The Story Behind the Iggy Pop Heroin Ballad That United David Bowie and Tina Turner, “Tonight”

When David Bowie and Iggy Pop sojourned to Berlin in 1976 to reinvent themselves and distance from drugs, it resulted in one of their most fruitful creative periods. Both co-wrote Pop’s post-Stooges 1977 solo debut, The Idiot, and co-produced his follow-up, Lust for Life, with Bowie also penning the title track and several other songs on the album. Pop also released the live album TV Eye in ’77, (featuring Bowie on backing vocals), all while Bowie was working on his Berlin Trilogy—Low and Heroes (1977) and Lodger (1979).

After the Berlin sabbatical, their collaborations continued into the ’80s with Bowie covering Pop’s “China Girl” on his 1983 album Let’s Dance. By ’86, co-wrote the majority of tracks on Pop’s album Blah-Blah-Blah, and a year later Bowie slipped Pop’s Party track “Bang Bang” for his 1984 album Never Let Me Down.

In 1984, the two also collaborated on Bowie’s 16th album Tonight, featuring Bowie’s “Blue Jean,” which went to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. On the album, Bowie also covered the Beach Boys‘ Pet Sounds classic “God Only Knows,” Chuck Jackson’s 1963 hit “I Keep Forgettin’,” and more of Pop’s songs. Bowie and Pop also co-wrote “Tumble and Twirl” and “Dancing with the Big Boys,” along with the title track, which originally appeared on Lust For Life.

[RELATED: 4 Songs David Bowie and Iggy Pop Co-Wrote After ‘The Idiot’]

‘Everything Will Be Alright’

When Pop originally started writing “Tonight,” it centered on mortality and was inspired by the story of a man who finds his girlfriend dead from a heroin overdose: I saw my baby / She was turning blue / I knew that soon, her / Young life was through.

Bowie’s reinterpreted “Tonight” with Tina Turner as more of a reggae-bent celebration of love—til death due them part.

Everything will be alright tonight
Said everything will be alright tonight
No one moves, no one talks
No one thinks, no one walks tonight
Tonight

Everyone will be alright tonight
Everyone will be alright tonight
No one moves, no one talks
No one thinks, no one walks tonight
Tonight

I am gonna love you ’til the end
I will love you ’til I reach the end
I will love you ’til I die
I will see you in the sky tonight
Tonight

Photo: Iggy Pop (l) and David Bowie / Kent/Mediapunch/Shutterstock