- The “Love Shack” is in many ways a state of mind; a place where people of all stripes come for a groovy good time. The band drew inspiration from the club in the movie The Color Purple, and also from a real club outside of Athens, Georgia, called the Hawaiian Ha-Le, where they would hang out. This place drew a multifarious crowd of hippies, scenesters, and lots of students from the nearby University of Georgia. Drummer Keith Strickland has also mentioned keg parties out in the country as another inspiration.In a Songfacts interview with B-52s singer Cindy Wilson, she explained: “When you’re jamming, everybody is conjuring up their own images. Sometimes we’re all singing at the same time and later you go back and you hear what you’re doing. I personally was thinking about this bar that was out in the country [the Hawaiian Ha-Le]. It was a really cool place – a run-down love shack kind of thing, but it was a disco. It was a really interesting place.”
- In 1970, the Temptations released a song called “Psychedelic Shack,” which has the refrain: “Psychedelic Shack, that’s where it’s at.” This was clearly an influence on “Love Shack,” although Fred Schneider insists he wasn’t thinking of any other song when he came up with the title.
- The album was recorded at Dreamland Studios near Woodstock, New York, a town famous for giving off lots of love vibes (although the Woodstock festival took place 50 miles away in Bethel). According to Fred Schneider, he was driving up there, there thinking of song titles when “Love Shack” popped into his head. When he, Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson worked on the lyrics, they thought about what the “Love Shack” meant. For Schneider, it was the Hawaiian Ha-Le.
- This introduced The B-52s to a mainstream audience. They had a strong cult following, especially in the gay community and on college radio, but “Love Shack” broke them big. Many listeners who discovered them through this song had no idea they had been around for over a decade and had released four previous albums.”Love Shack” was their first entry on the US Top 40 (their most popular song to this point: “Rock Lobster“). The follow-up single, “Roam,” also made #3, but pop success proved fleeting and they never got higher than #28 (“Good Stuff” – 1992) with any subsequent releases.
- One of the most famous breakdowns in pop music comes near the end of this song, when the music stops and Fred Schneider asks, “You’re what?”Cindy Wilson replies with one of the most famous misinterpreted lines in pop music, as she wails, “Tin Roof, Rusted.” The line is commonly misheard, often as something like, “Hennnnn-ry, busted.”This section came from a happy accident: the track stopped as Wilson was doing her vocal, and she just kept singing, which gave them the idea to stop the music in this section. As for the line itself, there were rumors that “tin roof, rusted” meant a pregnant woman. According to Wilson, it’s just her recollection of the rusty roof at the Hawaiian Ha-Le.
- For Kate Pierson, the actual Love Shack is where she lived in the ’70s: a five-room cabin with a tin roof in Athens, Georgia. The band would sometimes work up songs there, including “Rock Lobster.” It really was set way back in the middle of a field (off of Jefferson River Road), with no plumbing or running water (an outhouse was nearby). The shack was later renovated, but in 2004 it burned down.
- 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 who can be seen in the garden as the camera sweeps by the window. It was directed by Adam Bernstein, the go-to director for irreverent videos. His other work includes “Baby Got Back” for Sir Mix-A-Lot, “Hey Ladies” for Beastie Boys, and several episodes of the TV series Breaking Bad.The clip was meant to capture the vibe of their shows: a big party where everyone’s invited, and spontaneous dancing is likely to break out. Someone on set had a big-as-a-whale Chrysler convertible that the band takes to the love shack at the beginning. Partygoers included friends of the band, along with their touring musicians Zack Alford, Sara Lee and Pat Irwin. The dance line is something the band often did; Fred Schneider’s spotlight dance is called The Panty Fling, where you pull down your undies and throw them away.
