Chris Frantz

Charton Christopher Frantz was born on 8 May 1951 at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, into a military family.

He went to High School in Pittsburgh and in 1965 he was in a High school band called The Hustlers. In March 1969, The Hustlers evolved into The Beans, featuring Chris on drums, Randy Linhart on guitar and vocals, Lloyd Stamey on bass and vocals and Sebastian De Nunzio on keyboard and vocals. Since Pittsburgh wasn't exactly the place to be discovered they moved north to New York City and managed to get a residency at The Electric Circus on St. Marks Place. It didn't work out. The management wanted them to play current Top 40 songs instead doing their own things and Chris left to enroll Rhode Island School of Design in July 1970. The Beans lasted sixteen months.

At the RISD he soon met up with David Byrne and Tina Weymouth. He and Tina shared a studio together.

Chris Frantz was drummer of Talking Heads since the very beginning. He also played drums in The Heads (with Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison and numerous guest musicians) and Tom Tom Club, where he also sang a couple of songs ("Booming and Zooming", "She Belongs to me").

Collaborations:

• Drums on Robert Palmer's album "Clues"
• Drums on Kurtis Blow's "These are the Breaks"
• Producer (with Tina Weymouth) for Ziggy Marley's album "Conscious Party"
• Producer (with Tina Weymouth) for Ziggy Marley's album "One Bright Day"
• Producer (with Tina Weymouth) for Happy Monday's album "...Yes, Please !"
• Producer (with Tina Weymouth) for Los Fabulosos Cadillacs's album "Rey Azucar"
• Producer (with Tina Weymouth) for Angelfish' album "Angelfish"
• Remixer (with Chris Frantz) of Zita Swoon's "Bananaqueen"