Actors - Fame

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	Actors - Fame

Fame was a single by David Bowie.

With the Young Americans sessions seemingly wrapped in late 1974, the material was delayed while Bowie extricated himself from his contract with manager Tony Defries. During this time he was staying in New York, and met John Lennon. The pair socialised and jammed together, which led to a one-day session at The Power Plant studio in January 1975. There, Bowie contacted several members of his tour band. Firstly a cover of The Beatles’ “Across the Universe” was recorded, then a new song called “Fame”, inspired by a guitar riff written by Alomar and with the title from Lennon. The song was then hurriedly developed by Bowie, and recorded. Both tracks were then added to the Young Americans album. Despite having only a minor contribution, Lennon was given a co-writing credit due to the lyrics (bemoaning the nature of celebrity) being inspired by conversations he had with Bowie on the subject, and because Bowie acknowledged that Lennon singing “Fame!” over Alomar’s guitar riff was the catalyst for the song.

An edited version of “Fame” was issued as the second single from the album, and shot to #1 in the American charts (ironically, a few months before a reissue of “Space Oddity” would give Bowie his first UK #1 single). In the UK, “Fame” would only reach #17.

Track listing

# "Fame" (Bowie, Lennon, Alomar) – 3:30 # "Right" (Bowie) – 4:13

The Italian version of the single had "Space Oddity" as the B-side.

Production credits

Producer:
* Harry Maslin on “Fame”
* Tony Visconti on “Right”

Musicians:
* David Bowie
: Vocals, Guitar
* John Lennon
: Vocals, Guitar on “Fame”
* Carlos Alomar: Guitar on “Fame”
* Emir Kassan: Bass on “Fame”
* Dennis Davis
: Drums on “Fame”
* Ralph McDonald: Percussion on “Fame”
* Willie Weeks: Bass on “Right”
* Mike Garson
: Piano on “Right”
* Andy Newmark: Drums on “Right”
* David Sanborn: Saxophone on “Right”
* Pablo Rosario: Percussion on “Right”
* Larry Washington: Conga on “Right”
* Ava Cherry, Robin Clark, Luther Vandross: Backing vocals on “Right”

Fame '90 version

A remixed version of "Fame" was released by EMI in 1990 to coincide with the Sound + Vision tour and the release of the ChangesBowie compilation.

# "Fame '90 (with Queen Latifah)" # "Fame '90 (House mix)" # "Fame '90 (Gass mix)" # "Fame '90 (Hip hop mix)" # "Fame '90 (Absolutely Nothing Premeditated/Epic Mix)" In both the UK and the US this appeared in a variety of formats, including a 7" picture disc, an "Arthur Baker Remixes" 12" and a "Changes pack" with three prints of Bowie at different eras. None of the British releases (on EMI USA) feature the "Absolutely Nothing Premidated mix". It stayed in the UK chart for 4 weeks, peaking at #28.

Live versions

A live version recorded on the Heroes tour at the Philadelphia Spectrum, April 28-29th, 1978, was released on Stage
.

Other releases

It was released as the B-side of the US release of "Beauty and the Beast
" in January 1978.
It appeared on several compilations:
* ChangesOneBowie
(1976)

* Fame and Fashion (1984)

* Bowie: The Singles 1969-1993 (1993)

* The Best of 1974/1979 (1998)

The "Fame '90" remix also appeared on:

* ChangesBowie (1990)

* The Singles Collection (1993)

In 1990 a new mix was used on the soundtrack for the movie Pretty Woman.

It was also used in the movie A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries by James Ivory and Ismail Merchant.

It was released as a picture disc in the RCA Life Time picture disc set.

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