The B-52's

Born in the mid-'70s in a Chinese restaurant in Athens, Georgia, the B-52's mixed kookie alternative pop with brazen amateurism in a day-glo new wave package that took them from college cult to global chart fame. The singles "Love Shack" and "Roam" — both on Cosmic Thing — are perennial feel-good party favorites.

The B-52's became a fixture within the rock underground after a handful of critically lauded gigs at CBGBs in New York, and in 1979 their self-titled debut was released. The album contains the band's distinctive hallmarks: Fred Schneider's carnivalesque vocals over staunch backup from Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson.

In 1983, following a half-baked collaboration with the Talking Heads' David Byrne, the B-52's released Whammy!, which added the electronic muscle of synth and drum machine to their ever-solid funk foundations. Each track is a juicy morsel of dance-floor fun, typified by "Butterbean," a frenetic ode to Athens' favorite vegetable.

The B-52's occupy a unique, relentlessly quirky niche in pop. At times they're leftfield, arty, and lyrically obscure, but they're also capable of storming the charts with stomping crowd-pleasers destined for classic status. Forever trapped in a zany, cartoonish world of '50s sci-fi lunacy and experimental surf music, the B-52's rarely leave their listeners without an enormous sense of well-being. How can anyone resist the very notion of a "Love Shack" or a "Rock Lobster"?