Young Americans
Bowie's soul album, made in Philadelphia, with John Lennon on Fame.
David Bowie, 1975
- Released
- 7 March 1975
- Recorded
- August 1974 to January 1975
- Studio
- Sigma Sound Studios, Philadelphia; Record Plant and Electric Lady Studios, New York
- Label
- RCA
- Producer
- David Bowie, Harry Maslin, Tony Visconti
- Length
- 40:06
The Sigma Sound sessions began on 11 August 1974, after a leg of the Diamond Dogs tour. Carlos Alomar, Mike Garson, Luther Vandross and David Sanborn were among the players. John Lennon joined at Electric Lady in January 1975 for Across the Universe and Fame, and mixing finished at the Record Plant on 12 January.
The album reached number two in the UK and number nine in the US, and went gold there. Fame was his first US number one. Bowie said in 1975 that it was the phoniest R&B he had ever heard, and in 1990 called it pretty good white, blue-eyed soul. Robert Christgau first gave it a C+ and revised that to a B-, and Pitchfork's Wolk gave it 8.7 out of 10.
Track listing
- Young Americans5:10
- Win4:44
- Fascination5:43
- Right4:13
- Somebody Up There Likes Me6:30
- Across the Universe4:30
- Can You Hear Me?5:04
- Fame4:12
Personnel
- David Bowie vocals
- Carlos Alomar guitar
- Mike Garson piano
- David Sanborn saxophone
- Willie Weeks bass
- Andy Newmark drums
- Earl Slick guitar
- Luther Vandross, Ava Cherry, Robin Clark, Anthony Hinton, Diane Sumler backing vocals
- John Lennon guest on Across the Universe and Fame
- Tony Visconti string arrangements
More from David Bowie
Space Oddity (1969), Hunky Dory (1971), The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), Aladdin Sane (1973), Diamond Dogs (1974), Station to Station (1976), Low (1977), "Heroes" (1977), Lodger (1979), Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980), Let's Dance (1983), Heathen (2002), The Next Day (2013), Blackstar (2016)
Sources
- Young Americans (album), Wikipedia