Song 96 - David Bowie sings with....

With this my last set of Bowie's songs to go into the Jukebox in succession, I have turned to three songs he performed with possibly some of the biggest stars of music; Mick Jaggar, Freddie Mercury and John Lennon.  I think these songs illustrates the respect the Bowie had within the industry to be able to work with so many great artists. I mean how many artists are there who have had John Lennon as a back up singer. Here are my last three Bowie's tracks for the time being.

Dancing in the Street - David Bowie and Mick Jaggar

With the aim of raising money for Live Aid, Bowie teamed up with Mick Jagger to record Dancing in the street in 1985. Originally recorded by Martha and  the Vandellas in 1964, Bowie and Jagger took the single all the way to number 1 and created an iconic 80s pop video that sums up the cultural and the fashion of the day. I must say that at the time, I don't think I knew who Mick Jaggar was and I definitely didn't fully appreciate the pop royalty of the two stars. The single took 13 hours to record and was played twice at Live Aid concert.

The video won at the MTV video awards and the Brit Awards  and although it is often made fun of, I think it is a good reminder that David Bowie was part of the revolution of the pop video.

Relive a 1980s classic
Dancing in the Street


Under Pressure - Queen featuring David Bowie

Giving Queen their second number one in 1981, the track Under Pressure came about after Bowie was due to record backing lyrics on  Queen's track on Cool Cats. The final version that became Under Pressure evolved from a jam session that Bowie had with the band in Montreux, Switzerland and the single is attributed to all five of them. The scat singing that dominates much of the song is evidence of the jam-beginnings as improvisation. I am sure on one documentary I watched on Queen both Bowie and Mercury didn't listen to what the other was singing so it became a friendly competition between two incredible artists. Brian May spoke in 2008 to Mojo Magazine about the challenges with recording the song "It was hard, because you had four very precocious boys and David, who was precocious enough for us all. David took over the song lyrically. Looking back, it's a great song but it should have been mixed differently. Freddie and David had a fierce over it. It's a significant song because of David and its lyrical content."

Unlike Dancing in the Street, due to the commitments of both Bowie and Queen, they didn't appear in the video to accompany the No.1. single, but they did perform it live  together

See the live version
Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie

Fame - David Bowie

Fame was first released in 1975 and was written by David Bowie, Carlos Alomar and John Lennon. It reached No. 17 in the UK chart and No.1. in the US Billboard Chart. From the album Young Americans,  Fame was the result of a jamming session with John Lennon when he was staying in New York and trying to extricated himself from his management. The jamming session lasted a day and using the riff that was developed by Carlos Alomar, Lennon started singing 'aim; which Bowie changed to Fame and then wrote the rest of the lyrics. Lennon's voice is used as a backing singing and is heard at the end of the song repeating the words: "Fame, Fame, Fame", from a fast right the way through to a low track, before Bowie finished the lyrics. Later in life Bowie describe the song as being an angry track aimed at the management he was tried to leave and the lyrics reflects that Fame isn't all it is cracked up to be. 

To hear Fame:

Fame by David Bowie

Heaven has definitely gain a very talented musician this week.