synthesized mod music and even easy listening cocktail jazz.
Also noteworthy is a credit to Robert Kinkel as Assistant Engineer; Kinkel went on to be co-creator of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The front cover illustration, "After Compton's", was credited to Dan Chapman and Jeri McManus was the art director.

Track listing

Personnel