Artist · chart history · #87 in alternative artist polls
Fatboy Slim
Solo artist Bromley United Kingdom
Fatboy Slim is an artist from Bromley. Fatboy Slim has 197 chart appearances on 122 radio countdowns from 35 stations on RockLists, spanning 1997–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Praise You”, which appears on 74 lists and was voted number one once. In total the artist has topped 1 countdown. The station that charted Fatboy Slim most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 37 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1999.
Behind the name Fatboy Slim stands Norman Cook, born in 1963, a DJ and producer who spent the '90s turning the dance floor into a sugar-rush of breakbeats and helped push big beat into the mainstream. He had already lived a couple of pop lives by then: he joined the Housemartins on bass in 1985 and was there for their 1986 number one, a cover of "Caravan of Love", though he never felt at home playing pop. When that band broke up he moved to Brighton to chase dance music, formed Beats International and produced their 1990 number one "Dub Be Good to Me", played in Freak Power, and cut house records under aliases such as Pizzaman and the Mighty Dub Katz.
The first Fatboy Slim album, Better Living Through Chemistry, arrived in 1996 with "Going Out of My Head", and remixes for Wildchild and Cornershop spread the word. The method was simple and irresistible: raid records from every corner, chop them into pop-shaped songs, bash the beats through the processor until they bounce and top it all with a chanted, slogan-sized vocal hook.
You've Come a Long Way, Baby, in 1998, was the big one, a platinum record that gave the world "The Rockafeller Skank", "Praise You", "Right Here, Right Now" and "Gangster Tripping", and a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars followed in 2000, and its "Weapon of Choice" walked off with 6 prizes at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. Palookaville, in 2004, did less business, as dance music cooled and the sound got more obscure, though "Wonderful Night" still found its way onto the countdowns.
He teamed up with David Byrne as the Brighton Port Authority in 2009 and again on Here Lies Love, a 2010 concept album that became a stage musical in 2013 and brought him a Tony nomination for Best Original Score in 2024. These days he mostly DJs. The trophy shelf holds a Grammy, 9 MTV Video Music Awards, 2 Brit Awards and an Ivor Novello Award, plus Guinness records for piling up more MTV video awards than any other DJ and for scoring more UK number ones across different acts than any other musician. On rock radio's countdowns, "Praise You" is still the one that gets the whole room singing.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Fatboy Slim on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Praise You | 74 | #1 | 1 | 1999 | |
| 2 | The Rockafeller Skank | 57 | #10 | – | 1998 | |
| 3 | Weapon of Choice | 20 | #21 | – | 2001 | |
| 4 | Wonderful Night | 9 | #30 | – | 2005 | |
| 5 | Gangster Tripping | 9 | #10 | – | 1999 | |
| 6 | Going Out of My Head | 6 | #83 | – | 1998 | |
| 7 | Right Here Right Now | 3 | #23 | – | 1999 | |
| 8 | That Old Pair of Jeans | 2 | #38 | – | 2006 | |
| 9 | Sunset (Bird of Prey) | 3 | #43 | – | 2000 | |
| 10 | Mad Flava | 1 | #89 | – | 2002 | |
| 11 | Sho"Nuff | 1 | #43 | – | 1999 | |
| 12 | Ya Mamma | 1 | #144 | – | 2001 | |
| 13 | Ya Mama | 1 | #77 | – | 2000 | |
| 14 | Satisfaction Skank (Party Ben Mega Mix) | 1 | #431 | – | – | |
| 15 | Rockafella Skank (remix) | 1 | #272 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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