Come with Me

"Come with Me" is a song by Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page that was featured on the soundtrack and end credits for the 1998 Roland Emmerich directed film Godzilla. It was the second single released from the soundtrack, after The Wallflowers cover of David Bowie's "Heroes", and most successful. It reached #2 in the UK and #4 in the US, and was Puff Daddy's 5th consecutive Top 5 single, and the first time Page had appeared as a solo artist in the Billboard Top 10.

The song sampled the Led Zeppelin epic "Kashmir", with Page's approval, and was engineered and mixed by Paul Logos. The rap and basic track were recorded at Record Plant, Hollywood, with a satellite link with CTS Studios, London to allow Page to add guitar, while he was still touring with Page and Plant at the time. Page added a new arpeggiated guitar section to the piece after the first two verses by Daddy. The session also featured Tom Morello on bass, and Mario Winans on drums, with the musical elements staying close to and emphasising the original, unlike standard rap recordings of the time. An additional 120 piece orchestra, arranged by Jeremy Lubbock and recorded at Capitol Studios, Hollywood was also added. It was then mixed at Daddy's own recording studio in New York. A live version was also recorded for the 9 May 1998 edition of Saturday Night Live, featuring Page performing guitar, while Morello played bass, and later included with the CD single (Live Version). Page commended Daddy's musicianship during the performance:

He kept changing the arrangement all through the soundcheck and dress rehearsals ... I thought, 'He's never going to remember all these changes, he'll never get this right.' But he was right on the nail every time. So you've got to give him his due for that.

Morello also remixed another version for the CD single, with additional live guitar parts from himself (Morello Mix). It was completed at Record One, Sherman Oaks. Subsequent releases also featured alternate remixes by producers Tony Montana, D-Dot, Apollo 440, and the Stealth Sonic Orchestra (Howard Gray, Norman Fisher-Jones, Trevor Gray), on maxi-vinyl, CD single, and digital download formats. On 9 October 1999, Daddy and Page performed "Come with Me" for the NetAid anti-poverty charity concert at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

When MTV Russia with 58 million viewers was launched at midnight 26 September 1998, the first international music video played was "Come with Me". The track was also used by BBC TV during their 2002 FIFA World Cup coverage. French football team Olympique de Marseille plays this track whenever a goal is scored by their team at their home stadium. Steve Corino used the song as his entrance theme during his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling, and Michael Bisping used the song as his entrance theme against Rashad Evans at UFC 78. The song was used to introduce the Los Angeles Lakers' starting line up from the 2008 NBA Finals.

Music video
A music video featuring both Daddy and Page was filmed for the single. In the long-form video clip, which features various out-takes from the Godzilla film itself, the storyline throughout concerns Daddy confronting Godzilla on the skyscrapers and streets of New York City, with actress Garcelle Beauvais (from The Jamie Foxx Show) as part of the dream sequence intro. The intro to the video features a sample of "Between the Sheets" by The Isley Brothers during that dream sequence. Page is also featured on a large background video screen projection over Times Square throughout, with various added digital graphic effects. Page's performance was filmed at Pinewood Studios, England in February 1998, while the orchestral and stage scenes were filmed at Sony Pictures Scoring Stage, Culver City.

Reception
The single was a Top 10 hit in most countries around the world, and garnered Daddy and Page nominations at the 1998 VMA Awards and 1999 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. Reviews, along with the Godzilla soundtrack, were mixed. Allmusic awarding the soundtrack album 2.5 stars out of 5, while the Sunday Mirror review on 26 July 1998: "Puff gets the big noise of the summer for the second year running with this rock rap tune from Godzilla. 9/10", and the Birmingham Evening Mail review on 28 July 1998: "The team-up you'd thought you'd never see - but the surprise is, it works!", were more generous. Daddy responded to the criticism in an online interview with SonicNet on 3 September 1998, and quoted on VH1:

I don't pay attention to the critics, I pay attention to the fans... If you look at the volume of music I have created, sampling isn't dominating the music I create.