Few songs define the late 90s dance music scene quite like Praise You by Fatboy Slim. With its infectious groove, obscure samples and a feel-good energy, the track became an instant classic upon its release. More than two decades later, it remains one of the defining records of the big beat era, influencing countless artists and cementing Fatboy Slim’s reputation as a pioneer in electronic music.
Who is Fatboy Slim?
Fatboy Slim is the stage name of Norman Cook, an English DJ, musician, and record producer. Cook first found success in the 80s as the bassist of indie band The Housemartins before transitioning into the electronic music scene. By the mid-90s, he had become a pioneer of the big beat genre, fusing breakbeats, rock, hip-hop, and funk into high-energy tracks perfect for the club and festival circuit.
With albums like Better Living Through Chemistry (1996) and You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby (1998), Fatboy Slim became one of the biggest names in electronic music, known for his dynamic production and ability to craft euphoric dancefloor anthems.
The Release of Praise You
Released in January 1999 as the third single from You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, Praise You quickly gained traction, reaching No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart.
The song’s success was amplified by its low-budget, yet highly innovative, music video directed by Spike Jonze. Featuring an amateur dance group led by Jonze himself (under the alias Richard Koufey) performing an unpolished yet enthusiastic routine outside a cinema, the video became an MTV sensation, proving that creativity could trump high-budget production values.
Fatboy Slim – Praise You [Official Video]
The Samples Behind the Song
One Saturday afternoon in the late ’90s, Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim was mooching around Camden market in North London when he chanced upon a stall selling vinyl bootleg albums featuring old soul and funk breakbeats and snatches of a capella vocals. Buying a handful and taking them home to Brighton, he first heard the isolated vocal introduction of American soul singer Camille Yarbrough’s ‘Take Yo’ Praise’, from her long-forgotten 1975 album The Iron Pot Cooker. Little did he know that by sampling it as the main motif of what became his 1999 single ‘Praise You’, he would create a timeless track destined to echo down the years.
“Basically, any time I heard a bit of a capella,” Cook says, “I was like, OK, I can use that. Her vocal just had a beautiful quality to it. The sentiment fits so many different occasions. The beauty of the lyrics is that they work at football matches, they work at gigs where we’ve all had a great night, or it’s been raining all day at a festival but we’re here. Just the phrase ‘we’ve come a long long way together through the hard times and the good’… It’s kind of a universal, communal thing. It’s affirmative and uplifting and those things do tend to stand the test of time.”
The magic moment that led to the creation of ‘Praise You’ came when Cook matched the Camille Yarbrough vocal to a loop of a piano riff lifted from a demonstration record for JBL speakers. “It was the rehearsal of the band before they recorded a tune,” he explains. “And that’s why it’s so badly recorded. That’s why there’s scratches all over it, and that’s why if you listen to the loop you can actually hear someone talking. But I just really loved that piano riff, and as soon as I put the vocal over it, the sum total of the parts became a third song.”
Additionally, Praise You incorporates elements from:
From its inventive use of samples to its unforgettable music video, Praise You is more than just a dance track—it’s a moment in music history that encapsulates the late 90s era of electronic music. Whether you first heard it on the radio, in a club, or saw the quirky video on MTV, the song has a unique way of making people feel good. And in the end, isn’t that what great music is all about?
Want more? Watch this video I made a few years ago…
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