Jack Black knows what you need. So, after giving a little tease of his band Tenacious D’s rocked-up cover of Britney Spears signature 1998 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash “…Baby One More Time” last week, the singer/actor dropped the full thing on Friday (March 8). In addition, Black and TD bandmate Kyle Gass got all dressed up for the song’s video, which they recorded on the red carpet at the Sunday’s Los Angeles premiere for the Black-starring animated quadquel Kung Fu Panda 4.
The clip finds Black — dressed in a black and white tuxedo — pulling off some impressive high front kicks on the carpet as he and Gass strut and dance to the cover’s funky, fat-bottomed riff, with Black dispatching his partner in rock at one point with a series of pantomimed punches and foot snaps.
Because the song will play over the end credits of the movie out today (March 8), Black and Gass share the screen in the video with the film’s co-stars, including Bryan Cranston, Ke Huy Quan, Dustin Hoffman, Awkwafina and James Hong, who gamely dance, goof around and throw air haymakers at the excitable Black as he sings, “hit me baby, but not too hard.”
After the TikTok tease of the cover went viral last week, Black told The Hollywood Reporter the origin story for the hot Spears take. “[Kung Fu Panda 4 director Mike Mitchell] said, ‘Hey, we would love to have a Tenacious D song for the end credits’ and I was like, ‘Really? Can we do Britney Spears?’ He said, yeah, and 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.’”
At press time, it did not appear that Spears — who deactivated her Instagram earlier this week — had reacted to the full video on her socials.
Check out Tenacious D’s “…Baby One More Time” video below.