On this date in 1996, The Prodigy started a three-week run at number 1 on the UK singles chart with “Firestarter”.
“Firestarter” is the first single from the UK electropunk unit’s third album, The Fat of the Land. It’s their first big international hit, topping the charts in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, and Norway. In 2020, The Guardian ranked the song number eight on their list of “The 100 Greatest UK No 1 Singles”.
The wah-wah guitar riff in “Firestarter” was sampled from The Breeders’ track “S.O.S.”. The “hey” sample is from Art of Noise’s 1984 song “Close (to the Edit)”.
RM Dance Update described “Firestarter” as “a typically searing of chunk of heavy techno featuring some manic vocals and an awesome synth line”. New Sunday Times noted its “heavy metal meets techno-dance stylizations.” Pitchfork in 2005 said, “‘Firestarter’ sounds like Trent Reznor in one of his all-too-rare moments of self-aware humor, like the Bomb Squad at +5 with a pink-haired British bulldog bellowing about how tuff he is.”
Rest in Molotov-Techno, Keith Flint.
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Featured image via PARLANTE.
