"King of My Castle" is a song by American electronic music producer Chris Brann under his Wamdue Project alias, with vocals by Gaelle Adisson. It was originally released in 1997 as a downtempo song but became a worldwide club hit in 1999 when it was remixed by Italian house producer Roy Malone and included on the 1998 album Program Yourself. The song peaked at number one on the US Billboard Dance Club Play chart, topped the UK Singles Chart, and peaked within the top 10 in at least 12 other countries, including Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway.

Song information

The song's title and lyrics reference Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious which holds that the human ego is not free and is instead controlled by its own unconscious id—in Freud's own words, "das Ich ist nicht Herr im eigenen Hause" ("the ego is not king of its own castle"). Hence, one of the song's two music videos consists of footage from the 1995 anime film Ghost in the Shell, where people with cyborg implants have their actions controlled against their will by a hacker criminal known in the film as "puppetmaster". The music video for the 1998 song You're The Reason used footage from Patlabor 2: The Movie, another Mamoru Oshii film.

Track listings

1998 release

UK CD single UK 12-inch single European CD single Australian CD single

1999 release

US 12-inch single UK CD single UK 12-inch single UK cassette single Dutch CD single Australian and New Zealand CD single

Charts

Weekly charts

Original version 2009 version

Year-end charts

Original version 2009 version

Certifications

Release history

Cover versions

In 2009, "King of My Castle" was covered as a duet by singers Shayne Ward and Britney Spears, intended for Ward's album Obsession. Ward sings new lyrics while Spears's parts largely follow the original version. For unknown reasons, it was never released, but their version leaked online in 2021. A version solely featuring Spears also leaked online months later.