CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Party Out of Bounds

original song written, composed, and performed by The B-52's

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ7140930 ↗
Source-derived summary

"Party Out of Bounds" is a song by American new wave band the B-52's, from their second album, Wild Planet (1980). Featured with the other dancefloor-bound tracks from the album, the song peaked at number five on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1980 as an album cut and has long been a staple of alternative/new wave dance club playlists. Lyrically, the song is a guide on how to better plan house parties in order to prevent potential disasters. An instrumental dub mix was included on the B-side of the vinyl 45 rpm single "Private Idaho".

The following year, another mix of "Party Out of Bounds" appeared on the B-52's' Party Mix! EP, remixed by Daniel Coulombe and Steven Stanley to feature elements of the dub mix, embellished with echoes and additional keyboard effects. Two years later, Stanley produced and engineered the B-52's' 1983 album Whammy!.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Party Out of Bounds” as original song written, composed, and performed by The B-52's. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Party, Bounds and original.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980, 1983—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1980. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Party, Bounds and original providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Party Out of Bounds”, the useful work is to connect “original song written, composed, and performed by The B-52's” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7140930. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980 and 1983.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Party Out of Bounds”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Party Out of Bounds primary sources, Party Out of Bounds archive and Party research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Party Out of Bounds”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Party Out of Bounds” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.