Let's Dance | ||||
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Studio album by David Bowie | ||||
Released | 14 April 1983 | |||
Recorded | December 1982 | |||
Studio | Power Station, Manhattan, New York City | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 39:41 | |||
Label | EMI | |||
Producer |
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David Bowie chronology | ||||
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Singles from Let's Dance | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Blender | |
Chicago Tribune | |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
Q | |
Rolling Stone | |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
Smash Hits | 6½/10 |
The Village Voice | B |
Let's Dance is the fifteenth studio album by David Bowie. It was originally released in April 1983, three years after his previous album, Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). Co-produced by Chic's Nile Rodgers, the album contains three of his most successful singles; the title track, "Let's Dance", which reached No. 1 in the UK, US and various other countries, as well as "Modern Love" and "China Girl", which both reached No. 2 in the UK. "China Girl" was a new version of a song which Bowie had co-written with Iggy Pop for the latter's 1977 album The Idiot. It also contains a re-recorded version of the song "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)", which had been a minor hit for Bowie a year earlier.
Let's Dance was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy Award in 1984 but lost to Michael Jackson's Thriller. It has sold 10.7 million copies worldwide, making it Bowie's best-selling album. It is Bowie's eighteenth official album release since his debut in 1967, including two live albums, one covers album (Pin Ups, 1973), and a collaboration with the Philadelphia Orchestra (1977). At one point Bowie described the album as "a rediscovery of white-English-ex-art-school-student-meets-black-American-funk, a refocusing of Young Americans".Let's Dance was also a stepping stone for the career of the Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who played on it. The album was released as a limited edition picture disc in 1983.