Songs You May Not Know Were Covers Vol. 9: China Girl (#4)

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Every now and then I run across one of these: cover songs that you might not know were cover songs that were written by the person doing the covering! Confused? Me too! Let’s take a look at what’s under the cover today. #4: China Girl Although David Bowie had been around since the 60s, and had had #1 hits, the 1983 album Let’s Dance really put him on a different level. Maybe I just think that because it was the MTV era, and we could see him in videos (and in Pepsi commercials). But that was an album on a different level. One of the hits from the album was “China Girl,” which would probably be banned today for one stupid reason or another. So we’re back where we were in previous countdowns. The last go-round of cover songs I included “Somebody to Love,” which The Great Society recorded before Jefferson Airplane….even though Grace Slick was a member of both bands. This time, we have this song, which was co-written by Bowie, but first recorded five years before he included the song on Let’s Dance. Originally the song was recorded by the other co-writer, Godfather of Punk Iggy Pop. It originally appeared on his 1977 album The Idiot, which was recorded while Iggy and Bowie were playing the Keith Richards “how much heroin can you do” game. They both survived, thankfully. Liver cancer finally took Bowie, and Iggy is still out there. China Girl Written by David Bowie and Iggy Pop Originally recorded by Iggy Pop, 1977 Famously covered by David Bowie, 1983 Iggy Pop’s original recording of “China Girl,” which Bowie produced: