China Girl (song)

"China Girl"
Single by David Bowie
from the album Let's Dance
B-side	"Shake It"
Released	May 1983
Format	7"/12" single
Recorded	Power Station, New York, December 1982
Genre	New wave, Dance rock,[1] Pop rock
Length	5:32 (album version) 4:14 (single edit)
Label	EMI America Records EA157
Writer(s)	David Bowie, Iggy Pop
Producer(s)	Nile Rodgers
David Bowie singles chronology
"Let's Dance" (1983) "China Girl" (1983) "Modern Love" (1983)
Let's Dance track listing "Modern Love" (1) "China Girl" (2) "Let's Dance" (3)

"China Girl" is a song co-written by David Bowie and Iggy Pop during their years in Berlin, first appearing on Pop's album The Idiot (1977).

It became more widely known when it was rerecorded and released by Bowie on his album Let's Dance (1983). Paul Trynka, the author of David Bowie's biography, Starman, claims the song was inspired by Iggy Pop's infatuation with Kuelan Nguyen, a beautiful Vietnamese woman.^{[citation needed]}

The UK single release reached No. 2 for one week on 14 June 1983, behind "Every Breath You Take" by The Police. The US release reached No. 10.

Track listing (Bowie remake)

7": EMI America / EA 157 (UK)

1. "China Girl [Edit]" (Bowie, Pop) – 4:14
2. "Shake It" (Bowie) – 3:49

12": EMI America 75038 / 12EA 157 (UK)

1. "China Girl" (Bowie, Pop) – 5:32
2. "Shake It [Re-Mix]" (Bowie) – 5:21

• On the US 12", "Shake It" is called the "Long Version," although it's identical to the UK's "Re-Mix"
• The UK 12" single's cover was slightly different from the US cover (they're mirrors of each other), and the flip side of the UK 12" includes dates for the 1983 Serious Moonlight Tour in the UK (specifically the London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Milton Keynes shows).

Music video (Bowie remake)

The music video, featuring New Zealand model Geeling Ng, was directed by David Mallet and shot mainly in the Chinatown district of Sydney, Australia. Along with his previous single's video for "Let's Dance", Bowie described the video as a "very simple, very direct" statement against racism.^[2] Although the video consciously parodies Asian female stereotypes, it was nevertheless criticised by Ellie Hisama for failing to give the female character a personality and voice.^[3] The original video release includes the two lying naked in the surf (a visual reference to the film From Here to Eternity), though versions of the video included on subsequent video and DVD compilations are slightly censored to remove the nudity. The original video went on to win an MTV video award for Best Male Video.^[4]

Live performances

The song was a regular for Bowie's live shows for the rest of the 1980s (appearing on concert videos in 1983 and 1988 as Serious Moonlight and Glass Spider, respectively). It was rehearsed for his appearance at the 1985 London Live Aid concert but along with the songs "Fascination" and "Five Years" was eventually dropped due to time constraints. Additional live versions of the song appear on 2009's release of a 1999 performance for VH1 Storytellers and a 2010 release of Bowie's 2003 concert, entitled A Reality Tour.

Chart performance (Bowie remake)

Production credits (Pop original)

Musicians

• Iggy Pop – backing vocals
• David Bowie – keyboards, guitar, vocals
• Carlos Alomar - guitar
• Phil Palmer – guitar
• George Murray – bass
• Michel Santangeli – drums
• Dennis Davis – drums
• Laurent Thibault – bass

Production credits (Bowie remake)

Producer

• Nile Rodgers

Musicians

• David Bowie: Vocals
• Stevie Ray Vaughan: Guitar
• Nile Rodgers: Guitar
• Carmine Rojas: Bass
• Omar Hakim: Drums
• Rob Sabino: Keyboards
• Mac Gollehon: Trumpet
• Robert Aaron, Stan Harrison, Steve Elson: Saxophone
• Sam Figueroa: Percussion

Other releases

• It appeared on the following compilations:
  • Changesbowie (1990)
  • Bowie: The Singles 1969-1993 (1993)
  • The Singles Collection (1993)
  • Best of Bowie (2002)
  • The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987 (2007)
• The soundtrack for the film The Wedding Singer featured "China Girl".
• The original Iggy Pop version is included in Pop's compilation A Million in Prizes: The Anthology.

Cover versions

• Nick Cave - Live recording in Melbourne, 1978.
• James - Single (1998)
• James Cook - Ashes to Ashes: A Tribute to David Bowie (1998)^[5]
• Trance to the Sun -Goth Oddity: A Tribute to David Bowie (1999)
• Anna Ternheim - Shoreline EP (2005)
• Voltaire - Zombie Prostitute... (2006), and on .2 Contamination: A Tribute to David Bowie (2006)
• Pete Yorn - Musicforthemorningafter (Bonus CD) (2001)
• The Tragically Hip - During "New Orleans is Sinking" on Live Between Us a verse of "China Girl" is sung.
• Scars on Broadway - Live with altered lyrics ^{[citation needed]}
• System of a Down - Live with altered lyrics^{[citation needed]}
• The White Stripes - Live^{[citation needed]}
• Alejandro Sokol - Live^{[citation needed]}
• John Frusciante - Live

References

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

External links

• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics