While recording at Kong Studios, 2-D started fiddling around with his melodica and Russel Hobbs took the good bits out of it, while Murdoc wrote the melody and 2-D then sang it.Ģ-D also claimed he had a cold when he did the vocals but still really worked. The drums are provided by a drum machine and the main instrument used in the song is the melodica, which Albarn used to make the basic track as well. According to the engineer, Jason Cox, 'Damon gave us the OK to set fire to it on stage, but we said 'No, you can't set fire to that! It's a classic!', and it ended up being used on the song as well as some other tracks on the album. The strings featured in the song are from a string machine, the Solina String Ensemble. It was considered superior and stuck as the album version, quickly becoming one of the band’s biggest hits. Using techniques he learned from reading “How To Write a Hit Song”, he wrote and recorded his verses for the song. Del was initially hesitant and only agreed to record his It after being shown the band’s artwork and recognizing Jamie Hewlett’s art style from Tank Girl (a comic he collected as a teenager). However, Dan the Automator insisted that a different rapper be used instead, and courted Del The Funky Homosapien (who he was working with on Deltron 3030 at the time) as the guest rapper.

The original rap was done by Phi-Life Cypher and planned to keep that as the album version. It’s original demos were recorded by Albarn using a drum machine and a guitar, with similar demos being, re-recorded into Logic as a backing track. The foundation of the song is based around a preset produced by the Suzuki Omnichord OM-300 called Rock 1. However, after both Del and Damon sorted out their problems, in most recent shows the original rap has been used again. British hip hop group Phi Life Cypher also contributed providing rap and vocals both to the original version of Clint Eastwood, later released on G-Sides and at the live BRIT Awards performace alongside concerts from the Gorillaz LIVE tour.īecause of legal issues that Damon Albarn had with Del The Funky Homosapien, his rapping parts could not be used during live performances, and so various rappers have contributed different raps to the song, including Phi Life Cypher themselves, De La Soul with Bootie Brown or Jamal Grey in Demon Detour, Tinie Tempah (Johnathan Ross Show), Snoop Dogg (Glastonbury), Bashy & Kano (Escape to Plastic Beach World Tour), and Eslam Jawaad (Damascus). B-side Dracula was probably the best of the off cuts from the 'Gorillaz' sessions and most popular Phase 1 B-side track. In the UK, the Ed Case Refix, made by DJ Ed Case featuring Sweetie Irie, actually got far more airplay than the regular verson due to the popularity of UK Garage at the time, resulting in the inclusion of said remix on the debut LP. Bigger than Damon Albarn's previous smash, Song 2 (with Blur), this song remains one of Damon's biggest hits (its popularity beaten only later by Feel Good Inc.). Slightly later in 2001 the song would also become a massive radio hit in the US and central and South America. A huge smash initially in the UK, where it remained in the charts for months and the top 10 for weeks.Īt around the same time radio in Europe also went mad for the song. On Rise of the Ogre, the song is claimed as Gorillaz' big signature tune.

Songtext gorillaz clint eastwood