Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 240 - The B-52's

Wild Planet - The B-52's

Island Records (UK) / Warner Bros. (U.S.)

Produced by Rhett Davies and The B-52's

Released 27th August 1980

UK Chart #18

US Chart #18

Personnel
    Kate Pierson – keyboard bass, organ, vocals, keyboards
    Fred Schneider – vocals, cowbell, glockenspiel, additional keyboards
    Keith Strickland – drums, drum machine, Venus sounds
    Cindy Wilson – bongos, vocals, tambourine
    Ricky Wilson – guitars

Singles from Wild Planet

Give Me Back My Man / Give Me Back My Man (Instrumental)

July 1980

UK Release

UK Chart #61

Dirty Back Road / Give Me Back My Man

August 1980

Netherlands, Spain, Poland and Germany Release

No Chart Details

Private Idaho / Party Out of Bounds (Instrumental)

September 1980

US Release

US Chart #74

Strobe Light / Dirty Back Road

November 1980

UK Release

Did Not Chart 

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Wild Planet is the second Studio Album from the Athens, Georgia natives The B-52's. It was released on this day in 1980. Hard to believe it was 36 years ago!

Now, the history of music is littered with bands who were unable to top the sheer quality of their Debut Album with the second one being somewhat of a disappointment. That is not the case with Wild Planet. As hard as it seems, The B-52's went above and beyond their most excellent Debut Record and delivered a second album that is way superior in everyway possible from the quality of the production to the loveability (is that a word?) of the songs.

A few of the songs had been around for a couple of years and had been staples of their live performance but when it came down to recording the Debut they wanted to hold back some tracks from being recorded as they were already thinking ahead to a killer second album.

Many fans of The B-52's (and I include myself in this) consider Wild Planet to be their best album ever. It's easy to see why with such a collection of songs that showed us still the quirky nature of the band (Party Out of Bounds, and Quiche Lorraine), their kinda rocky edge (Runnin' Around, Private Idaho, Strobe Light and Devil In My Car)  and also their wonderful pop sensibilities (Dirty Back Road and Give Me Back My Man).

Ultimately what the album showed was that The B-52's were not just a laugh and a joke band but they had between them some serious musical chops. Every track on the album was co-writes between various members of the band the only exception being Dirty Back Road that was a co-write between Ricky Wilson and Robert Waldrop (I don't know much about him but he co-wrote a number of songs by The B-52's - Hero Worship, Deep Sleep, Mesopotamia, Roam, and Revolution Earth).

And so that completes a week of albums from the 1980s. Not sure what will be up next week but hopefully they'll be as good as some of the albums we have posted about this week.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!