"Weapon of Choice" | ||||
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Single by Fatboy Slim featuring Bootsy Collins | ||||
from the album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars | ||||
A-side | "Star 69" | |||
Released | 23 April 2001 | |||
Recorded | 2000 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 5:45 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Norman Cook, Ashley William Slater, Bootsy Collins, Sylvester Stewart, Andres Titus, William K. McLean | |||
Producer(s) | Norman Cook | |||
Fatboy Slim singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Weapon of Choice" from YouTube | ||||
Audio sample | ||||
"Weapon of Choice" |
"Weapon of Choice" is a song by English big beat musician Fatboy Slim from his third studio album, Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars . It features vocals by American funk musician Bootsy Collins. It was released as a double A-side single with "Star 69" on 23 April 2001,as well as a standalone single release,and a 2010 re-release with remixes. The single peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. [2]
The music video,directed by Spike Jonze,features actor Christopher Walken dancing around a deserted hotel lobby. It won multiple awards at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards and won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Music Video.
"Weapon of Choice" features a lead vocal by Bootsy Collins,known as a member of the funk group Parliament-Funkadelic and leader of Bootsy's Rubber Band. On the album version,Collins's normal vocals are heard through the right audio channel;the same vocals,distorted to a much deeper pitch,are heard through the left. The song features a prominent sample of Sly &the Family Stone's 1968 song "Into My Own Thing",as well as samples from "All Strung Out Over You" by The Chambers Brothers and "Word Play" by The X-Ecutioners,the latter of which was previously sampled on another Fatboy Slim song,"Don't Forget Your Teeth",the B-side to his single "Right Here,Right Now",and "Gangster Trippin".
The chorus of the song,"You could blow with this,or you could blow with that",is a homage to the Black Sheep song "The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)",which has a similar chorus. The lines "Walk without rhythm/and it won't attract the worm" quote the science fiction novel Dune ,while the line "tone of my voice" may be the titular weapon,as used by some of the book's characters. [3] The line "halfway between the gutter and the stars" refers to a line in Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan :"We are all of us in the gutter,but some of us are looking at the stars",and was also used as the album title.
The radio edit is referred to as the "Attack Hamster Edit",and is the version featured on Fatboy Slim's greatest hits album The Greatest Hits –Why Try Harder . Collins's vocal tracks,both normal and distorted,remain intact,but the distorted track is barely audible. It peaked at No. 137 on the UK Singles Chart.[ citation needed ] The song was briefly featured in the 2001 film Joe Somebody ,the Malcolm in the Middle episode "Malcolm vs. Reese", The Lone Gunmen episode "All About Yves" and the 2006 film Night at the Museum .[ citation needed ] It was used in the E3 trailer of Skylanders:Swap Force in 2013.
On the album,the song segues from "Retox" and thus the ending of "Retox" is on this track. At 5:06 on the "single version",the last second (5:05) gets repeated many times until it finishes at 5:36. On the album,the last two seconds get repeated until 5:23,and scratching sounds start at 5:14 until the conclusion at 5:45. The single version and album version also have several other differences,including the ordering of vocal snippets towards the five-minute mark.
The music video was filmed in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel (now the L.A. Grand Hotel Downtown) in Los Angeles in December 2000. Directed by Spike Jonze,it features actor Christopher Walken,who trained as a dancer in musical theatre before his acting career. Walken had asked Jonze to film his dancing,and Jonze suggested that he participate in the video. [4] Fatboy Slim had originally been scheduled to have a cameo in the video,replacing Walken in the harness shots,but was unavailable that weekend because his wife,Zoe Ball,was giving birth. [4]
In the video,Walken is relaxing in a chair in a deserted hotel lobby when he hears the song being played from a radio on a cleaning cart nearby. He begins to dance around the hotel before getting in an elevator,leaping off the balcony,and flying around the mezzanine. At the end,he returns to the chair and sits back down.
