Love Shack

"Love Shack" is a song by American new wave band the B-52's from their fifth studio album, Cosmic Thing (1989). It was released on June 20, 1989, and was produced by Don Was. The song was a comeback for the band, following their decline in popularity in the mid-1980s and the death of guitarist Ricky Wilson in 1985. "Love Shack" is considered the band's signature song and has been a concert staple since its release. Commercially, the single topped the charts in Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand and reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 (becoming their first top-40 hit), and number five on the Canadian RPM 100 Singles chart. The song was later named one of the 365 Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America and one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone. Background The genesis of the song came from B-52's frontman Fred Schneider, and was inspired by a club outside of Athens, Georgia, called the Hawaiian Ha-Le: "It was an African-American club that had a lot of good shows. It looked like a shack, you wouldn't expect it to be what it was, and when you opened the door, it was a wild band playing." Kate Pierson stated that it was "kind of like the juke joint in The Color Purple", and that the band would hang out there with a large "bohemian" group of friends. Cindy Wilson added, "It used to be this funky building with a tin roof that was old and rusty. They would have Soul Train [dance] lines." Another inspiration for the song was thought to be a cabin near Athens with a tin roof, where the band had conceived "Rock Lobster", a single from their 1979 debut album. The five-room cabin, which was located on a dairy farm, had once been rented by Pierson and her then-husband, after they had relocated to Athens in the 1970s. Author Mats Sexton recalled that Pierson had stated several of the band's early songs were conceived in the cabin through jamming, including "many different guitar riffs and assorted lyrics". The cabin, which was on the cusp of being reoccupied and renovated, burned down in December 2004.