Songoftheday 6/10/18 - I got sincerity that's bonifide, and a heart so fine it's certified...
from the album Good Stuff (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7
Today's song of the day comes from the quirky alternative rock band from Athens, Georgia, the B-52's, who broke into the mainstream consciousness of America in 1989 with their fifth studio album Cosmic Thing, which spun off three big pop hits with "Deadbeat Club" and a pair of top-3 singles in "Roam" and "Love Shack". However, during the tour behind the album, member Cindy Wilson (whose brother and bandmate Ricky had passed away from AIDS in 1985) left the group to take time off to raise kids, leaving fellow beehiver Kate Pierson, shouting camp frontman Fred Schneider, and drummer turned guitarist Keith Strickland to record the act's next album, Good Stuff. Released in 1992, the title track from the record served as the lead single, with Fred vamping yet again over Kate's disaffected vocal to recreate the magic of their last album, which was again partially produced by Don Was of Was (Not Was). However, especially with Cindy missing, the record seemed a little like it was trying too hard. The music video brings them to a foam party, with even RuPaul making a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance at the 3:45 mark...
Nevertheless, "Good Stuff" was a huge rock radio hit, spending four weeks at #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, while landing the band their fourth top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in August of 1992. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in the UK (#21), New Zealand (#23), Canada (#24), Belgium (#25), Ireland (#26), the Netherlands (#28), and Germany (#37). The second release from Good Stuff, "Tell It Like It T-I-Is" (that title was namechecked on "Good Stuff"), missed the pop chart in America, but hit #13 on Billboard's Modern Rock list, and peaked at #61 in the UK. Two other singles, the topical "Revolution Earth" and the nonsensical "Is That You, Mo-Dean?", were released, but failed to chart.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the group performing the single on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno...
And again in concert in 1998, with Cindy Wilson back in the band...
...and a clip for VH1 that same year...
And lastly, from Mexico onstage in 2001...
Up tomorrow: Belgian dance act wants you to get active.
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