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"Canned Heat" is the second single from British funk/acid jazz band Jamiroquai's fourth studio album, Synkronized, released in 1999. The song was their second number-one single on the US Dance Chart, and it peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart as well as number two in Hungary, Iceland, and Spain. The music video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund. The song is used in the film Napoleon Dynamite, as the music of the title character's famous dance performance before a high school assembly.
Release
Over the numerous releases of the "Canned Heat" single, two B-sides exist. "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" is a funky instrumental that features an intro of two drum beats that lasts about 1.5 seconds and then enters a strongly bass-driven, repetitive melody (which is very reminiscent of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees). Many keyboard effects are used throughout the song's 4:00 minute duration. The song enters a percussion section at 3:07 and lasts for the remainder of the song slowly fading out from 3:45. The song was originally released as part of the charity album No Boundaries: A Benefit For The Kosovar Refugees in 1998, before being included on this single. It is also available on some editions of the Synkronized album, the Australian double disc release being an example.
"Deeper Underground - Chillington Mix" is featured on the second release of "Canned Heat". Chillington is not the name of an artist or DJ, but the name of the studios at Jay's Home in Buckinghamshire. The Chillington Mix samples heavily from the Jamiroquai song Getinfunky which is found on some special releases of Synkronized, such as the Japanese release where it replaced "Deeper Underground" as the bonus track, and alongside "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" on the Australian double disc. On the High Times: The Singles DVD, Jay comments on a bonus feature that the original Godzilla song was just made of "Ominous noises" which strongly matches the sound of Getinfunky. When the title or the remix and "Ominous noises" evidence is pared it strongly suggests that "Getinfunky" is an early version of the Godzilla song which later evolved into "Deeper Underground".
Critical reception
Daily Record wrote, "Cat in the hatster, Jay Kay returns with another distinctive and clever funk tune". Sunday Mirror commented, "Seventies funk, expensive video, silly hat. Well, it worked last time didn't it? And the time before that."
Music video
A music video was made to accompany the song. It was directed by Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund. In the video, Jay Kay is in his London apartment awake on his bed, he decides to get up and put his shoes on. Once he does he then talks to one of his walls and then phases through the wall into a living room. He then does a bit of dancing around, before leaping through another wall into a dining room as he dances on the table messing up the set up as he swings on a chandelier through another wall into a room where a party is going on, as he dances about he even has a bit of floating around. He then floats off and emerges into a bathroom as he does some dancing and he then goes into a couple's room and does a bit of dancing and messing around before going back to the party room and doing more dancing there. He then goes to the corridor and jumps through a door into a bedroom where a couple are having sex in the bed as he keeps dancing and messing about before flying into the TV. He sings as he flies while shifting positions before making it back to the party room, as he then goes to a kitchen and messes the room up turning a table over, knocking the chairs over, before leaping back to the party room again, after that he leaps to a room with four women inside having a slumber party as he slides and dances about on the ceiling in the room before going back to the party room and then merges outside the room, leaping around a corridor and merging at some stairs before going through a door and going back down another corridor back to his apartment where he collapses back on the bed and falls asleep. The video was published on YouTube in December 2010. As of November 2020, it has been viewed over 29,1 million times.
In popular culture
The song is featured in Napoleon Dynamite, during the title character's dance performance at the end of a high school assembly.
The song is also featured in the film Center Stage, released in 2000, in which the dancers perform a piece to this song at the end of the movie.
The song was used in the rhythm based Xbox 360 game Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3; The music video was played in the background as the song would be played.
A cover of the song was featured in a level of the game Elite Beat Agents.
Another cover of the song was featured in the European version of Donkey Konga.
The song was also featured in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 tennis game, Top Spin 3.
A newer cover of the song, entitled "Kashyyyk", appeared in the game Kinect Star Wars and it was entitled "S-Boogie" in the game Boogie.
The song is featured in Lone Survivor, where a rookie jokingly dances in front of a group of unsatisfied Navy SEALS before making a speech to them.
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