Third single from Prodigy's third album, 'The Fat Of The Land', was 'Smack My Bitch Up'. During summer 1997 there were many rumors that the single would be 'Mindfields' or even 'Narayan' but Liam decided to release the most controversial song from the album. The single was meant to be released in October but due to death of Princess Diana the release date was delayed till 17th November 1997. Liam wanted that on the cover of the single there had been a crashed VW beetle (see the picture below) but that accident ruined that plan and they decided to put breakdancer Joel Botschinsky De Andrare on the cover instead.

    The song was banned from Radio One due to its rude lyrics, "smack my bitch up, change my pitch up", which were actually sampled from 'Give The Drummer Some' by Ultramagnetic MC's. The lyrics were performed by Kool Keith who appeared on 'The Fat Of The Land' ('Diesel Power'). It was the first song since 1987's George Michael's 'I Want Your Sex' to be banned from Radio One. MTV or any other stations didn't show the video at day time. K-Mart and Wal-Mart didn't sell the single in the USA. Many other artists such as Moby and Faithless dissed the song and the Prodigy. The song entered the charts at number eight.

    Tracks

    The commercial single contained Radio Edit of the album version of 'Smack My Bitch Up'. 'No Man Army' was a remix of 'One Man Army' - a collaboration with Tom Morello, the guitarist of Rage Against The Machine - which originally appeared on Spawn The Album soundtrack (Sony CD, 488118 2). The single also contained Headrock Dub of 'Mindfields'. It's unknown if Headrock Dub is the same mix as Headrock Beats which appeared on ultra rare 'Minefields' advance cassette (XL 76) in June 1996. The song was remixed by DJ Hype, Jonny L and Slacker. DJ Hype remix appeared on commercial single. Liam knew DJ Hype from The Barn and nowadays Hype DJ's at Fabric, London and is well known for his True Playaz nights. Jonny L was Prodigy label mate and ha had already remixed 'One Love' in 1993. The remix was never commercially released but it appeared first on Muzik Magazine's 'The Tunes' freebie CD and later on 'London Underground #1' 12" white label. Slacker were also at the time Prodigy's label mates but their prog / trance remix didn't please Liam at all. However, there were five acetates which contained only the Slacker remix and the five copies were given to Liam Howlett, Slacker, Sasha, Oakenfold and Nick Warren (see XL Recordings 12" acetate). The remix later appeared on white label (DD3) which contained a track by Yello on the flip and also on a one-sided 12" white label (BITCH-1).

    Records

    The single was released by XL Recordings 17th November on 12" (XLT 90), cassette (XLC 90), and on CD as 2-trk single (XLS 90 CDX) and 4-trk single (XLS 90 CD). XL released also a CD promo (XLS 90 CDP) which came in jewel case with no sleeves and the case was closed with a sticker and there was also a 12" DJ promo which had the ant logo on the other side (XLT 90 DJ). Delabel released the single in France and they had a cardsleeve promo CD (DE 4233) and a very rare one-sided 12" promo (DE 8215). There is also a promo CD made by the Scandinavian distributor MNW (XLSCDP 90). The single was released in Germany by Intercord (INT 8 84911 2), in the Netherlands by Play It Again Sam as 4-trk single (826.0090.22) and 2-trk single (826.0090.24) and in Poland by Koch International (33990-6). There is a Intercord promo CD-R (INT 8849112) as well.

    In Japan the single was released by Avex Trax as a CD single (AVCM-65038) and there is a Japanese promo cassette (AVCM-65038). The single was released in USA by Maverick. They made several promos, 1-trk CD promo (PRO-CD-9082-R), 2-trk CD promo (PRO-CD-9073-R) and 12" promo (PRO-A-9073-A). The commercial singles were available as CD (9 43946-2) and 12" (0-43946). The song was released in Australia as a video single (Sony VHS, 200779 2) and there was also an Australian promo CD (SAMP 983) by Sony.
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