Songoftheday 5/15/19 - Let's ride with the family down the street, through the courtesy of Fred's two feet...
from the album The Flintstones (Original Soundtrack) (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 1
Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock heroes from Athens, Georgia, The B-52's followed their huge success in the late 1980s with their Good Stuff album, which spun off the top-40 pop hit "Good Stuff". But by that time only Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, and Keith Strickland had remained in the band, as they were settling into a recording hiatus that wouldn't see another new album for 16 years. But before that, the trio somehow decided to record a track for the live-action film treatment of the Hanna Barbera cartoon classic The Flintstones. Also appearing in the movie as "The B.C.-52's", they recreated the theme song to the animated series. It's about as cringy as you can imagine, so here it is...
"(Meet) The Flintstones" became the B-52's' fifth and sadly so far last top-40 pop hit in America in June of 1994. Like most inane novelty records, it spent a single week there and only two months total on the chart. However the remixes of the song helped it climb to #3 on Billboard magazine's Dance Club Play chart. Furthermore, internationally this was a huge success, reaching the top ten in Belgium (#2), the UK (#3), the Netherlands (#5), Spain (#7), Norway (#8), and Germany (#9). It also made the top-20 in Austria (#11), Switzerland (#12), New Zealand (#15), Poland (#18), Sweden (#18), and Canada (#19).
They have since been mostly riding on their legacy, releasing a pair of greatest hits sets, with one in 1998 containing a new track, "Debbie" (for Debbie Harry of Blondie), which saw the return of Cindy Wilson, that hit #35 on the Modern Rock radio chart at #32 on the Dance Club Play list. They also had a minor hit in the UK with a remixed version of "Love Shack" in 1999 (UK #66). In 2008, they officially all reunited for their most recent studio album, Funplex, which just missed the albums sales top ten at #11, and lead single "Funplex" going to #14 on the Dance chart, and the second, "Juliet Of The Spirits", landing at #8 on that list. Since then, Schneider, Pierson, and Wilson continue to tour, but Strickland is only onboard as a member for any studio projects.
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And here's the Space Cowboy remix of the track, which hit the top three on the dance chart...
As an aside, "Meet The Flintstones" is actually a Grammy-winning song courtesy of YouTube acappella singer Jacob Collier, who won Best Arrangment - Instrumentals and Vocals for his treatment of the song in 2017...
Up tomorrow: A female rap newcomer feels the groove.
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