This article is about the 1980s and 1990s singing duo. For the 1998 song "Afrodiziak", see
Bran Van 3000.
Afrodiziak was the collective name used by the British singers Caron Wheeler and Claudia Fontaine in the mid-to-late 1980s. As a duo, they were best known for performing backup vocals on The Jam's final single Beat Surrender in 1982 (with whom they also performed on their final tour) and Elvis Costello's 1983 album Punch the Clock, especially its single, the international hit "Everyday I Write the Book". After the addition of a third member,Naomi Thompson they went on to sing for acts such as Heaven 17 and Howard Jones. Heaven 17's 1984 album, How Men Are, featured them prominently, especially on the singles "Sunset Now" and "And That's No Lie". In 1984 and 1985 they performed on Madness' albums "Keep Moving" and "Mad Not Mad" respectively, also appearing in the video for the Madness single "Sweetest Girl" . Also in 1985, they performed backing vocals on the first two songs on Howard Jones' second album, Dream Into Action, both of which ("Things Can Only Get Better" and "Life in One Day") became worldwide hit singles; later that year, they went on tour as part of Jones' band.
Wheeler went on to fame as a featured vocalist in the dance-R&B collective Soul II Soul (she was the lead vocalist on the group's two biggest hits, "Keep on Movin'" and "Back to Life") and had a brief career as a solo artist. Fontaine continued working as a backing vocalist on albums by EMF, Neneh Cherry and Hothouse Flowers, among others.
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