Don't Give Up (Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush song)
"Don't Give Up" is a song written by English rock musician Peter Gabriel and recorded as a duet with Kate Bush for Gabriel's 1986 album So. The single version was released as the second single from the album in the UK in 1986 and fifth in the United States in 1987. It spent eleven weeks in the UK Top 75 chart in 1986, peaking at number nine.
The song was inspired by the Depression-era photographs of Dorothea Lange, showing poverty-stricken Americans in dust bowl conditions. Gabriel saw Lange's images in a 1973 book titled In This Proud Land. He felt that a song based on this was wholly appropriate to difficult economic conditions in England under Margaret Thatcher. He composed lyrics within a situation about a man whose unemployment causes stress in his domestic relationship. The verses, sung by Gabriel, describe the man's feelings of isolation and despair; the choruses, sung by Bush, offer words of hope and encouragement.
Gabriel originally wrote the song from a reference point of American roots music and he approached country singer Dolly Parton to sing it with him. However, Parton turned it down, so his friend Kate Bush took her place.
Two videos were created for the song. The first, by Godley & Creme, consisted of a single take of the singers, as they sing, in an embrace, while the sun behind them enters total eclipse and re-emerges; the second, by Jim Blashfield, featured Gabriel and Bush's faces superimposed over film of a town and its people in disrepair.
Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush version All songs written by Peter Gabriel.
"Don't Give Up" was recorded by American recording artist Alicia Keys and Irish musician Bono. Retitled "Don't Give Up (Africa)", the song was produced by Keys and Steve Lillywhite. On 6 December 2005 the song was released as a single exclusively on iTunes and a ringtone version was released by Cingular Wireless. The proceeds of the release went to the charity Keep a Child Alive, for which Keys is a spokesperson.
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