King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime is the fifth studio album by American rock band Faith No More, released on March 13, 1995, by Slash and Reprise Records.

Following Martin's departure, Trey Spruance was brought on to perform on the album, having also been in Mr. Bungle with singer Mike Patton.

After releasing Angel Dust in 1992, Faith No More's next project was a collaboration with Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., contributing the single "Another Body Murdered" to the soundtrack for the 1993 film Judgment Night.

[4][5] Around the time "Another Body Murdered" was released, the band had to cancel a planned run of shows in Peru, Brazil and Venezuela, as a result of the issues they were experiencing with Martin.

[6][7] Martin was fired from the band later in 1993 due to musical differences, via a fax from keyboard player Roddy Bottum.

Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance was brought in to replace Martin and record for Faith No More's follow up to Angel Dust.

"[10] Roddy Bottum claims to have been mostly absent during this period, owing to the deaths of his father and Kurt Cobain, whose wife Courtney Love was a close friend of his and one of the temporary lead singers of the band before Chuck Mosley joined.

Bottum claimed the combination of Wallace and Spruance as two new influences helped to create "a real up-in-the-air, what the fuck is gonna happen kind of feel" while recording.

[4] In a 1995 Australian radio interview, drummer Mike Bordin said that the record was more focused than Angel Dust, and that the departure of previous guitarist Jim Martin made the writing process easier.

[19][20][21][22][22][23][23][18] In a 1995 interview with Metal Hammer, Mike Bordin discussed the change in songwriting approach from previous releases, saying that "Instead of putting everything into every song, we wanted to take things out and make them a bit simpler.

"[16] That March, the band appeared on the British television program Top of the Pops to promote the single, later performing it on MTV Europe, Canal+'s Nulle Part Ailleurs and The Jon Stewart Show.

[27] It featured on an episode of Beavis and Butt-head in August 1995,[28] and was included on the soundtrack of the 1996 Italian film Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo.

[4] Cut tracks "I Won't Forget You" and "Hippie Jam Song" both appeared on the later compilations Who Cares a Lot?

[42] The song "What a Day" includes the line "Kill the body and the head will die", which was taken from Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

[45] It stylistically draws from bossa nova music, although in a 1995 interview with MTV Brasil, Patton claimed that the song originally sounded more like The Police.

[49] The band had two separate runs of shows in Australia, with the first being as part of the inaugural edition of the Alternative Nation festival in April 1995, and the next being in August 1995.

[50] The band performed at four Alternative Nation festival dates, alongside artists including Body Count, Lou Reed, Nine Inch Nails, Regurgitator, Ween, The Tea Party and Tool.

[51][52] Other artists that they shared bills with in 1995 include Alice Cooper, Biohazard, Blues Traveler, Bush, Clawfinger, Collective Soul, Duran Duran, Filter, the Goo Goo Dolls, Jennifer Trynin, Live, Ozzy Osbourne, Paradise Lost, Poster Children, Rata Blanca, Rollins Band, Sheryl Crow, Treponem Pal, and Weezer.

[49][6] With their American shows, the band were often playing in smaller club venues, partially as a result of Angel Dust's commercial underperformance.

"[53] In November 2011, Faith No More reunited with Trey Spruance for a performance at the Maquinaria festival in Chile, during which the album was played in its entirety.

[54] Unlike Faith No More's previous albums, initial reception to King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime was mixed.

Entertainment Weekly gave the album a grade of C− and called it an "archaic progressive-rock fusion, oddly out of step with the times".

[4] Michael Snyder of the San Francisco Chronicle, however, was more favorable, calling it "an utter triumph", adding that it was "enigmatic, sarcastic, provocative and incisive".

[66] Spin magazine's Jonathan Gold rated the album 6 out of 10, praising its "deftness" and its "burnished, jackhammer-sheathed-in-a-lubricated-condom presence", but feeling that its multiple genres were a distraction.

"[56] Writing for AllMusic, Greg Prato gave it a more positive rating of three-and-a-half stars out of five, while calling it one of the band's "underrated releases".

[59] Anthony Violanti of The Buffalo News gave the album a rating of three-and-a-half stars out of five, noting that "Patton still acts wild but has matured as a singer", and describing "Digging the Grave" as a "power pop masterpiece".

[69] However, neither nomination was won; Gould lost out to Les Claypool of Primus, while the album itself was beaten by Green Day's Insomniac.

[2] In 2015, Spin described the album as having "a more streamlined version of the sound that Incubus would soon take to the headlining stadium slot that Faith No More only encircled.

[75] It was also released in a limited run of 7 x 7 inch records packaged in a hard card box, with bonus tracks and audio interviews with all the band members included.