It’s the end of the week, and I want to send everyone off into the weekend with the best vibes possible. That’s why the Daily Music Picks newsletter features a weekly segment called Fun Song Fridays! Regardless of era, genre, or style, the criterion is simple: it must deliver the joy and excitement we all need in our lives.
You can access the entire Fun Song Fridays archive here. A playlist featuring the songs covered with this segment is coming soon!
Hello! 😊👋
Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!
Today’s music pick is the biggest hit from the B-52’s, an exuberant, irrepressible earworm.
Genre: Pop, Surf-Rock
Label: Warner
Release Date: June 20, 1989
Vibe: 💓🛖
Not only is “Love Shack” unrelenting fun, but it’s also about a real place in Athens, Georgia. As the band’s multi-hyphenate Keith Strickland told Rolling Stone, “There was a place outside of Athens 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.” Added vocalist Cindy Wilson: “It used to be this funky building with a tin roof that was old and rusty [and] they would have Soul Train lines.” Despite all the oddities, it sounds like a great time, a description that’s just as apt for the group’s canon.
But the track’s runaway success—cracking the Top 5 on the US, UK, and Canadian singles chart—wasn’t an automatic for the B-52’s. Following a decline in popularity and guitarist Ricky Wilson’s passing from AIDS in 1985, the band’s shelf life seemed to be waning. Even as they were in the studio with producer Don Was and Nile Rodgers, “Love Shack” was the last thing recorded for Cosmic Thing and nearly didn’t see the light of day, period. “We almost didn’t play it for him,” explained Strickland,” but we did, and it was still rambling. Don said, ‘This is great.’” By leaning into that unforgettable refrain (” The Love Shack is a little old place where we can get together”), they fashioned one of the zaniest hit singles of the era.
Everything here works, almost in spite of itself. The retro-fied guitar tone, which sounds like it belongs in a Link Wray or Chuck Berry set, vaguely Motown-style harmonizing, and a funky drumbeat that puts the cowbell front and center shouldn’t work together. But, in cases like this, that’s what makes music such a magical medium to assimilate. What appears too kitschy for its own good on paper can come together and create something extraordinary. Like the group itself, “Love Shack” is the loveliest kind of iconoclast, instantly recognizable and, even as a high—level vibe check, utterly irreplaceable. There’s never been another song quite like it.
Also, I had nowhere else to put this, but this tidbit was too good not to include. Apparently, the single’s packaging came with a full-on pop-out love shack you could display in your home. Chalk up yet another win for the 80s right there.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