Blue Jean


"Blue Jean" is a song written and recorded by English singer-songwriter David Bowie for his sixteenth studio album Tonight. One of only two tracks on the album to be written entirely by Bowie, it was released as a single ahead of the album and charted within the Top 10 in the UK and the United States, peaking at No. 6 and No. 8, respectively. The song is loosely inspired by Eddie Cochran.
Following the commercial success of Bowie's previous album, Let's Dance, its singles and the Serious Moonlight Tour, "Blue Jean" was launched with a 21-minute short film, Jazzin' for Blue Jean, directed by Julien Temple. The song performance segment from this was also used as a more conventional music video. The film won the 1985 Grammy Award for "Best Video, Short Form", later renamed "Best Music Video", which proved to be the only competitive Grammy Award Bowie won during his lifetime for over three decades, although Bowie posthumously won four Grammies for his album Blackstar.
"Blue Jean" would remain in Bowie's live repertoire for the rest of his career, being performed on his Glass Spider Tour, Sound+Vision Tour and A Reality Tour.

Composition and reception

Interviewed in 1987 and asked to compare a track like "Time Will Crawl" to "Blue Jean," Bowie said "'Blue Jean' is a piece of sexist rock 'n roll. It's about picking up birds. It's not very cerebral, that piece." BBC reviewer Chris Jones criticised the song in his appraisal of Best of Bowie in 2002, arguing "'Blue Jean' barely exists, so formulaic is it." More positively, rock commentator Chris O'Leary, while locating "Blue Jean" firmly "in the pastiche lane," has described the song as "clever" and "catchy" and one of Bowie's "best second-rate hits."

Track listing

7": EMI America / EA 181 (UK)

  1. "Blue Jean" – 3:08
  2. "Dancing with the Big Boys" – 3:32
  1. "Blue Jean" – 5:15
  2. "Dancing with the Big Boys" – 7:28
  3. "Dancing with the Big Boys" – 7:15
;Production team
single cover

Video versions

There are 3 versions of the video:
  1. The full 21-minute version entitled Jazzin' for Blue Jean
  2. The 3-minute version of the performance of the title track, edited from the full Jazzin' for Blue Jean video. The video is available to download for the Xbox 360 karaoke game Lips.
  3. An alternate version recorded for MTV in England that has no relation to the other videos. This alternate version was not popularly available until the DVD release of Best of Bowie in 2002.

    Cover versions

Certifications