Is there a happier song than this one?
Love Shack by The B-52's
Songfacts®:
This was inspired by a 1970 Temptations song called "Psychedelic Shack," which had the refrain: "Psychedelic Shack, that's where it's at." The location of the actual Love Shack is not clear, but in 2004 MSNBC reported that an unoccupied, 5-room cabin with a tin roof in Athens, Georgia that had recently burned down was probably the dwelling in question. Kate Pierson lived there in the '70s.
This introduced The B-52's to a mainstream audience. They had a strong cult following, especially in the gay community, but not a broad audience.
Towards the end, the music stops and Cindy Wilson wails: "Tin Roof, Rusted." The line is commonly misheard.
The lyrics are fun and harmless, but they can be interpreted as being about a place where people go to have sex. At Disney World, you will never see Mickey Mouse dancing to it - really - they refuse to play it at Disney weddings.
The video was shot at a house in Upstate New York belonging to a friend of the band. He can be seen in the garden as the camera sweeps by the window.
Drag queen Rupaul, unknown at the time, is in the video. He had a dance hit called "Supermodel" a few years later.
Nile Rodgers and Don Was produced this. Rodgers has produced hits for Peter Gabriel, Madonna and David Bowie, as well as his group Chic, who had Disco hits with "
Le Freak" and "
Good Times." Was has worked with Jewel, Bob Dylan, Elton John and The Rolling Stones. He also had his own group in the '80s called Was Not Was, who had a hit with "Walk The Dinosaur."
This was the B-52's first Top 10 hit in the US.
The group performed this on an episode of
The Simpsons as "Glove Slap."
Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson performed this at the 2002 Jammy Awards with the group Particle. Since the awards honored jam bands, they stretched the song into an extended jam.
Over the years, various adult video stores have cropped up using the Love Shack name. There was also a movie released on video in 2010 called
Love Shack, which was about a group of porn stars who get together to make a film in honor of a deceased producer.
The horns were provided by The Uptown Horns, a New York-based section that toured with the J. Geils Band on their Freeze Frame tour and played on Tom Waits'
Rain Dogs album.
Killer guitar solo at 2:17 - 2:56.
