Inspiration can strike at any moment and create a hit track that could launch a band into stardom, and that’s exactly what happened to the B-52s with their 1978 new wave classic that inspired John Lennon.
“Rock Lobster” undoubtedly transformed the Athens, Georgia group of friends into a beloved groovy-a-go-go party band. It’s even included in Rolling Stone‘s list of the “Greatest Songs of All Time” at No. 147. The track and its comical lyrics were all thanks to their singer and frontman Fred Schneider.
In an interview with People, the band looked back at the creation of the track and how Schneider was inspired by a less than spectacular slideshow about lobsters.
“I went to this disco in Atlanta called 2001 and they had no money for a light show I guess, so they had slides of puppies and babies and hot dogs and lobsters on a grill. And I thought, “Rock lobster! Rock this, rock that, rock lobster!” explained Schneider.
His bandmate Kate Pierson recalls how he thought “Rock Lobster” would be a great song title, and how he would get high and “jam on poetry” with Keith Strickland. In reality, the hit song was first developed into a poem by the frontman before it was turned into full-fledge lyrics.
“Rock Lobster” was developed by Schneider and guitarist Ricky Wilson, with Pierson remembering how both were snickering over Wilson’s having developed the “stupidest guitar line.” That guitar line ended up becoming a highlight if the track’s popularity.
“Ricky had just been playing something on guitar and he said, “Keith, I wrote the stupidest guitar line.” [demonstrates] One of the best riffs of all time to this day! … Joni Mitchell was a big inspiration, especially to Ricky. He was inspired by her open tuning, and “Rock Lobster” had two strings missing,” said Pierson.
“So Ricky was really playing this riff as two parts, which is still pretty mysterious to me. He was just playing the two parts, one on two strings and one on the other two, but he made it work.”
When the track entered the charts, it wasn’t a No. 1 hit. It landed at No. 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 24 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. B-52s released their first single to enter the charts, with critics calling it “incredibly infectious” and “memorable.” It being a “silly yet utterly enjoyable affair” made it a hit across the board.
“Rock Lobster” even caught the interest of the Beatles icon. Cindy Wilson and Pierson’s fish noises were reminiscent of Yoko Ono, and was noticed by Lennon when he heard it in a club in the Bahamas. It reminded him so much of his wife that he returned to music after a five-year hiatus and developed his last album Double Fantasty.
“Cindy does this scream that was inspired by Yoko Ono. John heard it in some club in the Bahamas, and the story goes that he calls up Yoko and says, Get the axe out – they’re ready for us again! Yoko has said that she and John were listening to us in the weeks before he died,” said Strickland.
Yoko confirmed to SongFacts that they listened to “Rock Lobster” and, “Listening to the B-52s, John said he realized that my time had come. So he could record an album by making me an equal partner and we won’t get flack like we used to up to then.”
Related: 1968 No.1 Hit, Written by Robin Gibb About Death Row, Is Still a Soft Rock Classic 58 Years Later
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