'Firestarter' was Prodigy's first UK No. 1 single. It is also a kind of milestone for the band. It was the first song which had Keith in vocals and it was the first single taken from their third album. The single was released 18th of March 1996. Liam wrote 'Firestarter' in 1995 and originally the song was instrumental. The source of inspiration for Liam was a song by Foo Fighters - the song was called 'Beenie Weenie'. "I listened to it and I don’t know where I was. I think it was either Macao or something like that. ... I was thinking it was a good track. The track is not a ground breaking track. It’s just a good, solid rock track and I had that in my head. I don’t know. I went into the studio to get something that had a similar type of energy. It wasn’t like I want to write something like that because the two tracks are so different anyway." Liam has said.

    The song really is about Keith's personality. "Firestarter was already a good instrumental track, but I knew it was missing the usual Prodigy hook that sticks in your head. Keith came into the studio, said he'd like to try singing on it and went away and wrote some words. What's a firestarter? Isn't that obvious? It's Keith - it's his personality."

    Tracks

    'Firestarter' contained a guitar sample taken from Breeder's 'S.O.S.' "Hey hey hey" sample was taken from 'Close To The Edit' performed by Art Of Noise. The guitars for 'Firestarter' were played by Jimmy "Goose" Davies, Prodigy's ex-live guitarist. 'Firestarter' was remixed by Empirion who were Prodigy label mates at the time. Empirion's DJ Jamie Smart knew Liam Howlett because both of them had worked at the same car wash and he has DJed at Prodigy gigs. 'Molotov Bitch' was the b-side of the single. It was a hip hop flavoured instrumental track which was originally available in the end of 'Electronic Punks' video (XLV 017). Six years later Prodigy actually used the "funk guitar" sample from 'Firestarter' on 'Baby's Got A Temper'.

    Releases

    'Firestarter' was released as 12" (XLT 70), cassette (XLC 70) and CD (XLS 70 CD). There is a 12" DJ promo (XLT 70 DJ) which had a special "Molotov Cocktail" cover and a 7" jukebox copy (XLT 70 LC) which only 500 copies are made. XL Recordings also made a 12-trk in-store promo sampler CD (XL 70 CDPR) which had no covers and no title but it's well known as Firestarter promo (only 1,000 copies made). There's also a French promo CD (Delabel, DE 3675) with a unique cover. The single was released in Holland by Play It Again Sam (825.0070.22) and in Germany by Intercord (INT 827.923) with the samtrack listingng as the UK release. In Italy single was released by UPD as CD (UDPCD 1053) and even as 12" (UDP 1043). The Polish CD single (33950-6) which was released by Koch International contained the same four tracks as the UK single but it was enhanced - the single contained the video of 'Firestarter'. The single has a slightly different sleeves also.

    'Firestarter' was a huge hit USA and Prodigy signed a record deal with Maverick after 'Firestarter' was released. That's why the very first US copies were released by Mute, Prodigy's Canadian label. The single was released as CD (Mute CD, 8001-2) and promo 12" (8001-0). Maverick releasepromotionalal versions of 'Firestarter' as 12" (PRO-A-8652), cassette (no cat. no) and CD (PRO-CD-8652-R). The single was released in Japan by Avex Trax (AVCD-30033).