A limited edition white vinyl version of David Bowie and Mick Jagger‘s ‘Dancing In The Street’ has been announced to mark the single’s 40th anniversary. Find all the details below.
- READ MORE: David Bowie’s earliest years – as told by the people who knew him best
The two rock icons teamed up to cover the Motown classic – written by Marvin Gaye, William Stevenson and Ivy Jo Hunter – in 1985 to raise money for Live Aid. Its official music video was screened just before Bowie took to the stage at the Wembley Stadium event.
He and the Rolling Stones frontman’s studio version of the song was then released on August 27, with all the proceeds benefiting famine relief. It topped the UK singles chart for four weeks, and reached Number Seven in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100.
To celebrate four decades of ‘Dancing In The Street’, Parlophone is reissuing the cover on limited edition white 12″ vinyl on Friday August 29 – two days after its milestone anniversary. Pre-order here.
This remastered physical version brings together all of the song’s mixes for the first time. Additionally, 30 per cent of the retail price from the sale of this single will be donated to the Band Aid Charitable Trust.
In a new statement to accompany the announcement, Jagger recalled: “We had such a laugh doing ‘Dancing In The Street’ with both the song recorded in the studio and the video done in one day. Remarkable how we pulled it off, really.
“The video is hilarious to watch now. We enjoyed camping it up and trying to impersonate each other’s moves, making it up as we went along. It was the only time David and myself collaborated on anything, which is a real shame.”
You can see the full tracklist below, along with the official announcement post.
SIDE ONE
‘Dancing In The Street (Clearmountain Mix)’ (3.11)
‘Dancing In The Street (Instrumental)’ (3.17)
‘Dancing In The Street (Steve Thompson Mix)’ (4.42)
SIDE TWO
‘Dancing In The Street’ (Edit) (3.24)
‘Dancing In The Street’ (Dub) (4.43)
The original plan for Live Aid was for Bowie and Jagger to perform the track together live via video link – with the former at Wembley and the latter in Philadelphia. However, they soon realised that this would be impossible due to a half-second delay on the satellite connection.
Bowie and Jagger instead filmed a joint video for the cover at London’s Westside Studios in just 13 hours. The now-iconic visuals have been upgraded to high resolution 4K to celebrate the 40th anniversary, using the original film negative. Tune in above.
Speaking about the song and video at the time, Bowie said: “We thought about it on a Thursday night and we just went through a bunch of old songs and thought that ‘Dancing…’ was one we both knew very well and then we went into the studio between 7 and 11 on Saturday night, and then we went over to the Docklands and shot the video for the rest of the night so we did the whole thing in 10 hours, it was great.”
As for Live Aid, he explained: “Everybody out there who sent money in, you’re the real heroes because it’s easy for me to go up there and sing some songs, but it’s much harder for you to give money and not be recognised. Good on ya!”
Shortly after Bowie died in 2016, Jagger remembered the “fun times” the pair had enjoyed together. “We used to go out in New York a lot. We used to go out dancing all the time,” he said.
Jagger’s son, James, added: “The ‘Dancing in the Street’ video is hilarious. Whenever I’m feeling blue, I just Google ‘Dancing in the Street’ and it makes me laugh. It’s so ’80s, it’s amazing.”
There have been numerous Bowie reissues in recent years, including 50th anniversary editions of ‘Young Americans’, ‘Diamond Dogs’ and ‘Aladdin Sane’, ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and ‘Hunky Dory’, among other re-releases.
