" Praise You" is a song by the English 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 in the United Kingdom and 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 copies in the US.
Samples
Nine samples are used in the song "Praise You". It features a prominent vocal sample from the opening of "Take Yo' Praise"
by Camille Yarbrough, as well as a prominent piano sample from the track "Balance and Rehearsal" from a test album,
Sessions, released by the 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" found on Fatboy Slim's
You've Come a Long Way, Baby.
"Praise You" also features a guitar sample from the opening of "It's a Small World" from the Disneyland Records album Mickey Mouse Disco, Michael Gray's theme from the cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids "Gonna Have a Good Time",
In a 2021 interview with the website WhoSampled, Yarbrough said that she liked "Praise You" and its use of her vocals, feeling that Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) kept the essence of "Take Yo' Praise".
Music video
The video for "Praise You" was directed by
Spike Jonze with
Roman Coppola.
Jonze starred under the pseudonym Richard Koufey, along with the fictional Torrance Community Dance Group.
The video intro described it as "A Torrance Public Film Production".
The video was shot[
] guerrilla-style — 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.
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 video for "Praise You".
Cook 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 City. 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.
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.
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| align="center" rowspan="5" | 1999
| align="center" rowspan="4" | MTV Video Music Award
Track listings
UK and Australian CD single
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"Praise You" (radio edit)
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"Praise You"
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"Sho Nuff"
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"The Rockafeller Skank" (Mulder's Urban Takeover remix)
UK 12-inch single
- A. "Praise You"
- AA. "Sho Nuff"
UK cassette single
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"Praise You" (radio edit)
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"The Rockafeller Skank" (Mulder's Urban Takeover remix)
European CD single
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"Praise You" (radio edit)
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"Praise You" (full version)
US CD, 12-inch, and cassette single
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"Praise You"
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"Sho Nuff"
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"The Rockafeller Skank" (Mulder's Urban Takeover remix)
Japanese CD single
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"Praise You" (full version)
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"Sho Nuff"
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"The Rockafeller Skank" (Mulder's Urban Takeover remix)
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"Praise You" (radio edit)
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"How Can You Hear Us?"
Personnel
Personnel are sourced from Sound on Sound.
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Fatboy Slim – Studio Electronics SE-1 and Roland TB-303 synthesizers, Akai S950 samplers, Atari ST programming
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Camille Yarbrough – sampled lead vocals
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
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| 9 March 1999 | Contemporary hit radio | |
Other versions
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In 2017, Hannah Grace and the London Contemporary Voices Choir recorded a version of the song for a Lloyds Bank advertising campaign.
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In 2018, a remix by Purple Disco Machine was released,
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In 2023, British singer Rita Ora released a re-worked version of the song, titled "Praising You", featuring Fatboy Slim for her album You & I, which later became an international hit after it was used in the film Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.
In media and pop culture
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In the 1999 film Cruel Intentions, the song is playing in the scene when Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) and Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon) drive back from doing charity work at a nursing home. It was also featured in the film’s official soundtrack album released by Arista Records/Virgin Records.
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The 1999 season 3 finale of the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan, "A Day in the Life", uses the song during a montage that pays tribute to cast member David Strickland, who had committed suicide earlier in the season.
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In November 2017, an American TV advertisement for Forevermark Diamonds featured a cover of the Hannah Grace version, sung by Jon Kenzie.
[ "The Forevermark Tribute Collection TV Commercial, 'For All You Are'" iSpot.tv]
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Meal delivery service Grubhub used an instrumental version of the song in a 2020 animated TV commercial.
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In 2020, a TV commercial for Advil features Grace's version.
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In "The Prom", season 3, episode 20 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from 1999 at minute 29:50, the song plays during the Sunnydale High School prom.
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In "Tracy and Cam Row", the 13th episode of series 1 of The Story of Tracy Beaker from 2002, the song plays when Cam Lawson (Lisa Coleman) discovers Tracy Beaker (Dani Harmer) has broken into her flat.
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In the Derry Girls 2022 series 3 episode "Halloween" (which revolves around a Fatboy Slim concert), the song plays at the end, with a female vocal-led rendition after Claire Devlin (Nicola Coughlan)'s father Sean Devlin (David Ireland) dies in hospital, and the subsequent funeral procession.
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In season 15, episode 3 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "The Gang Buys a Roller Rink" from 2021, the character Dee Reynolds (Kaitlin Olson) roller-skates to the song.
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In the 2024 documentary The Blue Angels, the song plays over a montage of the various components of the Blue Angels maintenance and support team.
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The song is prominently featured in the opening of the 2024 film Y2K.
See also
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List of Billboard number-one dance songs of 2019
