In the year 2000, the Beastie Boys recorded a full length country LP as a Christmas gift for friends and family. Only a few hundred copies of ‘Country Mike’s Greatest Hits’, or ‘Country Mike’s Greatest Hits; Railroad Blues, Country Mike’s Theme, Don’t Let The Air Out My Tires, Sloppy Drunks, Kenny Jones, & Other Sing-A-Long Favorites!’ were made and sent out with a Christmas card from “Country Mike and The Boys”.
In the liner notes of the Beastie Boys compilation The Sounds of Science, Adam Yauch explains, “At some point after Ill Communication came out, Mike got hit in the head by a large foreign object and lost all of his memory. As it started coming back he believed that he was a country singer named Country Mike. The psychologists told us that if we didn’t play along with Mike’s fantasy, he could be in grave danger. Finally he came back to his senses. This song (“Railroad Blues”) is one of the many that we made during that tragic period of time.”
Of particular note is the song “Country Delight,” which uses the baseline from the Sugarhill Gang‘s ‘Rapper’s Delight’.
You can check out the full album above and the track listing below. GIDDY UP!
Country Mike’s Greatest Hits Track List
A1 Sloppy Drunks
A2 Railroad Blues
A3 We Can Do This
A4 Country Delight
A5 Don’t Let The Air Out My Tires
A6 How Do You Mend An Achin’ Heart
B1 One Song A Night
B2 Country Christmas
B3 Kenny Jones (Country Knows Best)
B4 Country Mike’s Theme
B5 On Your Way Up Again (The Fowl Song)
B6 We Can Do This (Live)
B7 The Half-Wit
