'Til Tuesday rode the tail end of the new wave music movement, and while the group's only hit was a single titled "Voices Carry," the band became a launching pad for the songwriting talents of lead singer Aimee Mann.
Mann studied at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and became so involved with the city's punk scene that she and her boyfriend Michael Hausman formed a band. The group included Mann at the front, Hausman on drums, Joey Pesce on keyboards and Robert Holmes on guitar.
The band, which they dubbed 'Til Tuesday, played the Boston bar scene for a year, before eventually winning a battle-of-the-bands contest at a local radio station.
That brought them a contract with Epic Records, and the group recorded their 1985 debut Voices Carry. By the time the album was released, Mann and Hausman had separated and their failed romance actually provided lots of fodder for their album.
The album became a hit a few months after it was released, and the title track hit the Top 10, while the album peaked in the Top 20. A stylish video made "Voices Carry" a hit with the MTV crowd, but the group never was able to follow up the single with another hit.
A second effort called Welcome Home was ignored by both the public and the press. Released in the fall of 1986, the album failed to hit even the Top 40. Pesce jumped ship and was replaced by Michael Montes. The band also took on new guitarists Jon Brion and Clayton Scobel.
On 'Til Tuesday's third and final album, Mann collaborated with Elvis Costello and the group released Everything's Different Now in 1988. Though the album had an abysmal performance commercially, Mann gained critical acclaim for her songwriting, and when the band broke up, she pursued a successful solo career.
