"Cat People " is a song recorded by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, released as the title track of the 1982 film Cat People. Recorded in July 1981, the song was written by Bowie with Italian producer Giorgio Moroder. The 1981 recording has been described as one of "the finest of Bowie's recordings of the 1980s". A re-recorded version of the song, created a year and a half later, appears on the albumLet's Dance.
History
The director Paul Schrader engaged Bowie for a theme song in 1981, with Moroder having already recorded most of the music. Bowie was to put lyrics to the main theme. The B-side is a Moroder-only instrumental which featured no input from Bowie. The song itself, in keeping with the dark tone of the film, has some goth rock influences, with Bowie singing in a deep baritone croon while being backed up by a female chorus. Bowie's octave leap on the word "gasoline" has been called "a magnificent moment" and "among the most thrilling moments he ever committed to tape". Because of Moroder's contract, the single was issued by MCA. The full-length 6:45 version appeared on the soundtrack album, and the 12" single, while a 4:08 edited version was made for the 7" release. The single reached No. 26 in the UK, No. 13 in Canada and No. 67 in the US - Bowie's biggest hit there since "Golden Years". It peaked at No. 1 in New Zealand, remaining there for three weeks, as well as in Sweden for four weeks. It was also No. 1 in Norway for seven consecutive weeks, and then returned to the top for a further week. The single was released three separate times by MCA, first in March 1982 with "Cat People" as the A-side, then again two months later with "Paul's Theme" as the A-side, and finally in November 1982 with "Cat People" back on the A-side. Yugoslav-born Hungarian composer Sylvester Levay contributed to the orchestration. In December 1982, Bowie re-recorded the song for his album Let's Dance, released the following year. This version was also released as the B-side to the title track's single release, and performed on Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour. He had originally planned on using the original version of the song, but Moroder's label MCA Records refused to license it to EMI America. In the re-recorded version of the song, Stevie Ray Vaughan provided the guitar solos and riffs in the song. The song was used in the 1998 filmFirestorm. In 2009, the track was used in Quentin Tarantino's film Inglourious Basterds and in 2017, the track was used in the film Atomic Blonde. In 2009, the song was used in a scene of The Office, episode Cafe Disco. Sharleen Spiteri recorded a new version of the song in 2010 which was included on her album The Movie Songbook.
Track listing
7": MCA / MCA 770 (UK)
"Cat People " – 4:08
"Paul's Theme " – 3:51
12": MCA / MCAT 770 (UK)
"Cat People " – 6:41
"Paul's Theme " – 3:51
12": MCA / DS 12087 (Australia)
"Cat People " – 4:08
"Cat People " – 9:20
label states running time of 6:41, but is actually 9:20
Charts
Production credits
Musicians :
* David Bowie: lead vocals
* Giorgio Moroder: keyboards, guitar, bass, production
*The Simms Brothers Band, David Spinner – backing vocals
Other releases
The full-length version of the original 1981 recording appeared on the compilation in 1993, on the 2003 edition of Bowie's Sound + Vision collection, and on Re:Call 3, part of the A New Career in a New Town boxed set, in 2017.
The shorter version of the original 1981 recording appeared on the compilations Best of Bowie and The Best of 1980/1987.
The Let's Dance version recorded in 1982 was released as the B-side of the single "Let's Dance" in March 1983.
Remasters of the Let's Dance version of the song have been included in reissues of that album, most recently in a 2018 remaster of the album included in the box set Loving the Alien and released separately the following year.
A concert performance recorded on 12 September 1983 may be heard on the live albumSerious Moonlight, which was included in Loving the Alien and released separately in 2019. The performance was filmed and appears on the concert video Serious Moonlight and the DVD version of Best of Bowie.
