Blue Jean

video File:Placeholder
This article is about the David Bowie song. For the trousers, see jeans. For the bird, see Blue-gray tanager. For the supercomputer architecture, see Blue Gene.

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* Derek Bramble
* Hugh Padgham

"**Blue Jean**" is a song written and recorded by David Bowie for his sixteenth studio album *Tonight*. One of only two tracks on the album to be written entirely by Bowie, it was released as a single ahead of the album and charted within the Top 10 in the UK and the United States, peaking at No. 6 and No. 8, respectively. The song is loosely inspired by Eddie Cochran.

Following the commercial success of Bowie's previous album, *Let's Dance*, its singles and the Serious Moonlight Tour, "Blue Jean" was launched with a 21-minute short film, Jazzin' for Blue Jean, directed by Julien Temple. The song performance segment from this was also used as a more conventional music video. The film won the 1985 Grammy Award for "Best Video, Short form" (Later renamed "Best Music Video"), which proved to be the only competitive Grammy Award Bowie won during his career for over three decades. (In 2017, Bowie posthumously won four Grammies for Blackstar (album), including Grammy Award for Best Rock Song for the *Blackstar* title track. Blackstar (album) also won Grammy Award for Best Recording Package for its designer Jonathan Barnbrook.)

"**Blue Jean**" would remain in Bowie's live repertoire for the rest of his career, being performed on tours in 1987, 1990 and 2004.

## Composition

Interviewed in 1987 and asked to compare a track like "Time Will Crawl" to "Blue Jean," Bowie said "'Blue Jean' is a piece of sexist rock 'n roll. [laughs] It's about picking up birds. It's not very cerebral, that piece." BBC reviewer Chris Jones criticised the song in his appraisal of *Best of Bowie* in 2002, arguing "Blue Jean barely exists, so formulaic is it."

## Track listing

### 7": EMI America / EA 181 (UK)

1. "Blue Jean" – 3:08
2. "Dancing with the Big Boys" – 3:32

* Some versions of the 7" single were released on blue vinyl

### 12": EMI America / 12EA 181 (UK)

1. "Blue Jean" (Extended Dance Mix) – 5:15
2. "Dancing with the Big Boys" (Extended Dance Mix) – 7:28
3. "Dancing with the Big Boys" (Extended Dub Mix) – 7:15

* "Blue Jean" (Extended Dance Mix) remixed by John "Jellybean" Benitez at Sigma Sound - NYC - Engineer: Jay Mark.
* "Dancing with the Big Boys" remixes produced by Arthur Baker.

## Personnel

* David Bowie – vocals
* Carlos Alomar – guitar
* Carmine Rojas – bass guitar; keyboards
* Omar Hakim – drums
* Lenny Pickett – tenor saxophone; bass clarinet
* Stanley Harrison – alto saxophone
* Steve Elson – baritone saxophone
* Guy St. Onge – marimba
* Sammy Figueroa – percussion

Production team
* David Bowie – producer
* Derek Bramble – producer
* Hugh Padgham – producer

## Other releases

* It appears on the following compilations:
	+ *Changesbowie* (1990)
	+ *The Singles Collection* (1993)
	+ *Best of Bowie* (2002)
	+ *The Platinum Collection* (2005)
	+ *The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987* (2007)
	+ *Nothing Has Changed* (2014) (3-disc and 2-disc editions)
	+ *Bowie Legacy* (2016) (2-disc edition)

 File:Bowie JazzinForBlueJeanVHS.jpg
## Video versions

There are 3 versions of the video:

1. The full 21-minute version entitled *Jazzin' for Blue Jean*
2. The 3-minute version of the performance of the title track, edited from the full *Jazzin' for Blue Jean* video. The video is available to download for the Xbox 360 karaoke game Lips.
3. An alternate version recorded for MTV in England that has no relation to the other videos. This alternate version was not popularly available until the DVD release of *Best of Bowie* in 2002.

## Cover versions

* Example 2 – *Ashes to Ashes: A Tribute to David Bowie* (1998)
* Gallery of Fear – *The Dark Side of David Bowie: A Tribute to David Bowie* (1997)
* Pennywise
* Trench – *Hero: The Main Man Records Tribute to David Bowie* (2007)
* Papercranes – *We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie* (2010)

## References

1. ↑ Inskeep, Thomas (12 July 2005). "On Second Thought: David Bowie - Tonight". *Stylus Magazine*. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Murray, Charles Shaar (25 October 1984), "Let's Talk, A Conversation with David Bowie", *Rolling Stone magazine* (433): 14, 18, 74
3. ↑ http://video.canoe.com/archive/david-bowie-won-5x-more-grammys-in-1-night-than-in-50-year-career/5321106970001
4. ↑ "David Bowie - The Interview" 1987, EMI America (Album) Track 24
5. ↑ Jones, Chris. "David Bowie Best Of Review". *BBC*. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
6. ↑ Kent, David (1993). *Australian Chart Book 1970–1992*. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
7. ↑ *Library and Archives Canada: Top Singles*, 27 October 1984, retrieved 12 February 2016
8. ↑ "Charts.nz – David Bowie – Blue Jean". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
9. ↑ "BLUE JEAN – David Bowie" (in Polish). LP3. Retrieved 29 January 2017.

Pegg, Nicholas, *The Complete David Bowie*, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5

## External links

* Template:MetroLyrics song

Template:David Bowie singles