Mozart's birthday is today but he never wrote songs with titles like "Jizzlobber", "Cuckoo for Caca" or "My Ass Is On Fire", so I'm going to write about Mike Patton instead.
Patton was born today in 1968 in Eureka, California. He formed a band in high school called Mr. Bungle and they cut a few demo tapes. Patton's voice caught the attention of a more established band, Faith No More, who was looking to replace their singer. (If you ever watched the show Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe you've heard the original singer as that show's theme song was Faith No More's "We Care A Lot".)
Patton joined Faith No More in 1988 and the band released their breakthrough album, The Real Thing, in June of 1989. The single "Epic" was a top ten hit and was featured heavily on MTV. Patton would release three more albums with the band before embarking on other adventures. (FNM did reunite in 2015 for the "Sol Invictus" album.)
The success of Faith No More allowed Mr. Bungle to score a record deal but Patton isn't the kind of guy that sits still for long. He has been involved with the bands Fantomas, Tomahawk and Peeping Tom. In addition, he has written movie soundtracks, recorded Italian language albums with orchestras, and done voice work in movies and video games.
An interesting study published by Vintage Vinyl News pegged Patton as the popular music singer with the greatest vocal range. He was the only singer in the study with a range of six octaves. Notable singers ranked below Patton include David Lee Roth, Axl Rose, Roger Waters, Paul McCartney, Prince, David Bowie, Steven Tyler, Christina Aguilera, Maynard Keenan and Robert Plant. To put it mildly, the boy can sing. http://www.vintagevinylnews.com/2014/05/digging-deeper-axl-rose-is-not-s...
For those that only know Patton through his work with Faith No More, I must warn you that this cat is out there. Most of his work after FNM is experimental in nature and either you get it or you don't, you love it or hate it, and I admit I don't get it. Even his work with Fantomas, which included Buzz Osbourne from Melvins and Dave Lombardo from Slayer (two bands I love), is for the most part beyond me.
