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Young Americans (song)

"Young Americans"
Bowie YoungAmericansSingle.jpg
Single by David Bowie
from the album Young Americans
B-side "Suffragette City"
Released 21 February 1975 (1975-02-21)
Format 7"
Recorded Sigma Sound Studios, Philadelphia, August 1974
Genre
Length 5:10 (album version)
3:11 (single version)
Label RCA
Writer(s) David Bowie
Producer(s) Tony Visconti
David Bowie singles chronology
"Rock 'n' Roll with Me"
(1974)
"Young Americans"
(1975)
"Fame"
(1975)

"Young Americans" is a single by English singer and songwriter David Bowie, released in 1975. It is included in the album of the same name. The song was a massive breakthrough in the United States, where glam rock had never really become very popular outside the major cities. The song reached No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it his second biggest success there up until that point.

In 2010, the song ranked at #486 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2016, it ranked at #44 on Pitchfork's list of the 200 best songs of the 1970s.

The first studio result of Bowie’s mid-1970s obsession with soul music, "Young Americans" was a breakthrough hit for the artist in the United States (where the single was released in an edited 3:11 version). The sound, often later reflected on by Bowie as "plastic soul", was matched by a cynical lyric, making references to McCarthyism, black repression via Rosa Parks, Richard Nixon (who had resigned the U.S. Presidency two days before the recording session), as well as a near-direct lift from The Beatles’ "A Day in the Life" with the line "I heard the news today oh boy!" (John Lennon, who originally authored the line, appeared twice on the Young Americans album, providing guitar and backing vocals on his own "Across the Universe" and "Fame", for which he also received a co-writing credit.) The backing vocal arrangement came at the suggestion of Luther Vandross.

All songs written by David Bowie except as noted.


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