Ongoing History Daily: The Beastie Boys get help from vodka and grapefruit juice

In the summer of 1986, The Beastie Boys were in the final stages of transitioning from being a punk band into something new. A few years later, they’d discovered hip-hop and were now deep into the scene. The Beasties had nailed a record deal with Def Jam Records and were looking for a few more songs to complete the album.

That summer, a few months before the album’s released, the guys were at the Palladium Club banging back a ton of vodka-and-grapefruit cocktails when the idea of writing a song parodying frat boy culture came up. Mike D recalls that “Fight For Your Right to Party” was written in about five minutes with all the lyrics jotted down on napkins.

The song turned out to a massive hit, but it also came very close to pigeonholing The Beastie Boys as a novelty act and the very type of frat boys they wanted to make fun of.