David Bowie and Mick Jagger’s Dancing In The Street reissued

A 40th anniversary limited edition white vinyl 12″ of the Dancing In The Street duet between David Bowie and Mick Jagger has been announced.

Forty years ago today, Live Aid, the benefit concert organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the famine in Ethiopia, was announced. The show was held simultaneously on Saturday, 13 July 1985, at Wembley and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. One of the day’s highlights was the surprise duet of the Motown classic, Dancing In The Street, between David Bowie and Mick Jagger.

The video for the track, which, like the song, had only been recorded and filmed in 13 hours, only 14 days earlier, was shown at 7 pm in the UK (2 pm in Philadelphia), just before Bowie took to the stage at Wembley Stadium. The single version of the song was released on 27  August, with all the proceeds benefiting famine relief. It topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks and reached No.7 in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The video has been upgraded to high resolution to celebrate the anniversary using the original film negative. Watch below:

Tokyo, South America, Australia, France, Germany, UK, Africa…

Originally, the duo intended to perform the track live together on the day, with Bowie in London and Jagger in Philadelphia. However, the satellite link between the two countries would cause a half-second delay. As a result, the pair convened at Westside Studios in London on 29 June, where Bowie was working with producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. The duo went directly from the studio to Spillers Millennium Mills in the East End to shoot the video with director David Mallet.

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.”

Dancing In The Street 40th Anniversary White Vinyl

The limited edition white vinyl 12″ will be released on 29 August, two days after its 40th anniversary. The release will feature all of the song’s mixes for the first time. Thirty per cent of the retail price from the sale of this single will be donated to The Band Aid Charitable Trust.

SIDE A
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 B
Dancing In The Street (Edit) (3.24)
Dancing In The Street (Dub) (4.43)

Pre-order here

Featured image credit: Parlophone Records

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