The "Weapon of Choice" video won six awards at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. [5] Walken was awarded one of MTV's "Moonmen" for Best Choreography. The clip was also ranked number one on a list of the top 100 videos of all time by VH1 in April 2002 compiled from a music industry survey. [6] The Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt has also danced in a version of the video directed by Malik Bendjelloul. [7] [8] [9] In 2012,British comedian and presenter Rowland Rivron also won charity TV show Let's Dance for Sport Relief with his reenactment of the video's choreography. [10]
Walken has cited admiration for Jonze as one of his main reasons for appearing in the video,which he also welcomed as a chance to do "something different". He also noted that as a trained tap dancer,dancing to electronic music suited him well. [11]
The music video enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the 2020s following the announcement of Walken's casting as Shaddam IV in Dune:Part Two . [12] [13] The song prominently features lyrics that reference Dune,though it had no impact on Walken's casting. [14] In an interview with GQ,Walken stated that he had not been aware of the connection between the song and Dune prior to appearing in the film. [15]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Star 69" (full version) | 5:57 |
2. | "Star 69" (radio edit) | 3:35 |
3. | "Weapon of Choice" | 5:38 |
4. | "Weapon of Choice" (video) | 3:31 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Weapon of Choice 2010" (Lazy Rich Remix) | 6:05 |
2. | "Weapon of Choice 2010" (Lazy Rich Dub) | 5:48 |
3. | "Weapon of Choice 2010" (Radio Edit) | 2:59 |
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
2001 | MTV Video Music Award | Video of the Year | Nominated |
Best Dance Video | Nominated | ||
Breakthrough Video | Won | ||
Best Direction | Won | ||
Best Choreography | Won | ||
Best Visual Effects | Nominated | ||
Best Art Direction | Won | ||
Best Editing | Won | ||
Best Cinematography | Won | ||
MTV Europe Music Award | Best Video | Nominated | |
2002 | Grammy Award | Best Music Video | Won |
"Star 69" / "Weapon of Choice" double A-side chart positions
Chart (2001) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [16] | 23 |
Belgium (Ultratip Bubbling Under Flanders) [17] | 14 |
Belgium (Ultratip Bubbling Under Wallonia) [18] | 18 |
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista) [19] | 20 |
Germany (GfK) [20] | 81 |
Ireland (IRMA) [21] | 21 |
Netherlands (Single Top 100) [22] | 85 |
Scotland (OCC) [23] | 6 |
UK Singles (OCC) [24] | 10 |
UK Dance (OCC) [25] | 2 |
US Alternative Airplay ( Billboard ) [26] "Weapon of Choice" | 33 |
Adam Spiegel, known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes films, commercials, music videos, skateboard videos and television.
Norman Quentin Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist for the Hull-based indie rock band the Housemartins, who achieved a UK number-one single with their a cappella cover of "Caravan of Love". After the Housemartins split up, Cook formed the electronic band Beats International in Brighton, who produced the number-one single "Dub Be Good to Me". He then played in Freak Power, Pizzaman, and the Mighty Dub Katz with moderate success.
William Earl "Bootsy" Collins is an American bass guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s before joining the Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Collins established himself as one of the leading names and innovators in funk with his driving basslines and humorous vocals. He later formed his own P-Funk side project known as 'Bootsy's Rubber Band'. He was a frequent collaborator with other musicians from a variety of genres, including dance music, electronic big beat, and alternative metal (Praxis), among others. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with 15 other members of Parliament-Funkadelic. In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Collins number 4 in its list of the 50 greatest bassists of all time.
Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars is the third studio album by English electronic music producer Fatboy Slim. It was first released on 6 November 2000 in the United Kingdom by Skint Records and a day later in the United States by Astralwerks. The album features contributions from Macy Gray, Ashley Slater, Bootsy Collins, Roland Clark, and Roger Sanchez, and its title, referenced in the song "Weapon of Choice", is an allusion to the Oscar Wilde quote "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
"Praise You" is a song by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim. It was released as the third single from his second studio album, You've Come a Long Way, Baby (1998), on 4 January 1999. It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart and in Iceland, number four in Canada, number six in Ireland, and number 36 in the United States. As of 1999, it had sold over 150,000 units in the US.
