Bouncing Off the Satellites

Bouncing off the Satellites is the fourth studio album by American new wave band the B-52's, released on September 8, 1986. It was recorded in July 1985 and was produced by Tony Mansfield. Founding member and guitarist Ricky Wilson died of AIDS after the album was completed, but several months prior to the album's release. With the band too distraught to tour, the album received minimal promotion and failed to yield any hit singles despite some radio stations initially giving a considerable amount of airplay to "Summer of Love," which managed to peak at No. 3 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. Despite the airplay the song received, the band's record label did not promote the album due to the band's lack of TV or promotional appearances; as a result, it only reached No. 85 on the Billboard 200 chart.

The album was seen as darker and more melancholy than the band's previous work, having more ballads. It was, by most accounts, a critical and commercial failure, though three tracks from the album - "Summer of Love", "Wig", and "Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland" - have been performed semi-regularly by the band on tour since the 1990s.

Recording and death of Ricky Wilson
Recording sessions for Bouncing off the Satellites began in July 1985.

A backwards message was deliberately inserted into the album by the B-52's. The message occurs in the song "Detour Thru Your Mind", in the last 30 seconds of the track: Fred Schneider says (slowly and distinctly), "I buried my parakeet in the backyard. Oh no, you're playing the record backwards. Watch out, you might ruin your needle."

During the recording, guitarist Ricky Wilson had been suffering from AIDS. None of the other band members other than Strickland were aware of his illness. Strickland later stated that Wilson "was very protective of Cindy and his family." In an interview, Kate Pierson stated that Wilson had kept his illness secret from his bandmates because he "did not want anyone to worry about him or fuss about him." Because of this and the lack of new material for the album, Wilson and Strickland allowed Pierson and Fred Schneider to contribute solo material they had been working on at the time; they contributed one track each for the album, "Housework" and "Juicy Jungle", respectively. On October 12, 1985, Wilson finally succumbed to the illness, at the age of 32, and though Strickland and a few session musicians worked on overdubs for the recorded tracks, the rest of the band were not involved. Devastated at Wilson's death, the band went into seclusion and did not tour to promote the album. Nevertheless, Bouncing Off the Satellites eventually reached 85 on the Billboard 200. Cindy went into a deep depression after her brother's death, while Strickland retreated to Woodstock, New York, and Pierson and Schneider stayed in New York City. The band initially felt that it would be impossible to continue without Ricky until they reformed in 1988 for the recording of their next album Cosmic Thing.

Reception
The album debuted on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart at #97 on October 4, 1986 and peaked at #85 the following week. By the third week it had fallen out of the Top 100 and was off the chart by the second week of 1987.

Personnel
Band Additional musicians
 * Fred Schneider – vocals
 * Keith Strickland – guitars, keyboards, backing vocals, bass (side one tracks 1-2, side two tracks 4-5), sitar on "Wig", harmonica on "Ain't it a Shame", percussion on "Housework"
 * Cindy Wilson – vocals
 * Kate Pierson – vocals, keyboards on "Housework"
 * Ricky Wilson – guitars, backing vocals, bass (side one tracks 4-5, side two track 1)
 * Tom Beckerman – lead guitar on "Juicy Jungle"
 * Tony Mansfield – Fairlight CMI
 * John Coté – backing vocals and "all other instruments" on "Juicy Jungle"
 * Mark Mazur – guitar and bass on "Housework"
 * Tim Rollins – guitar on "Housework"

Artwork
 * Keith Strickland – photography
 * Kenny Scharf – design
 * Keith Bennett – art director
 * Kav DeLuxe – art director

Production
 * Tony Mansfield – producer
 * Shep Pettibone – additional production and re-mix on "Summer of Love" and additional production on "Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland"
 * Michael Hutchinson – engineering
 * Steve Peck – engineering
 * Tony Phillips – engineering
 * Fernando Kral – engineering assistant
 * Don Peterkofsky – engineering assistant
 * Shep Pettibone – mixing
 * Phil Brown – mastering