The B-52s' 'Cosmic Thing' album turns 25 today
If you're going to do a comeback, do it like this.
Twenty-five years ago today, the B-52s bounced back in a huge way with the release of Cosmic Thing, which re-established the band after a down period following the death of founding member Ricky Wilson in 1985.
Cosmic Thing keeps the B-52s' fun new-wave sound, but producers Nile Rodgers (who worked with Pharrell and Daft Punk on last year's mega-hit Get Lucky) and Don Was (who has worked with nearly everyone in the music business) added layers of irresistible funk to the record.
The public clearly approved -- the album sold more than 4 million copies and generated a couple of huge hits in Love Shack and Roam.
Here's a look back at what everybody was groovin' to in the summer of 1989:
'Love Shack'
This was the record's signature hit, and it peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's an ode to an actual "funky old shack" near Athens, Ga., that singer Kate Pierson lived in when the band first started out in the 1970s. ( It burned down in 2004.) See if you can spot a young RuPaul dancing in the background of the video.
'Roam'
This was another huge success, also peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
'Deadbeat Club'
This one wasn't a big hit (it peaked at No. 30 on the Hot 100 in early 1990), but it's beloved today by Gen-Xers as a proto-slacker anthem. Bonus: R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe appears in the video.