“In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids.  No one knows who they were or what they were doing...”

This is just a taste of the immortal lyrics of Spinal Tap guitarist Nigel Tufnel from the hilarious cult classic mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap,” released 29 years ago today!

With amps that went all the way up to 11 and a notoriously small Stonehenge concert set piece, the clueless rockers of Spinal Tap had us laughing with and at heavy metal bands of the 80’s.  

Actors Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer (Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, and Derek Smalls, respectively) all spent time in bands in the 70’s and improvised a lot of the film’s most memorable scenes on the spot.  The guys even toured as Spinal Tap for a while after the film’s release, reuniting in 1992 to release Break Like The Wind along with a TV special called “The Return of Spinal Tap.” Most recently, the group got together to release Back From The Dead in 2009!

Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates of all people recently expressed his love for Spinal Tap on a February 11 Reddit AMA (“ask me anything”) forum.  When a redditor asked Gates if Weezer was still his favorite band, Gates cited U2 as his favorite and then wrote, “I keep waiting for Spinal Tap to go back on tour...”

Check out some of the film’s best moments below and tell us your favorite Spinal Tap moment in the comments section!