Sometimes the joke becomes permanent.

The group who would become triple T formed in Oakland, CA in the late 1980s. It was a family concern, made up of two brothers (D’Wayne and Raphael) and a cousin (Timothy), but they weren’t just a vocal group — they also played guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums. In fact, they played those instruments so well they backed up Prince on his 1986 tour.

Upon returning to the Bay Area, the trio decided to turn pro. They lined up a gig at a wedding reception but had no name planned out, so they used an inside joke as a temporary stand-in. Temporary, in this case, meant the next 40 years.

The origin of the story began when young D’Wayne decided to change his hairstyle, adding some relaxer to make it wavy. Afterwards, he thought the new style made him look like a particular character from the movie The Untouchables, an Italian mobster named Tony with a really slick ‘do. When he looked at himself in the mirror, D’Wayne imagined himself walking into his school classroom, and the teacher would call him “Tony” because his hair looked so good. But because it looked extra good, she would say it three times (with an Italian accent), “Tony! Tony! Tony!”

This became a family joke, and when their manager turned to the group and said he needed a name to announce them on stage at the wedding reception, Raphael laughingly blurted out Tony! Tony! Tony! (the different spelling came later, for unclear reasons).

The group signed with Wing Records, a subsidiary of Mercury (themselves a subsidiary of Polygram), and immediately struck gold with their debut album, and struck platinum with their next two releases, peaking in 1993 with their third album, Sons Of Soul, and its lead single, “If I Had No Loot.”

New Jack Swing was the prevailing style of R&B in the late 80s and early 90s and “If I Had No Loot” marked one of the last big hits of the era, climbing its way up to #7 on the US Hot 100. Its lyrics about no account friends who only come around when they want something share a similar theme with TLC’s “No Scrubs” a few years later. Although still popular, the hits became smaller after that and D’Wayne, Raphael, and Timothy each went on to do their own thing in the late 90s, having already shaped the sound of the decade together.

So just keep bouncing like a bouncing ball… with Tony! Toni! Toné!