The Timex Social Club, a U.S. group formed in 1982 by students of Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California, . The group was originally known as The Timex Crew with members Marcus Thompson (founder), Gregory "Greg B" Thomas, Michael Marshall, Craig Samuel and Darrien Cleage. By 1985, Samuel, Cleage and Thomas were out and both Alex Hill and Kevin Moore were added to complete the group and the name Timex Social Club was born. They specialized in both old school rap and the merger of urban R&B with hip-hop rhythms, which were later known as new jack swing.

The group's first release was the mega hit 12inch single entitled Rumors/Vicious Rumors (JAY 001). The success of the single Rumors, prompted rap impresario Russell Simmons to hire the group as the opening act on Run DMC's Raising Hell Tour the summer of 1986. Other acts on the tour were: The Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and Whodini. Besides solo dates, the group also opened for suchs groups as: New Edition, Midnight Star, The S.O.S. Band, Kool & The Gang and Jermaine Jackson.

Later that year, the group released the Vicious Rumors album. Vicious Rumors (Danya 9645) had one major hit on it, "Rumors", which hit #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, August 30, 1986 with Michael Marshall as the lead singer. The single also reached #13 in the UK charts and hit #1 on both the R&B and the U.S. dance chart. The two following singles "Thinkin' About Ya" and "Mixed-Up World" both reached the R&B top 20.

Paul Hardcastle (born 11 December 1957, London, England[2]) is an English composer and musician, specialising in the synthesizer.
In the early 1980s, Hardcastle played the trombone and also keyboards on several singles on the Oval record label by the dance music groups Direct Drive and First Light, before going solo. He achieved some acclaim for his early singles, notably the instrumental, "Rain Forest" (1984), but came to greater prominence in 1985.

Tom Browne (born October 30, 1954, Queens, New York) is a jazz trumpeter who rose to prominence first through his early work with Sonny Fortune, and for his 1980 single "Funkin' For Jamaica(N.Y.)".

Browne originally played piano, having taken lessons from the age of 11. Turning to the trumpet, inspired by his collection of jazz albums, his first gig was in a Queens' club, The Village Door. In 1975, he landed his first professional gig with Weldon Irvine.

From here he played with Sonny Fortune and Lonnie Smith and was later introduced to Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen at GRP Records via Earl Klugh. Grusin and Rosen signed him to GRP (via Arista Records) and Browne broke onto the music scene in 1979 with an acclaimed instrumental jazz fusion album Browne Sugar, although this was not released in the UK. His first real breakthrough came in 1980 with the release of the self-penned "Funkin' For Jamaica (N.Y.)", taken from his second album Love Approach. The single hit #1 on Billboard 's R&B chart for four weeks, and was also a UK Top 10 hit. It featured the lead vocals of Tonni Smith.