Canned Heat (song)

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-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 instead 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, including 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 song's "ominous noises" are pared away, it strongly suggests that "Getinfunky" is an early version of the Godzilla song which later evolved into "Deeper Underground".

Daily Record wrote, "Cat in the hatster, Jay Kay returns with another distinctive and clever funk tune".[3] Sunday Mirror commented, "Seventies funk, expensive video, silly hat. Well, it worked last time didn't it? And the time before that."[4]

A music video was made to accompany the song. It was directed by Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund.[5] In the video, Jay Kay is in his London apartment awake on his bed, and 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 setup as he swings on a chandelier through another wall into a room where a party is going on. He dances about and inexplicably starts floating around, defying gravity. He then floats off and emerges into a bathroom, continuing to dance, and then goes into a couple's room and continues to dance and mess 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 a TV. He sings as he flies while shifting positions before making it back to the party room. He then goes to a kitchen and trashes it, turning a table over and 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. Next, he goes back to the party room and phases 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 where he started. The video was published on YouTube in September 2007 and then again in December 2010 as a high-quality file. As of January 2021, it has been viewed over 30 million times on YouTube alone.[6]

UK CD1

1. "Canned Heat" (7-inch edit) – 3:46
2. "Canned Heat" (radio edit) – 3:19
3. "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" – 4:00

UK CD2

1. "Canned Heat" (7-inch edit) – 3:46
2. "Canned Heat" (album version) – 5:30
3. "Deeper Underground" (Chillington Mix) – 6:56

Futureshock Mix

• "Canned Heat" (Futureshock Remix) – 8:03

Masters at Work Mix

• "Canned Heat" (Masters at Work Remix) – 8:25

Shanks & Bigfoot Mix

• "Canned Heat" (Shanks & Bigfoot Master Mix) – 6:29

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.