History
Sparks had recorded No. 1 In Heaven and Terminal Jive with Giorgio Moroder. Both had been relatively successful, but the brothers had found the electronic equipment they had adopted for their new sound too cumbersome to tour with. Whomp That Sucker was consequently recorded without Giorgio Moroder at Musicland Studios, Munich but still in association with Giorgio Moroder Enterprises. The next four albums were recorded as part of the same partnership. The producer for the album was Mack, who had recently produced Queen's album The Game .
To complement the Mael Brothers, the backing band Bates Motel was hired, consisting of guitarist Bob Haag, bassist Leslie Bohem, and drummer David Kendrick; this line-up would record the next four Sparks albums concluding with Music That You Can Dance To in 1986. [3] In an 2014 interview for Dangerous Minds, Leslie Bohem explains how Sparks met them:
I had been going to the Belgian Waffle stand at the Farmer’s Market on Fairfax for years to have coffee. ... Then, in the Bates days, a whole bunch of us would go in the afternoons and we would see Ron and Russell, who hung out there most afternoons. ... After a while, we developed one of those nodding relationships. One day, I went over to their table. We were trying everything to get signed and I thought that maybe they’d produce us. I said, “You guys are supposed to be the fathers of New Wave, how about you come see your kids,” or something equally lame and gave them a flyer to a show we were doing at Blackies, a club in Santa Monica. They came. They did not want to produce us. They asked us to be their band. [4]
Haag, Bohem, and Kendrick concurrently recorded on their own under the name Gleaming Spires, making three studio albums in the 1980s and having a minor radio new wave hit, "Are You Ready for the Sex Girls?", in 1981. [3]
Release
Whomp That Sucker was released by a number of different record labels: RCA in the US, Underdog in France, Ariola/Oasis in Germany and in the UK by the short-lived Why-Fi Records. The album was not a success in the UK but did fairly well in France coming as it did off the back of their 1980 French hit "When I'm with You". In the US the album reached No. 182 on the Billboard 200, becoming their first since Indiscreet to chart there. [10]
"Tips for Teens" and "Funny Face" were released as singles. In France "Funny Face" was the lead single, whereas in the UK "Tips for Teens" was chosen as the lead single with "Don't Shoot Me" as the B-side.
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