Songoftheday 6/1/14 - it doesn't matter what you wear just as long as you are there...

Mick Jagger & David Bowie - "Dancing In The Street"
from the single Dancing In The Street (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day is by two titans of British rock and roll, Mick Jagger and David Bowie, with a remake of a Motown classic done for charity. In 1985, Mick had released his first solo album apart from the Rolling Stones, and almost scored a top-10 pop hit in the US with "Just Another Night". Meanwhile, Bowie had helped jazz fusion musician Pat Metheny on the soundtrack to the Sean Penn movie The Falcon And The Snowman, reaching the top-40 with the moody "This Is Not America".

The pair arranged to record a cover of Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing In The Street" for the Live Aid concert broadcast in 1985, and released it as a stand-alone single to benefit the African aid organization. Filming the most crazily campy off-the-cuff video in London's East End, the single was rushed for sale to capitalize on the concert's momentum...

"Dancing In The Street" rushed up to the top-10 on the American pop chart in October of 1985, while topping the singles chart in England, Ireland, and Australia. It also made the top ten over most of Europe as well. It was the second time "Dancing..." was in the American top-40, after Van Halen spent a few weeks there in 1982.

Lord, it was embarrassing, but hell it's for a good cause, so they get a pass.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


And here's Mick and Dave reprising their duet in 1986 for the Prince's Trust...

Up tomorrow: a "Sunshine" group asks about tears.