Continuing on with the fourth installment of my multi-part “Only assholes don’t like the B-52s” megapost (Part II is here, and part III is here), today’s topic is 1983’s return-to-form album, Whammy!.

After the band cut their losses and issued the ill-fated David Byrne sessions for Mesopotamia as an EP, they returned to the the studio with Steve Stanley, who had produced the first Tom Tom Club album. The B-52s were looking to bring back the playful element to their sound seen lacking in the more avant garde Mesopotamia, so the producer who helped birth both “Wordy Rappinghood” and “Genius of Love” seemed liked a solid choice, and the results were stellar.

Whammy!, although not my favorite favorite B-52s album—that would be Mesopotamia—it’s up there. It’s a strong album from start to finish, not a single bum track on it. Three numbers, “Butterbean,” “Big Bird” and “Queen of Las Vegas” had been recorded with Byrne, but were re-recorded with Stanley. The band’s sound, expanded in African-influenced polyrhythms by Byrne, contracts on Whammy! to mostly synthesizers, guitars and drum machines. Keith Strickland and Ricky Wilson played all the instruments this time, save for sax and trumpet. It was also the first time that all five members of the band sang together on record.
 
“Legal Tender,” an ode to the high life, financed by counterfeit money:
 

 
Below, fun set including “Song for a Future Generation,” “Whammy Kiss,” and “Butter Bean” performed on the Switch TV show in the UK, 1983:
 

 

 
One of the best tracks on Whammy! was their sincere tribute to Yoko Ono, a cover of her 1971 song “Don’t Worry, Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking For Her Hand in the Snow).” “Don’t Worry” would not be on the album’s CD release, due to alleged legal issues with Ono. It was replaced by “Moon 83”—a remake of their earlier track “There’s a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon).” Although this is a great song, too, the Whammy! CD version certainly suffers due to the loss of “Don’t Worry.” But, hey, don’t worry, someone has posted it on YouTube:
 

 
The video for “Song for a Future Generation.” MTV used to play this one all the time:
 

 
And finally, saving the best for last, here’s an incredible concert taped live in Dortmund, Germany for TV broadcast. As far as a document of a “classic” B-52s live show, this is as good as it gets. If you hook up your computer to your TV and turn this up loud, you WILL dance around your home like a fool, I promise you. An ON FIRE version of “Big Bird” happens at 12:12.