About Me
The band's name comes from a particular beehive hairdo that is wrapped around, instead of teased, with an open "hole" in the top resembling the nose cone of the airplane of the same name. During their early years, wigs of that style were often worn by the band's female singers Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson.Wilson and Pierson formed the band with drummer Keith Strickland, guitarist Ricky Wilson (Cindy's older brother) and vocalist Fred Schneider after a drunken night at a Chinese restaurant and played their first gig in 1977 at a St. Valentine's Day party for friends. The B-52's sound is marked by the vocals and lush harmonies of Wilson and Pierson, and the generally spoken-word or sprechgesang vocals of Schneider.The band's quirky take on the New Wave sound of their era was a combination of dance and surf music set apart by the unusual guitar tunings used by Ricky Wilson. Their costume thrift-store chic set them apart as well. During the Mesopotamia tour, the band's famous wigs were under the care of Jackie Slayton, one of Athens's leading artists and long-time friend of the band.Their first single, "Rock Lobster", recorded for DB Records in 1978 (see 1978 in music), was an underground success that led to the B-52's performing at CBGB's and Max's Kansas City in New York City. "52 Girls" was the B-side. Two versions of the single were released in the UK that featured the B-side "Running Around".Their debut album, The B-52's, contained re-recorded versions of "Rock Lobster" and "52 Girls", along with six more originals and a remake of Petula Clark's classic "Downtown." It was eventually certified platinum.The album had greater success overseas, especially in Australia, where it hit 7 on the back of three hit singles: "Planet Claire" (43), "Rock Lobster" (3) and "Private Idaho" (11). "Rock Lobster" gave the band its first entry on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
The follow-up, Wild Planet, reached the Top 20 on the Billboard 200 in 1980 and was certified gold. "Private Idaho" became their second Hot 100 entry; around this time the B-52's performed a breakout set on Saturday Night Live and were featured at the Heatwave festival in August 1980.Party Mix! was released next, a remix album that took tracks from the first two LPs and presented them in extended forms.Although recording sessions with David Byrne (of Talking Heads) failed, the recordings were released as the Mesopotamia EP in 1982 (Party Mix! and Mesopotamia would later be combined and released together on a single CD).The Whammy! album in 1983 brought the band into electronic and drum machine experimentation, much to the chagrin of some of their early fans. "Legal Tender" became their third chart single. After the initial pressings of Whammy! were released, copyright issues with Yoko Ono led to the song "Don't Worry" being pulled and replaced on future copies of the album with a new track called "Moon 83", a variation on "There's A Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon)" from their debut album.1984 brought about an eponymous solo album from Fred Schneider (Fred Schneider & the Shake Society) with contributions from bandmates Kate Pierson and Ricky Wilson. Tina Weymouth from the Talking Heads, Keith Haring and RuPaul appeared on the video clip for "Monster", a song about the "monster" in Fred's pants.That year, the B-52's reformed to record Bouncing Off the Satellites. On October 12, 1985 Ricky Wilson died at age 32 of what was originally reported as cancer but was later revealed to be AIDS-related. Devastated, the band went into immediate seclusion and the album sank without any tour or promotion behind it.During the two year hiatus that followed Wilson's death, Strickland switched from drums to guitar, and the B-52's emerged in 1988 with a backing rhythm section which included Sara Lee, a former member of post-punk band, Gang of Four. Their song "Cosmic Thing" was a centerpiece of the soundtrack to the movie Earth Girls are Easy. In 1989 the band released the album Cosmic Thing which became their long-anticipated mainstream breakthrough. "Channel Z," a single from the new album, became an alternative and college radio hit, receiving significant airplay on MTV's modern rock show 120 Minutes."Love Shack" came next. With its party vibe and colorful music video (featuring a cameo by a then-unknown RuPaul) "Love Shack" not only became their first song to hit the US Top 40, but it went on to peak at 3. That peak was matched in early 1990 when "Roam" also hit 3. In Australia, the country that had most embraced the band a decade earlier, "Love Shack" stayed at 1 for 8 weeks.A fourth single, "Deadbeat Club,", which reminisced about the band's early days in Athens and whose video was shot on location and featured a cameo by R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, became a Top 30 hit. The Cosmic Thing album climbed into the Top 5 and earned multi-platinum certification. The group also had a hugely successful tour to support the record.
Continuing to be busy through 1990, Pierson lent her vocals to Iggy Pop's song "Candy," which gave him his first (and only) Hot 100/Top 40 hit. 1991 saw the repackaging and re-release of Schneider's solo record and gave him his first Hot 100 entry when "Monster" climbed to 85, and Pierson again guest-starred on a popular track, this time it being fellow Athens, Georgia band R.E.M's "Shiny Happy People," which hit the Top 10. Pierson appeared on several other songs from the band's chart-topping album, Out of Time.In 1990 Cindy Wilson took time off from the band, with Julee Cruise filling in for her parts on the eventual tour. As a trio, The B-52's released Good Stuff in 1992, which gave them another top 40 hit. It is also the group's most overtly political album, having been activists and fund-raisers for environmental, AIDS and animal rights causes for many years.[4] Subsequent singles were not as successful and the album sold nowhere near as much as Cosmic Thing.The band had its most recent chart entry in 1994 when, as "The BC-52's" they appeared in The Flintstones live-action movie and sang the title song. In the 1990s, ex-Duran Duran drummer, and Falun Gong activist, Sterling Campbell joined the band, but left in 2000 to tour with David Bowie and was replaced that year by Zachary Alford. A career retrospective, Time Capsule: Songs For a Future Generation, appeared in 1998 and Cindy Wilson rejoined the group on two new songs and a tour to promote the collection. A more extensive anthology, Nude on the Moon: The B-52's Anthology appeared in 2002.
As of 2006 the B-52's continue to perform, electrifying audiences with their quirky, innovative style and lush vocals. Recently, the band announced they are working on a new album and a compilation of new remixes of their earlier work. On the band's official website Fred Schneider recently commented that the band is "working away" and looking forward to "another productive session... there is still plenty of work to do".
Tentative titles for new songs that are likely to make the studio album include "Pump", "Funplex", "Juliet of the Spirits", "Hot Corner", "Ultraviolet", and "Let's Keep This Party Going On".
