The B-52s ultimate song, according to Kate Pierson
There often feels like two different versions of The B-52s. Even though each incarnation of the band shares a goofy sense of kitschy fun, colourful songcraft, and the dynamic twofer of Fred Schneider’s nervous ‘sprechgesang’ singing style and Kate Pierson’s brash vocals, there are certainly eras that fans often will argue as to their favourite.
There’s the group’s new wave genesis, a ramshackle outfit imbibed with a love of bubblegum pop and surf music that looked straight out of some early 1970s John Waters movie that produced hits like ‘Rock Lobster’ and ‘Private Idaho‘, and then there’s their massive, MTV-ready comeback, 1989’s Cosmic Thing endearing itself to mainstream America with its bright, glossy production selling four times platinum in the States.
Fresh off the release of her second solo album, Radios & Rainbows, Pierson revealed to The Line of Best Fit in October the pivotal songs of her life. It’s probably no surprise that she opted for the commercial monster ‘Love Shack’, the second single off Cosmic Thing, which propelled The B-52s to a new audience and loads more money. “This is the song that changed everything for The B-52s. Our first record was a huge hit and people loved it, but we were definitely still an indie band until ‘Love Shack’. It was a different kind of groove for us.”
Pretty quickly, ‘Love Shack’ came to be the band’s defining song, and with Pierson’s subsequent guest vocals on Iggy Pop’s ‘Candy’ and REM’s perennial radio fixture ‘Shiny Happy People’, The B-52s were riding high on a second lease of life. Despite the song’s distance from punk, it was still The B-52s, with all their affection for low culture and chintzy pop, just slapped with a palatable production from Don Was’ studio mastery.
The song’s hit potential wasn’t obvious to the band initially, Keith Strickland even pushing its omission from Cosmic Thing claiming “it wasn’t finished”, Pierson recalling: “When we first put it out, thank God for college radio, because it’s still a weird song. But college radio played it and it caught on fire. We started touring, we played some clubs and theatres, and pretty soon it became a big hit, we were touring bigger places in Australia, New Zealand and all over Europe. It was so gratifying just to be recognised and have your music heard.”
There’s perhaps a sentimental motive as to the ‘Love Shack’ selection. After the death of founding member Ricky Wilson (elder brother to fellow member Cindy Wilson) due to an AIDS-related illness inspired some of their subsequent writing: “It was also great because Ricky worked so hard on the previous album and saw it through to completion. But he died before it came out, and the record company just dropped it like a stone”.
Adding: “So it felt good that when we made Cosmic Thing, it conjured a lot of Ricky—so many lyrics were referencing that early time together in Athens.”
A crucial single that opened new doors for the band both collectively and collaboratively, ‘Love Shack’ and the universal appeal while keeping The B-52s’ kitschy identity is certainly quite the achievement.
