The dance floor’s never been the same since The B-52’s set out from Athens, Georgia, on its way to becoming the world’s greatest party band. Now, their early run of classic releases, all featuring newly remastered audio, will be collected in “The Warner and Reprise Years“.
Two versions will be available: a 9LP set—pressed on a rainbow of colored vinyl and limited to 2,000 copies, exclusively through Rhino.com—and an 8CD edition. Arriving June 20th in celebration of Pride Month, the vinyl collection showcases the band’s kaleidoscopic catalogue in full colour: The B-52’s (yellow), Wild Planet (red), Mesopotamia (blue), Party Mix! (green), Whammy! (smokey), Bouncing Off the Satellites (pink), Cosmic Thing (orange), and Good Stuff (purple), issued as a double LP. The CD version will be released the same day.
Spanning 1979 to 1992, the albums collected here chart the creative and commercial evolution of the B-52’s—an era that saw the band sell over 20 million records worldwide. Five of the eight albums in the set have been certified Gold or higher by the RIAA, including “Cosmic Thing” (4x Platinum), their self-titled debut (Platinum), “Wild Planet”, “Whammy!”, and the Grammy -nominated “Good Stuff” (Gold).
The collection also highlights some of their best-known songs, including “Rock Lobster,” “Private Idaho,” “Mesopotamia,” “Legal Tender,” “Channel Z,” and “Good Stuff.” “Cosmic Thing“—produced by Don Was and Nile Rodgers—remains the group’s biggest commercial success, powered by the back-to-back hits “Love Shack” and “Roam” . At the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards, the band won Best Group Video and Best Art Direction for “Love Shack.” nods followed for “Roam.”
Formed nearly 50 years ago in Athens, Georgia, The B-52’s—Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson, Ricky Wilson, and Keith Strickland—quickly became one of the most distinctive and beloved bands of their era. With a sound that fused surf rock, punk energy, and retro-kitsch cool, they turned party anthems into defining pop culture moments—becoming one of music’s most joyful and enduring bands.
Quite simply, no band sounded or looked like The B-52’s when they exploded on the scene at the end of the ’70s. Formed by siblings Cindy and Ricky Wilson on vocals and guitar, singer/keyboardist Kate Pierson, drummer/multi-instrumentalist Keith Strickland and vocalist/poet Fred Schneider, the women sported beehive hairdos and offered ethereal vocals as a counterpoint to Schneider’s distinctive, animated Sprechgesang, delivered in an oft-imitated shout more than sung. Wilson’s nervy guitar and Pierson’s burbling organ evoked surf rock and post-punk, and the group’s thrift store aesthetic and genuine love of kitsch culture made them a group for all seasons. Their self-titled debut, featuring the minor hit “Rock Lobster” and “Dance This Mess Around,” was hailed by pop critics and generations of musicians from John Lennon to Dave Grohl. The album’s critical success spurred follow-up “Wild Planet” (like its predecessor, recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas) to reach the Top 20 of the Billboard 200, and made a striking appearance as a 1980 musical guest on the variety show Saturday Night Live.
The B-52’s hit their first major stumble with the sessions to “Mesopotamia”, which found them chafing under the ideas of Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, who served as the EP’s producer. (Delays in recording necessitated the release of “Party Mix!” – dance mixes of three tracks apiece from “The B-52’s” and “Wild Planet”.) 1983’s “Whammy!” offered some bounce-back with their third straight gold record But the toughest road was ahead: after completing work on the sessions for Bouncing Off the Satellites in 1985, Ricky Wilson succumbed to AIDS, having only told Strickland he was battling the disease. He was only 32 years old.
With “Bouncing” receiving little promotion and no tour, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if the grieving bandmates called it a day. Instead, one of the decade’s most unlikely comebacks happened. With Strickland switching to guitar full-time and producers Nile Rodgers and Don Was adding production flourishes, 1989’s “Cosmic Thing” became a blockbuster, spinning off the Top 5 hits “Love Shack” and “Roam,” selling more than four million copies in America alone. The band also became darlings of MTV: “Love Shack,” featuring a then-unknown RuPaul, was in heavy rotation, while “Deadbeat Club” paid homage to the band’s hometown of Athens, which had become a hotbed for alt-rock greatness thanks to fellow late ’80s and early ’90s hitmakers R.E.M. (whose frontman Michael Stipe cameoed in the video).
Some single-only rarities and exclusive material has been released on two compilations by Rhino in 1998 and 2002; the label has also released a 1979 live set digitally and on vinyl for Record Store Day, and expanded “Cosmic Thing” for its 30th anniversary with single material and concert performances from 1990. The group’s final album, 2008’s “Funplex”, was released by Astralwerks.
“The Warner Reprise Years“, available June 20th, brings together the six albums and two EPs the quirky quintet put together between 1979 and 1992 – a period where they went from cult favourites to unlikely hitmakers.
The Fat Angel Sings 