World Party was a musical group, predominantly the solo project of its sole consistent member, the songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Karl Wallinger. Wallinger started the band in 1986 in London after leaving the Waterboys. At various times, World Party also featured Guy Chambers, David Catlin-Birch, future Oasis drummer Chris Sharrock, Jeff Trott, Amanda Kramer and John Turnbull.

World Party produced several hit singles during the late 1980s and early 1990s including "Ship of Fools", "Way Down Now", "Put the Message in the Box" and "Is It Like Today?" The band also released the original version of "She's the One", written (like virtually all World Party material) by Karl Wallinger but best known due to the 1999 cover version by Robbie Williams, a UK number one hit single.

Wallinger was born in Prestatyn. He received classical music training in piano and oboe as a child at both Eton College and Charterhouse School, before switching his allegiance fully to pop and rock music. Following initial stints in Prestatyn with the short-lived bands Pax and Quasimodo, he moved to London in the late 1970s and entered a five-year "lost period" during which he worked in music publishing, had a stint as musical director of a West End production of The Rocky Horror Show, and played in a funk band called The Out. By the end of this period, he'd also mastered all of the instruments needed for him to become a one-man rock band, as well as the arts of record production and synthesizer programming.

In 1983, Wallinger joined his first notable band, the Waterboys, initially as a keyboard player. Having contributed one organ part to the band's debut album, and many more piano and organ parts to the second (A Pagan Place) as well as playing on tour, his additional skills made him the perfect ally for Waterboys leader Mike Scott when Scott wished to expand the sound of the band for their third album, 1985's This Is the Sea. Wallinger co-produced many of the album tracks, adding assorted synthesizer and sampler arrangements as well as backing vocals, synth bass, percussion, and piano and organ. He also wrote the original music for the opening track, "Don't Bang the Drum".

Despite the productivity of the sessions for This is the Sea, growing rivalry between Scott and Wallinger led to tensions between the two on the subsequent tour, exacerbated by the fact that Wallinger had been writing his own songs from an early age and saw no opportunity to be able to play and sing them while in The Waterboys, which was entirely dominated by Scott's artistic vision. Now armed with his own record contract with the Waterboys' record label, Ensign, Wallinger left the band at the end of the This is the Sea tour in 1985.

The first World Party album, Private Revolution, was recorded in a dilapidated former rectory in Woburn, which Wallinger had moved into after quitting both London and The Waterboys. Inspired by Prince, Wallinger recorded the majority of the instruments (guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, samplers) by himself, as well as singing lead vocals and handling programming and production. There were guest appearances on the record by two Waterboys members, saxophonist Anthony Thistlethwaite and fiddle player Steve Wickham. To create the illusion of a full band, Wallinger credited his own instrumental parts to a variety of imaginary players with whimsical names, including "Millennium Mills", "Rufus Dove" and "Will Towyn". During this time, he also worked on Sinéad O'Connor's debut album The Lion and the Cobra, and she in turn sang backing vocals on the song "Hawaiian Island World" as well as appearing in the promotional video for the album's title track.

Wallinger's efforts rapidly drew further music business attention. "They'd heard there was a dumb kid in Woburn writing hits," Wallinger recalled in 2021. "There was this beauty-parade of visiting managers." Wallinger signed a management deal with Prince's manager Steve Fargnoli: "I was a sucker for Prince. I was like, "Take me to Minneapolis. Take me to your leader."

Private Revolution was released in 1986 and displayed Wallinger's eclectic mastery of rock, pop, folk, and funk. The album's first single "Ship of Fools", reached a modest number 42 in the British charts but did much better outside the UK – it reached No. 4 in Australia, No. 21 in New Zealand, and No. 27 in the US, in the process becoming the act's only major international hit. "Private Revolution" was also issued as a single, but only charted in the UK (at No. 107).