Where It's At

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"Where It's At"

Single by Beck
from the album Odelay
Released	1996
Format	12", 4 CDs
Recorded	1996
Genre	Rock, Funk
Length	10 min 49 sec
Label	DGC/Bong Load
Producer(s)	Beck, The Dust Brothers
Chart positions
#5 (US Modern Rock) #61 (US Hot 100)
Beck singles chronology
"It's All In Your Mind" (1995)	"Where It's At" (1996)	"Devil's Haircut" (1996)

"Where It's At" is the first single from Beck's 1996 album, Odelay. Many have commented that the strength of both "Where It's At" and Odelay confirmed that Beck was not a novelty act or one-hit wonder. A looped keyboard riff and Beck's intricate lyrics dominate the song. In the first verse, Beck develops the scene: there is a party taking place "up the road from the habitations and the towns we know", where one can experience "the jigsaw jazz and the get-fresh flow". The second verse is a surreal description of those attending the party.

Beck wrote "Where It's At" in 1995. He premièred it at Lollapalooza 1995, in a version very similar to its incarnation on Odelay. He has played the song very often since 1995, although he regularly experiments with the music and lyrics.

"Where It's At" is notable for the number of odd spoken samples that Beck and the Dust Brothers incorporated into it. Many of these come from an obscure sex education album titled Sex for Teens: (Where It's At!), whose subtitle Beck borrowed for the song. Other vocal samples incorporated into "Where It's At" come from "Needle To The Groove" by old school rap group Mantronix ("we've got two turntables and a microphone..."), as well as The Frogs and Run DMC ("...rock the most").

"Where It's At" was the first music video to be broadcast on the television channel MTV2.

1 Popular culture
2 Track listings
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] Popular culture

In the episode "Bendin' in the Wind" of Futurama, "Where It's At" is performed with Bender playing the washboard. Also Bender sings a change in the lyrics to "Got a washboard stomach and a microphone" and plays a washboard solo Beck sings "That was a washboard break."