First Appearance:Check Your Head LP, 21 April 1992 Written by: Beastie Boys Performed by: Beastie Boys Production Notes: Engineered by Mario Caldato, produced by Beastie Boys and Mario Caldato. Recorded and mixed at G-Son Studios, Atwater Village, CA. Sequenced at PCP Labs.
Behind the Beats and Lyrics...
Samples
On Wine: How to Select & Serve album (voices: Kay Lande, Peter M.F. Sichel, Warren Moran)
"Hector" by The Village Callers from the single "Hector/I'm Leaving" (1968)
Sample & Reference Breakdown
"Our evening began in Peter Sichel's comfortable study/In his New York townhouse, where the candle light was just right..." - a sample from On Wine: How to Select & Serve album. In a May 2011 interview with The Wine Reporter, Peter Sichel explained how the sample became part of Check Your Head. According to Sichel, Beastie Boys originally heard his record On Wine: How to Select & Serve at his daughter Sylvia's apartment. (Sylvia Sichel was a friend of Adam Yauch's.) The record made an impression on the band, who had their manager contact Sichel for permission of the sample.
Opening drum track - a sample from "Hector" by The Village Callers
Commentary:
Press
"...a dorky ad sample" - Boston Globe, spring 1992
"...a grinning takeoff on a wine commercial" - Boston Herald, 1992
"...a snickering satire of middle-class oenophiles" - Newsweek, 1992
