Today, Astralwerks released the 20th anniversary reissue of Fatboy Slimߣs Youߣve Come a Long Way, Baby. This seminal album effectively ushered in the electronic era in America. Originally released on October 20 by Astralwerks, Youߣve Come a Long Way, Baby was the first album by a DJ to sell one million units and achieve Platinum certification in the U.S. The reissue is available for purchase via Amazon and Vinyl Me Please. A limited-edition blue vinyl with coffee splatter color variant is also available for purchase exclusively at Vinyl Me Please and is strictly limited to 2,000 copies worldwide.
2018 marks twenty years since the release of the album that spawned era-defining singles Rockafeller Skank, Gangster Trippin, Praise You and Right Here Right Now. Youߣve Come a Long Way Baby reached Number One in the UK album album charts, breaking the US Billboard Top 40, creating a global superstar and putting a new wave of UK dance music on the global map.
First released in 1998, Youߣve Come a Long Way Baby become one of the defining records of the 90s, irrespective of genre. Swinging from hip-hop, to reggae and jangle pop, with Youߣve Come a Long Way Baby, Norman Cook broke stylistic ground and delivered a wildly original album, filled with imagination, huge hooks and even bigger beats.
Bigger than being just a dance album, Youߣve Come a Long Way Baby was a genuine phenomenon, enjoying huge critical and commercial success; it contains 4 UK Top 10 singles, earning Cook a BRIT Award for best producer and two further nominations (Male Solo Artist and British Single) along the way. Embraced by the rock and pop press equally, the album was included in a Q magazine readers’ poll of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever,Éd; and provided a global breakthrough for both British dance music and the Big Beat sound. Singles Rockafeller Skank, Gangster Trippin and anthemic UK Number One single Praise You (which scored 3 MTV VMA awards with its iconic Spike Jonze directed video) pushed dance music into the stratosphere, resonating with music fans and breaking electronic music to middle America. Norman Cook had caught lightning in a bottle, and in one genre-defining moment, the seeds of the noughties EDM US boom were sown, paving the way for the next generation of global superstars.
Fast forward twenty years and Fatboy Slim remains one of the most groundbreaking and prolific of the original Superstar DJs. Over the past eighteen months alone – as well as launching his own Beat 1 show and playing back to back with Eats Everything – he has played stages as diverse as Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, his first Ibiza residency at Cream Amnesia, B2B with Eats Everything and in December of this year, headlined The O2 – essentially turning the 20,000 capacity venue into the biggest nightclub London has ever seen.
