Love Shack – The B-52’s | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning

Chart Performance: Pop (#3) and Modern Rock (#1 for 4 weeks); 1989

Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne

On an October night in 1976, Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland, and Cindy and Ricky Wilson followed up an evening of drinking at a Chinese restaurant by forming a band.

The Athens, Georgia gang took for their name a slang term for the girls’ large bouffant hair styles, played locally, and also hit the road to New York for weekend gigs. By late ’78, they had an indie single out called Rock Lobster, which dented the UK Top 40 via a major label re-release in 1979 and reached #56 Stateside in 1980.

The B-52’s career was just shy of a breakthrough when Ricky Wilson died. The rest responded by taking a three year hiatus from music. The remaining four members reemerged in 1989 with Cosmic Thing, produced by Nile Rodgers and Don Was. Love Shack blasted off the album, and soared to #3 on the Hot 100.

The B-52’s received one of pop culture’s ultimate honors when they performed Love Shack as Glove Slap on The Simpsons.

This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.

Produced by:

• Don Was

Lyrics Written by:

• The B-52’s

Awards:

• The song “Love Shack” was a commercial success, reaching number one in Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand, and number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart
• The music video for “Love Shack” won six awards at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best Art Direction, Best Editing, Best Group Video, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Direction
• The song won two Grammy Awards in 1990 for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Music Video, Short Form