Party Mix!

Party Mix! is a remix album by American new wave band the B-52's, released in 1981 by Warner Bros. (US) and Island Records (Europe, Japan). It features three songs from their first studio album, The B-52's (1979), and three songs from their second LP, Wild Planet (1980). It has received generally good reviews. Commercially, the album peaked at number 55 in the US and number 36 in the UK.

Party Mix!
Remix album by the B-52's
Released	July 1981
Recorded	1979–1980
Studio	Compass Point (Nassau, Bahamas)[1]
Genre	New wave post-punk
Length	28:29
Label	Island Warner Bros.[2]
Producer	Rhett Davies the B-52's Chris Blackwell
The B-52's chronology
Wild Planet (1980) Party Mix! (1981) Mesopotamia (1982)
Singles from Party Mix!
"Give Me Back My Man (Party Mix)" Released: 1981

Background

The album was released between the band's second album, Wild Planet (1980), and their Mesopotamia EP (1982).^[3] It was devised as a stop-gap release by the band's manager, Gary Kurfirst, while the band was working on the Mesopotamia sessions.^[4]

On the original vinyl, the six-song collection featured songs from their first two albums remixed and sequenced to form two long tracks, one on each side.^[5] On the CD version, however, the six songs were their own individual tracks.

In 1991, Party Mix! and a 1990 remix version of Mesopotamia were combined and released as one CD in the US.^[6] In Europe, both albums were made available on separate CDs, with Mesopotamia retaining the original U.S. mix.

Reception

Commercial

Party Mix! spent 11 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 55.^[7]

Critical

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
Christgau's Record Guide	A−[9]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[10]
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide	[11]
Select	3/5[12]

Robert Christgau of The Village Voice observed that the album's "implicit equation of party and disco offends old new-wavers, but at EP list for half an hour's music the extravagance is recommended."^[9] Trouser Press opined that the album was "functional for discos but antithetical to the B-52's' minimalist precepts."^[3]

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann stated, "Since the group's bouncy songs are already dance-ready, this makes for alternatives rather than real improvements, even from a dancefloor perspective."^[8] In 2022, Treble magazine named Party Mix! one of the ten essential remix albums, and wrote: "Party Mix! is such a part of the canon that DJ Shadow and Soulwax would reference it in a mashup 21 years later".^[13]

Track listing

Side one

1. "Party Out of Bounds" (Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, Ricky Wilson, Cindy Wilson, Kate Pierson) – 5:12
2. "Private Idaho" (Schneider, Strickland, R. Wilson, C. Wilson, Pierson) – 4:04
3. "Give Me Back My Man" (Schneider, Strickland, R. Wilson, C. Wilson) – 7:02

Side two

1. "Lava" (The B-52's) – 6:08
2. "Dance This Mess Around" (The B-52's) – 2:59
3. "52 Girls" (Jeremy Ayers, R. Wilson) – 2:58

• Side one: original versions from Wild Planet (1980)^[1]
• Side two: original versions from The B-52's (1979)^[1]

Personnel

Credits adapted from Party Mix / Mesopotamia CD liner notes.^[1]

• Rhett Davies – producer (1–3)
• The B-52's – producers (1–3)
• Daniel Coulombe – remixing
• Steven Stanley – remixing
• Paul Wexler – remixing
• Chris Blackwell – producer (4–6)
• Robert Ash – associate producer (4–6)
• Tony Wright – cover
• Lynn Goldsmith – photograph

Chart performance

Chart (1981)	Peak position
Australia Albums Chart[citation needed]	79
UK Albums (OCC)[14]	36
U.S. Billboard 200	55[7]