"The Rockafeller Skank" is a song by English big beat musician and DJ Fatboy Slim. It was released as the lead single from his second studio album, You've Come a Long Way, Baby (1998), on 8 June 1998. The single peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart in June 1998 and topped the Icelandic Singles Chart for a week the same month. It was the second Fatboy Slim single to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 76. In 2022, Rolling Stone ranked "The Rockafeller Skank" at number 199 on their list of the "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time".
The Greatest Hits – Why Try Harder is a compilation album by English electronic musician Fatboy Slim, released on 19 June 2006. In addition to previously released material, the album includes two new tracks: "Champion Sound" and "That Old Pair of Jeans". A collection of music videos titled The Greatest Hits – Why Make Videos was also released in 2006. Hit singles "Ya Mama" and "Star 69" were omitted.
"Going Out of My Head" is a song by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim. It was released as a double A-side single with "Michael Jackson", released as the third and final single from his debut studio album Better Living Through Chemistry on 21 April 1997. The song contains prominent samples from Yvonne Elliman's "I Can't Explain" and Led Zeppelin's "The Crunge". It was featured in the films The Jackal and Like Mike.
"Sunset (Bird of Prey)" is a song by English musician Fatboy Slim from his third studio album, Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars (2000). The song samples Jim Morrison's vocals from the Doors song "Bird of Prey." Released on 16 October 2000, the single peaked at No. 9 in the United Kingdom, No. 20 in Norway, and No. 25 in Ireland.
"Demons" is a song by English big beat musician Fatboy Slim, featuring Grammy Award-winning American R&B-soul singer Macy Gray. The song was released as a single from Slim's 2000 album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, and later appeared on Gray's 2004 greatest hits compilation The Very Best of Macy Gray as well as Slim's 2006 greatest hits compilation The Greatest Hits - Why Try Harder. It contains elements of Bill Withers' 1973 song "I Can't Write Left-Handed". The gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama covered the song on their 2005 album Atom Bomb. Recently, the song was featured in the Netflix series Sense8.
The 2001 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 6, 2001, honoring the best music videos from June 10, 2000, to June 8, 2001. The show was hosted by Jamie Foxx at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
"Star 69" is a song by English electronic music producer Fatboy Slim, released on 23 April 2001 as the second single from his third studio album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars (2000). It was released as a double A-side single with "Weapon of Choice", as well as its own standalone release.
The Pimp is an EP by Fatboy Slim, released in 2002. It is the third and final EP in a series by Fatboy Slim; all three EPs were released on 19 November 2002.
"Song for Shelter"/"Ya Mama" is a song by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim, released as a double A-side single in September 2001. Both songs are on his 2000 album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars. "Ya Mama" is on the Charlie's Angels soundtrack and film and in a trailer for Spy Kids. The single peaked at No. 30 on the UK singles chart. Both songs were omitted from his 2006 greatest hits compilation Why Try Harder.
"Retox" is a song by English big beat musician Fatboy Slim, released in 2002 as a 12" vinyl single from his 2000 album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars. The single peaked at No. 73 on the UK Singles Chart. The song features Ashley Slater and for this release was remixed by DJ Dave Clarke.
Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as The Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, Propellerheads, Basement Jaxx and Groove Armada.
The discography of Fatboy Slim, an alias of Norman Cook, an English DJ, big beat musician, and record producer, consists of four studio albums, three live albums, one soundtrack album, two compilation albums, three remix albums, six mix albums, three video albums, five extended plays, 28 singles and 31 music videos.
"Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat" is a song by Fatboy Slim, Riva Starr and Beardyman. It features vocals from Beardyman who improvised all of the lyrics and vocals in one take. It was released on 20 June 2013. Aided by a remix by Calvin Harris, the song reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Fatboy Slim's first top ten hit since "Star 69" / "Weapon of Choice" in 2001. A remix by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Ummet Ozcan was released on 23 December 2013.
This is the discography of American musician Bootsy Collins.
"All Strung Out Over You" was an early hit for The Chambers Brothers. It featured Lester Chambers on lead vocals. It would later be sampled by Fatboy Slim for "Weapon of Choice".