1999 single by Fatboy Slim
"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.[1]
Samples
A total of six samples are used in the song. The song features a prominent vocal sample from the opening of "Take Yo' Praise"[2] by Camille Yarbrough, as well as a prominent piano sample from the track "Balance and Rehearsal" from a test album entitled Sessions released by audio electronics company JBL in 1973. That recording session was for "Captain America", sung by Hoyt Axton; a snippet of Axton's vocals humming the "Captain America" melody can be heard in the album version of "Praise You."
"Praise You" also features a guitar sample from the opening of "It's a Small World" from the Disneyland Records-released album Mickey Mouse Disco, the theme from the cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids,[3] the electric piano riff from "Lucky Man" by Steve Miller Band, and the drum beat from "Running Back To Me" by Tom Fogerty.
In a 2021 interview with the website WhoSampled, Yarbrough said that she liked "Praise You" and its use of her vocals, feeling that Cook kept the essence of "Take Yo' Praise".[4]
Music video
The accompanying video for "Praise You" was directed by Spike Jonze with Roman Coppola.[5] Jonze starred in the film, under the pseudonym Richard Koufey, along with a fictional dance group: The Torrance Community Dance Group.[5] The video intro described it as "A Torrance Public Film Production".[6]
The video was shot[7] guerrilla-style – that is, on location without obtaining permission from the owners of the property – in front of puzzled onlookers outside the Fox Bruin Theater in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.[8] In the video, a heavily disguised Jonze and the dance group, acting as a flash mob, dance to "Praise You", much to the chagrin of a theatre employee who turns off their portable stereo. One of the actor-dancers in the fictional dance group, Michael Gier, documented the making of the "Praise You" video on his website.[8]
The "Praise You" video was made only because Jonze, unable to work with Fatboy Slim on the video for "The Rockafeller Skank", recorded and sent his own solo dance video of "Skank" as a gift; Jonze's 'alternative' music video was so well received by Cook that Jonze's fictional Torrance Community Dance Group was green-lighted for the official video for "Praise You".[9] Cook has said he liked this music video more so than the one for "The Rockafeller Skank," which he hated.[10]
Cook himself is briefly seen in the video as one of the many onlookers, with the clearest view shown at the conclusion of the video, while Jonze claims his "b-boy moves" came from living in New York. Cook curiously peers over Jonze to catch a glimpse of the camera before walking off to the right.
The video reportedly cost only US$800 to produce.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]
The video won three major awards at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Direction (awarded to "Torrance Community Dance Group"), and Best Choreography (awarded to "Richard Koufey & Michael Rooney"). It was also nominated for, but did not win, Best Dance Video. The group also put on a dance performance to the song at the awards.[19] In 2001, it was voted number one of the 100 best videos of all time, in a poll to mark the 20th anniversary of MTV.[20]
Personnel
Personnel are sourced from Sound on Sound.[31]
