Tenacious D release official studio version of viral …Baby One More Time cover

One week ago, Tenacious D went viral for doing a very funny (and very good!) snippet of a …Baby One More Time cover, and now the duo have just released the official studio version.

Jack Black and Kyle Gass actually tackled the Britney Spears classic for the soundtrack to Kung Fu Panda 4 – which also arrives in cinemas today, March 8. Speaking at the premiere for the film, which is also seemingly where the cover’s accompanying music video was shot, Jack enthused: “Britney, if you’re watching, I love you. I love the song. We’re very proud of it and I hope you like it too.”

Check it out below:

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the LA premiere of Kung Fu Panda 4 last week, Jack explained that The D’s latest cover came to be because director Mike Mitchell told him, “‘Hey, we would love to have a Tenacious D song for the end credits,’” to which Jack said he responded: “‘Really? Can we do Britney Spears?’”

The actor continued, “He said, ‘Let’s do ‘Hit me baby one more time’ for the Kung Fu aspect of that song,’ and we were like, ‘Hell yeah!’ So we got in the recording studio and we did it and we’re really proud of the track. We shot a little impromptu music video in Kyle’s hotel room and we put it on the Internet and it’s gone crazy viral. It’s exciting.”

Catch Tenacious D live this year at the following:

April

29 Stockholm Hovet +
30 Oslo Spektrum +

May

1 Copenhagen Royal Arena +
3 Luxembourg Rockhal +
5 Dublin 3Arena +
7 Birmingham Resorts World Arena *
8 Manchester AO Arena *
9 Glasgow OVO Hydro *
11 Leeds First Direct Arena *
12 Nottingham Motorpoint Arena *
13 Brighton Centre *
15 Paris Accor Arena +

+ = support from Crusade
* = support from Dave Hill

Get your tickets here.

Read this: “Tribute was our Mona Lisa”: An oral history of Tenacious D’s self-titled debut album