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Music|D’Wayne Wiggins, One Third of the R&B Group Tony! Toni! Toné!, Dies at 64
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/arts/music/dwayne-wiggins-dead.html
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As a paragon of the New Jack Swing sound, the band recorded three platinum albums and a slew of hits, including “Feels Good.”
March 7, 2025, 8:45 p.m. ET
D’Wayne Wiggins, who brought his smooth baritone to millions of fans as a founding member and the lead singer of the R&B trio Tony! Toni! Toné!, which had three platinum albums and a slew of hits in the 1980s and ’90s including “Feels Good” and “The Blues,” died on Friday at his home in Oakland, Calif. He was 64.
His family said in a statement on social media that the cause was bladder cancer.
Mr. Wiggins was born and raised in Oakland and lived there most of his life, absorbing and blending the blues, funk and hip-hop sounds that he encountered on the city’s streets and in its clubs, where his father, a blues guitarist, was a regular performer.
He formed Tony! Toni! Toné! in 1986 with his half brother, Charles Ray Wiggins (later known as Raphael Saadiq), who sang and played bass, and their cousin Timothy Christian Riley, who played drums.
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The trio first found success performing around the San Francisco Bay Area, but they did not release their first album, “Who?,” until 1988. It was an immediate hit: Their debut single, “Little Walter,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart; three more singles from the album reached the Top 10; and the album was certified gold.
“Who?” leaned into the traditional blues sound that the trio had grown up with, but their next three albums ventured into new territory, incorporating hip-hop, upbeat soul and dance-pop — a blend that came to be known as New Jack Swing.
