"Weapon of Choice" is a song by English

big beat 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 th ...

musician Fatboy Slim from his third studio album, '' Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars''. It features 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 The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. 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 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. Highlights of the show incl ...

and won the 2002

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for

Best Music Video The Grammy Award for Best Music Video is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality short form music videos. Hon ...

Background

"Weapon of Choice" features a lead vocal by Bootsy Collins, known as a member of the funk group

Parliament-Funkadelic Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. Their distinctive ...

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 Sly and the Family Stone was an American band from San Francisco. Active from 1966 to 1983, it was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music. Its core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi- ...

's 1968 song " Into My Own Thing", as well as samples from " All Strung Out Over You" by

The Chambers Brothers The Chambers Brothers are an American psychedelic soul band, best known for their eleven-minute 1967 psychedelic soul hit " Time Has Come Today". The group was part of the wave of new music that integrated American blues and gospel traditions w ...

and "Word Play" by

The X-Ecutioners The X-Ecutioners are a group of American hip hop DJs/ turntablists from New York City, New York. The group formed in 1989 and currently consists of three DJs, including Total Eclipse, DJ Boogie Blind, DJ Precision. Original members of the gro ...

, 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 an homage to the Black Sheep song "

The Choice Is Yours (Revisited) "The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)" is a song by the Native Tongues affiliate Black Sheep, from their debut album '' A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing''. It was released in October 1991 as the second single from the album. The song quotes the Roger Mil ...

", which has a similar chorus. The lines "Walk without rhythm/and it won't attract the worm" quote the science fiction film '' Dune'', while the line "tone of my voice" may be the titular weapon, as used by some of the film's characters. The line "halfway between the gutter and the stars" refers to a line in Oscar Wilde's play ''

Lady Windermere's Fan ''Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman'' is a four-act comedy by Oscar Wilde, first performed on Saturday, 20 February 1892, at the St James's Theatre in London. The story concerns Lady Windermere, who suspects that her husband is ...

'': "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 ''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 O ...

''. Collins's vocal tracks, both normal and distorted, remain intact, but the distorted track is barely audible. It peaked at No. 137 on the

. The song was briefly featured in the 2001 film ''

Joe Somebody ''Joe Somebody'' is a 2001 American comedy-drama film written by John Scott Shepherd and directed by John Pasquin. The film stars Tim Allen as an ordinary man forced into violence by a workplace bully. The film also stars Julie Bowen, Kelly Lyn ...

'', the '' Malcolm in the Middle'' episode " Malcolm vs. Reese" and the 2006 film ''

Night at the Museum ''Night at the Museum'' is a 2006 fantasy comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. It is based on the 1993 children's book of the same name by Croatian illustrator Milan Trenc. The film had an ense ...

''. 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.

Music video

The music video was filmed in the lobby of the

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Hotel (now the L.A. Grand Hotel Downtown) in

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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. Fatboy Slim Interview (May 2006)
in Higher-Frequency.com; published May 2006; retrieved November 7, 2019 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 was giving birth. In the video, Walken is relaxing in a chair in a deserted hotel lobby, when he hears the song being played from a cleaning cart nearby. He begins to dance around the hotel, then gets in an elevator, leaps off the balcony, and flies around the mezzanine before returning to the chair and sitting back down. The "Weapon of Choice" video won six awards at the

. Walken was awarded one of MTV's "Moonmen" for Best Choreography. The clip was also ranked number one in a list of the top 100 videos of all time by VH1 in April 2002 compiled from a music industry survey. The Swedish actor

Mikael Persbrandt Mikael Åke Persbrandt (; born 25 September 1963) is a Swedish actor. In Swedish films, he is perhaps best known for playing Gunvald Larsson in the ''Beck'' series of movies. He is internationally known for his starring role in the Academy Award ...

has also danced in a version of the video directed by

Malik Bendjelloul Malik Bendjelloul (14 September 1977 – 13 May 2014) was a Swedish documentary filmmaker, journalist and former child actor.Rohter, Larry (20 July 2012)Retrieved 26 February 2013.Rowland Rivron Rowland John Rivron (born 28 September 1958) is a British writer, comedic actor and television personality. Early career Rivron played the comic character "Dr Martin Scrote" on the Jonathan Ross chat show ''The Last Resort'', and also played Scr ...

also won charity TV show ''

Let's Dance for Sport Relief ''Let's Sing and Dance'', formerly known as ''Let's Dance'', is a British television programme shown on BBC One, featuring celebrities performing famous dance routines to raise money for the charities Comic Relief and Sport Relief. The programme ...

'' with his reenactment of the video's choreography. 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 dance Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perf ...

r, dancing to electronic music suited him well. The video was remastered to 4K in 2021.Fatboy_Slim_ft._Bootsy_Collins_-_Weapon_Of_Choice_[Official_4k_Video]_-_YouTube
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__Track_listing_

;"Star_69"_/_"Weapon_of_Choice" ;"Weapon_of_Choice_2010"

_Accolades

.html" ;"title="fficial 4k Video] - YouTube">Fatboy Slim ft. Bootsy Collins - Weapon Of Choice [Official 4k Video] - YouTube
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Track listing

;"Star 69" / "Weapon of Choice" ;"Weapon of Choice 2010"

Accolades

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MTV Europe Music Award The MTV Europe Music Awards (originally named MTV European Music Awards, commonly abbreviated as MTV EMA) are awards presented by Paramount International Networks to honour artists and music in pop culture. It was originally conceived as an a ...

, align="center" , Best Video , , - , align="center" , 2002 , align="center" ,

, align="center" ,

Charts

"Star 69" / "Weapon of Choice" double A-side chart positions Other versions * ¹ – "Weapon of Choice"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weapon of Choice 2001 singles Music videos directed by Spike Jonze Fatboy Slim songs Bootsy Collins songs MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video Marriott International Songs written by Norman Cook 2000 songs Astralwerks singles Skint Records singles Music based on Dune (franchise)