The Brains were a rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, led by songwriter Tom Gray in the early 1980s. Their 1980 debut album was entitled The Brains, and was produced by Steve Lillywhite for Mercury Records. The set is probably most noteworthy for the band's own song, "Money Changes Everything", which was covered three years later by Cyndi Lauper, becoming a hit single for her. After a second Mercury recording in 1981, Electronic Eden (also produced by Lillywhite) and then an independently released E.P., Dancing Under Streetlight, the band split up. (A song from Electronic Eden, "Heart in the Street," was covered by Manfred Mann's Earth Band on their 1980 album Chance as "Heart on the Street.")

The band was noted for its live performances, such as its July 1980 performance opening for Devo at Atlanta's Fox Theatre, its April 1981 headlining performance at JB Scotts in Albany, New York, and its May 22, 1982, headlining performance at the Milestone Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.