"Weapon of Choice" is a song by English big beat musician

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name 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 ...

from his third studio album, ''

Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars ''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 Ast ...

''. It features American funk musician

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and singer. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins established himself as one of the leading ...

. It was released as a

double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

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 Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze began his ca ...

, features actor

Christopher Walken Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awa ...

dancing around a deserted hotel lobby. It won multiple awards at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards and won the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

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

, known as a member of the funk group Parliament-Funkadelic and leader of

Bootsy's Rubber Band A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

. 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 "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". Info on the song The song was composed by Rudy Clark. The Chambe ...

" 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 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 In the English language, black sheep is an idiom that describes a member of a group who is different from the rest, especially a family member who does not fit in. The term stems from sheep whose fleece is colored black rather than the more comm ...

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 film ''

Dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

'', 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 Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

'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 ''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 Ol ...

''. 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 ...

'', the ''

Malcolm in the Middle ''Malcolm in the Middle'' is an American family television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for Fox. The series premiered on January 9, 2000, and ended on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes. The series follows a dysfunction ...

'' episode " Malcolm vs. Reese" and the 2006 film '' Night at the Museum''. 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

Marriott Marriott may refer to: People *Marriott (surname) Corporations * Marriott Corporation, founded as Hot Shoppes, Inc. in 1927; split into Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation in 1993 * Marriott International, international hot ...

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

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

in December 2000. Directed by

, it features actor

, who trained as a dancer in

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

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 A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped ...

before returning to the chair and sitting back down. The "Weapon of Choice" video won six awards at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. 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 has also danced in a version of the video directed by Malik Bendjelloul. 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. 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
/ref>

__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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Best Direction The MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction is an award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and the director of the music video. From 1984 to 2006, the full name of the award was Best Direction in a Video, and in 2007, it was briefly rename ...

, , - , align="center" ,

Best Choreography The MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography is a craft award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and choreographer of the music video. From 1984 to 2007, the full name of the award was Best Choreography in a Video. The biggest winner ...

, , - , align="center" , Best Visual Effects , , - , align="center" , Best Art Direction , , - , align="center" , Best Editing , , - , align="center" , Best Cinematography , , - , align="center" ,

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" ,

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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)