Maps of Music

Tonight (1984)

Where the lyrics of Tonight take you, and where it was really made.

Bowie's sixteenth studio album was written and recorded at a Canadian studio and topped the UK Albums Chart, yet it is now generally considered one of his worst releases.

Key places

Sessions at Le Studio, Morin-Heights (1984)

Recording site Le Studio — The album was written and recorded at Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Canada, in mid-1984. Recording began there in May 1984. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Tonight: sixteenth studio album by David Bowie
• Released 24 September 1984 on EMI America Records
• Follow-up to Let's Dance, Bowie's most commercially successful album
• Written and recorded in mid-1984 at Le Studio, Morin-Heights, Canada
• Co-produced by Bowie, Derek Bramble and Hugh Padgham
• Nine songs in total; Bowie wrote only two of them

Background

• Recorded after the Serious Moonlight Tour ended
• Bowie felt he had run out of new ideas after touring
• He first proposed a live album called Serious Moonlight, feeling unprepared for a new studio record
• Label pressure for a follow-up pushed him into the studio
• Bowie chose Derek Bramble as producer rather than working with Nile Rodgers again
• Hugh Padgham worked as engineer after Bob Clearmountain was unavailable
• Iggy Pop was present for most sessions and co-wrote two tracks
• Tina Turner sings a duet with Bowie on the title track
• Turner had just released her comeback album Private Dancer earlier in 1984

Recording

• Sessions began at Le Studio in May 1984, less than five months after the tour
• Bowie arrived with eight of the nine songs
• Most Let's Dance personnel returned, with newcomers such as Guy St Onge on marimba
• Bowie played no instruments and left the music largely to the musicians
• The saxophone section was dubbed 'the Borneo Horns'
• Sessions were troublesome; Padgham said Bramble left after a falling out late in the sessions and Padgham took over as producer

Cover

• Artwork designed by Mick Haggerty, who also did Let's Dance
• Shows a blue-painted Bowie with dark brown hair against an oil-paint backdrop
• Several commentators compared the design to the work of Gilbert & George

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London.
• Studied art, music and design; took up saxophone in 1961.
• Adopted the stage name David Bowie in 1966 to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees.

Career

• Breakthrough with "Space Oddity" in 1969, reaching the UK top five.
• Glam rock success in 1972 with the Ziggy Stardust persona and album.
• Berlin Trilogy (Low, "Heroes", Lodger) with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti in the late 1970s.
• Greatest commercial success with Let's Dance in 1983.
• Fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine from 1988 to 1992 before resuming a solo career.
• Final studio album Blackstar was released two days before his death in 2016.

Legacy

• Sold over 100 million records worldwide.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
• Widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Billboard: said Bowie takes yet another turn, with edgier dance-rock on side two and restrained ballads and mid-tempo rockers on side one
• Cash Box: positive, highlighted strong songs and said the album lies in the same commercial vein as Let's Dance
• Rolling Stone (Kurt Loder): called the album a throwaway that Bowie himself knew was a throwaway
• Smash Hits (Ian Birch): said the album lacked direction and was an uneasy mixture of styles
• Record Mirror (Eleanor Levy): called it disappointing by Bowie's standards, a non-cohesive mix of good and bad songs
• NME (Charles Shaar Murray): praised its dizzying variety of mood and technique
• The New York Times (Jon Pareles): enjoyed the Iggy Pop covers, especially Neighborhood Threat and Tonight

Reappraisal

• Generally considered one of Bowie's worst releases in retrospect
• Several critics called it a mixed bag with only a few standouts, Loving the Alien and Blue Jean
• Stylus Magazine (Thomas Inskeep, 2005): argued it is a much better album than people think
• New Statesman (Yo Zushi, 2016): said an album opening with Loving the Alien and containing Blue Jean should not have received such a drubbing
• Under the Radar (Ben Jardine): said Loving the Alien foreshadowed the vocal theatrics of Blackstar
• Rolling Stone, 2024: ranked it the fourth most disappointing album ever
• Pegg: considered it a more interesting and rewarding record than its predecessor

Records

• UK Albums Chart: number 1
• Dutch Album Top 100: number 1
• Japan, Norway, Spain: number 3
• Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden: number 4
• Italy: number 7
• Austria, Switzerland, West Germany: number 8
• Finland: number 9
• US Billboard Top 200 Albums: number 11
• Singles: Blue Jean peaked at number 6 in the UK and number 8 in the US
• Singles: the title track peaked at number 53 in both the UK and the US

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The title track is a duet with Tina Turner, and Bowie re-recorded his first verse after deciding to sing his part an octave higher.
• EMI commissioned a remix album called Dance, but it was cancelled after its cover art, release date and catalog number were assigned.
• The 2018 Loving the Alien box set included a disc using the original Dance cover art, with different content.
• Blue Jean was promoted with a 21-minute short film directed by Julien Temple, partly inspired by the video for Michael Jackson's Thriller.
• On 21 November 1984 the album became Bowie's first release on CD, exclusively in Japan.
• Bowie did not tour to support the album and performed only Loving the Alien and Blue Jean on later tours.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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