History Trivia / TheB52s

** Kate Pierson has guest vocals on two Music/{{REM}} songs: "Me in Honey" and "Shiny Happy People", both on the ''Out of Time'' album. She also guest starred on [[Music/TheStooges Iggy Pop]]'s "Candy" from his ''Brick By Brick'' album.

** Performed the more widely recognized second theme song for ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife''.

** This also applies behind the scenes as well. David Byrne, who produced ''Mesopotamia'', was previously lead vocalist and guitarist for the Music/TalkingHeads, while Nile Rodgers and Don Was, who produced ''Cosmic Thing'' and co-produced ''Good Stuff'', were, respectively, lead guitarist for Music/{{Chic}} and bassist for Music/WasNotWas.

** ''Mesopotamia'' was originally meant to be a ten-track album, only to be whittled down to an EP thanks to hurdles faced during production. Namely, the band ran into CreativeDifferences with producer Music/DavidByrne, who took a much more subdued approach to the music that the band felt were lacking life; Chris Blackwell didn't like the tracks that much either. On top of this, Creator/WarnerBrosRecords rushed the band so much that they gave up making the album entirely, cobbling the six tracks they ''were'' able to finish into an EP. Of the four tracks left on the cutting room floor, three were re-recorded for ''Whammy!'' and the fourth went unreleased.

* SignatureSong:
** "Love Shack", which reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
** "Rock Lobster" deserves a mention as well, but it didn't get nearly as much airplay (only reaching #56).

* FanNickname: The self-titled album is often known as 'the yellow album'.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The original single versions of "Rock Lobster" and "52 Girls" have never appeared on CD despite their historical significance. It is said that they were going to be on the box set that became ''Time Capsule''. Also, the song "Don't Worry" which was on the first version of ''Whammy!'' is a literal example of this trope, as copyright issues mean it is unlikely to ever be released on CD or digitally.

* TroubledProduction: ''Bouncing Off the Satellites'' was this. Going into the sessions, Ricky Wilson (guitar) found out he had AIDS and told Keith Strickland (drums) about it. Ricky was nervous and didn't want anyone else to know, and only told Keith because he was his best friend (in particular, Ricky knew it would ruin his sister Cindy). To discuss the matter, Ricky and Keith took several trips to New York together, away from the rest of the band. It was agreed that the band should work on another album. First, they recorded "Detour Thru Your Mind", "Wig", "Communicate" and a jam called "Creature in a Black Bikini". A short time later, they recorded "Summer of Love" and "Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland", and intended to release them as pre-album singles whilst they were getting the rest of the album ready. However, the record company wanted them to record new versions with more synthier arrangements, so they reluctantly agreed. They spent some time recording these new versions, and recorded three more songs for the album - "Theme for a Nude Beach", "Ain't It a Shame" and "She Brakes for Rainbows". These tracks have a notably downbeat sound and are more synth based although still feature guitar. The band played Rock in Rio in 1985, but otherwise did not tour. With Ricky's obviously deteriorating health, he and Keith told Fred and Kate they could contribute some solo material recorded with different bands, so they used one track apiece, Juicy Jungle and Housework respectively. Cindy found out about Ricky's condition three days before he died, when he was in the hospital and a nurse called her and told her. The band were distraught, but still wanted to finish the album as it was Ricky's wish. Keith and session musicians helped add overdubs to the album in the final mixing process (Keith playing some of the guitar), but the rest of the band were not involved. This final process made the album even more synthier than planned, because they just wanted to see the album out. After Ricky's passing on, the band took a hiatus and nearly broke up with only minimal promotional appearances for the singles and no touring, but reformed for the album "Cosmic Thing", which contained several tributes to Ricky.
** ''Mesopotamia'', ''Good Stuff'' and ''Funplex'' also had troubled production. In the case of ''Mesopotamia'', producer David Byrne produced the tracks in a subdued fashion that the band felt was lacking life, Chris Blackwell didn't like the tracks that much, and the record company rushed the band so much that they gave up making the album and just released six tracks as as an EP, re-recording three planned tracks for ''Whammy!'' and not releasing the fourth one. ''Good Stuff'' was difficult because Keith had to arrange and mix the entire album himself, and their usual jamming sessions were not going as planned due to the absence of Cindy, who was normally involved in the creative process. Keith mainly went ahead with the album because didn't think he would get the chance again. ''Funplex'' was troubled because the band's contract with Warner Bros was not going well and they had to wait for the contract to end before they could put out the album on another label. During this interim, the band had an album planned that was never finished due to Warner refusing to think it had commercial potential.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Ricky Wilson - the band's original guitarist - died of AIDS in 1985. He was quite integral to the songwriting and used a unique rhythmic style, with strange tunings he came up with himself. Keith Strickland, who always worked on the basic song sketches with Ricky before the rest of the band improvised the vocals, became the band's guitarist and main songwriter afterwards, and had serious writer's block for a period in the 90s because of the lack of Ricky's input.
** Which meant that ''Bouncing'' was padded out with Keith Strickland on guitar on some tracks, keyboards, session musicians, solo tracks from Fred and Kate.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The original single versions of "Rock Lobster" and "52 Girls" have never appeared on CD despite their historical significance. It is said that they were going to be on the box set that became ''Time Capsule''. Also, the song "Don't Worry" which was on the first version of Whammy is a literal example of this trope, as copyright issues mean it is unlikely to ever be released on CD or digitally.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The first pressing of ''Whammy'' included a song called "Don't Worry". The band credited the song to Music/YokoOno out of tribute to her song "Don't Worry Kyoko", though it was not a cover. The band did not realise however, that doing this they would have to pay royalties to Yoko. When Yoko's lawyers found out, they demanded so much money in songwriting royalties that the band nearly went broke. They agreed to replace the track with "Moon '83" on later pressings. "Moon '83" is a remix of "There's a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon)" which had previously been released as the BSide of "Legal Tender". Yoko was already a fan of the band and remains good friends with them. It has been noted that the real trouble came from not asking her lawyers first, had they done so, it would have been easier to keep it in print. Interestingly enough it stayed in print in Sweden, and there was never a later pressing - possibly because the band credited the song to themselves the whole time on this pressing.

** ''Mesopotamia'', ''Good Stuff'' and ''Funplex'' also had troubled production. In the case of ''Mesopotamia'', producer David Byrne produced the tracks in a subdued fashion that the band felt was lacking life, Chris Blackwell didn't like the tracks that much, and the record company rushed the band so much that they gave up making the album and just released six tracks as as an EP, re-recording three planned tracks for ''Whammy'' and not releasing the fourth one. ''Good Stuff'' was difficult because Keith had to arrange and mix the entire album himself, and their usual jamming sessions were not going as planned due to the absence of Cindy, who was normally involved in the creative process. Keith mainly went ahead with the album because didn't think he would get the chance again. ''Funplex'' was troubled because the band's contract with Warner Bros was not going well and they had to wait for the contract to end before they could put out the album on another label. During this interim, the band had an album planned that was never finished due to Warner refusing to think it had commercial potential.