Guitarist Adrian Belew has worked extensively as a session guitarist and touring musician - in addition to his tenure with King Crimson, he has toured with Frank Zappa, David Bowie, and Talking Heads, to name but a few. Another role on his resume? Being featured on a hit Mariah Carey track without him even knowing.
In a recent interview with Guitar World on the subject of his extremely well-worn Stratocaster, Belew discussed how that Strat has become one of the most-heard guitars on the planet, without him realizing.
"Maybe one of the most well-known songs it was featured on would be Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love, which has been a huge hit now three times," he says. "It's been sampled 166 times by different artists, which is something I only learned recently when Latto's Big Energy came out in 2022."
"I was at a King Crimson show, I was signing autographs and somebody handed me Mariah Carey's record and said, 'Would you sign this?' I said, 'I don't even know Mariah Carey. Why would I do that?' They said, 'Oh, you're right here. It says you co-wrote this.'"
"They opened it up and showed that I co-wrote (her 1995 hit Fantasy, which samples Genius of Love) with Talking Heads' Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. I was amazed."
"That's exactly how I learned about it - otherwise I might have never known. It was the Number 1 record in the country at the time, but I don't listen to mainstream radio. I called up my manager the next day, and he didn't know, either. This guitar has crossed over a lot of people's ears."
(Guitar World)
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