45 Years Ago Today: The B-52s Make SNL Debut

On January 26, 1980, Saturday Night Live made of its many contributions to popular culture when The B-52s made their network television debut on an episode of the show hosted by Teri Garr.

As Boing Boing noted in 2022, their appearance that night “sent a generation of listeners to the record store the next day and launched a thousand bands.”

Indeed, their twin performances of “Rock Lobster” and “Dance This Mess Around” were a breakthrough for new wave music, much like the 1981 debut of Funky 4 Plus One would be for Rap a year later.

Both bands’ groundbreaking performances are covered in in NBC’s Monday night broadcast of Questlove‘s three-hour documentary “Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music.”

The B-52s 1980 SNL debut is also notable for featuring the band’s original guitarist Ricky Wilson, who passed away in 1985. His unusual guitar tuning were an early hallmark of the band.

Asked about the band’s first SNL performance in a 2019 interview with Flood Magazine, lead singer Fred Schneider recalled, “We were deathly afraid. We’d never done TV before. I was just nervous as hell. I think everyone else was, too.”

“We weren’t camera-ready like most kids today,” he added. “That wasn’t us. We were new-wavers. Not prepared for mainstream anything. It changed everything for us. Our record was going off the charts, then all of a sudden it goes back up. ‘Rock Lobster’ almost made the Top 40. Our record went platinum the next summer.”

The band would return to SNL ten years later when they performed “Cosmic Thing” and “Channel Z” on April 21, 1990.

Though there’s been no official word from the band or NBC, rumor has it The B-52s will be among the bands playing next month’s SNL50: The Homecoming Concert at Radio City Music Hall.

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