A new vinyl EP celebrating the 40th anniversary of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and David Bowie’s over-the-top duet version of the 1964 Motown classic “Dancing in the Street” will be released on August 29.
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The limited-edition white-vinyl disc will feature five versions of the Jagger-Bowie duet. They include mixes created by Bob Clearmountain and Steve Thompson, respectively. The EP also features an instrumental version, a single edit, and a dub mix. This marks the first time all of the track’s mixes will be available on the same release.
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The Dancing in the Street EP can be pre-ordered now. Thirty percent of the retail price from sales of the EP will be donated by Jagger, Bowie’s estate and Parlophone Records to The Band Aid Charitable Trust.
Coinciding with the EP announcement, a 4K version of the music video for Jagger and Bowie’s rendition of “Dancing in the Street” has debuted on David’s official YouTube channel.
More About Jagger and Bowie’s “Dancing in the Street” Cover
Jagger and Bowie recorded “Dancing in the Street” as a charity single to raise money for Live Aid’s famine-relief campaign. The two rock superstars originally intended to perform the song together during the simultaneous Live Aid concerts on July 13, 1985, in London and Philadelphia, with Bowie in the U.K. and Jagger in the U.S. The plan was scrapped, though, due to logistical issues. Instead, the video was given its world premiere just before David’s performance at Wembley Stadium.
The track was recorded in London in four hours on June 29, 1985, and the video was shot the same day.
The single was released on August 27, 1985, and was a hit in both the U.K and the U.S. It spent four weeks at No. 1 in the U.K. and peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The “Dancing in the Street” video was directed by David Mallet. It was shot at Spillers Millennium Mills in London’s Docklands area. Jagger and Bowie are featured hilariously dancing and prancing side by side and they mimed the song together. The clip ends with a shot of the two rockers wiggling their butts in tandem.
Reflecting on his collaboration with the late Bowie, Jagger said, “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.”
More About “Dancing in the Street”
“Dancing in the Street” originally was recorded by Martha and the Vandellas. It peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 in 1964. The song was co-written by Marvin Gaye, William “Mickey” Stevenson, and Ivy Jo Hunter.
“Dancing in the Street” also has been covered by many other artists, including The Kinks, The Mamas and the Papas, and The Grateful Dead.
(Photo by Brian Cooke/Redferns)
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