"Kid Creole and the Coconuts" is an American
musical group created in 1980 by August Darnell, known artistically as Kid
Creole, together with Adriana Kaegi and Andy Hernandez. Thomas August Darnell
Browder was born in the Bronx, New York on August 12, 1950. He began his
musical career in 1965 as a member of a band called "The In-Laws",
along with his brother Stony Browder. August earned a master's degree in
English and began a career as an English teacher. In 1974 he formed a new band
with his brother, called "Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band".
Their debut album, titled after the band itself, reached the Top 40, earning
gold certification and a Grammy Award nomination.
In 1980, August adopted the alias "Kid Creole",
taking inspiration from the Elvis Presley film "King Creole". The
band's co-founder and August's wife, Adriana Kaegi, came up with the name
"The Coconuts". The "Coconuts" represented the female
backup singers who accompanied Kid Creole on stage. The original lineup
included Adriana Kaegi, Cheryl Lee Poirier, Fonda Rae, Lourdes Cotton and Lori
Eastside.
The band also included Peter Schott on keyboards, David
Span on drums, Carol Colman on bass and Winston Grennan on drums. Kid Creole
and the Coconuts' debut album, "Off the Coast of Me," received
critical acclaim but did not achieve major commercial success. In 1982,
"The Coconuts" was reduced to a trio of Kaegi, Cheryl Poirier and
Taryn Hagey. The breakthrough came in that year with the album "Tropical
Gangsters", which reached number three in the UK charts and produced three
Top 10 hits with "Stool Pigeon", "Annie, I'm Not Your
Daddy". and "I'm A Wonderful Thing, Baby".
In 1984, the band performed the song "My Male
Curiosity" for the soundtrack of the film "Against All Odds".
Darnell and Kaegi divorced in 1985, but she still remained in the band. Around
the same time, Taryn Hagey left "The Coconuts" and was replaced as
the third "Coconut" by Janique Svedberg.
Discography:
Album
1980 - Off The Coast Of Me
1981 - Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places
1982 - Tropical Gangsters
1983 - Doppelganger
1985 - In Praise Of Older Women...And Other Crimes
1987 - I, Too, Have Seen The Woods
1990 - Private Waters In The Great Divide
1991 - You Shoulda Told Me You Were..
1993 - KC2 Plays KC2
1993 - To Travel Sideways
1994 - Kiss Me Before The Light Changes
1994 - Live
1997 - The Conquest Of You
2000 - Oh What A Night
2001 - Too Cool To Conga
2011 - I Wake Up Screaming
2019 - Live In Paris 1985
2021 - Nothin' Left But The Rest
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