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Crack that whip!
Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh and producer Robert Margouleff, who worked on the band's iconic 1980 single, "Whip It," reflected on making the classic hit together. They revealed that the song's signature "whip" sound resulted not from a synthesizer, but from an actual whip.
"So you guys actually had to crack a whip?" host Justin Richmond asked the two on the May 19 episode of his podcast Broken Record.
"Yeah, we had to take turns whipping each other," Mothersbaugh joked. "It was awful. There was no such thing as sampling. We had to do everything ourselves. We were like a crazy bunch of alchemists. Yeah, we were completely nuts!"
Released in 1980 as the second single from Devo's third studio album, Freedom of Choice, "Whip It" reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and catapulted the new-wave band to worldwide fame.
Listen to the full episode above.
