“He said I was his friend”
The Man Who Sold The World, has sounded pretty good in the hands of others. Regular visitors to this page will know Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey’s Holy Holy with Glenn Gregory have been faithfully reproducing the album live over the past year to very enthusiastic audiences.
Possibly one of the better known renditions of the title track was Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York version (recorded in November 1993), which introduced the song to a whole new audience. And then there was Midge Ure’s version.
Forty one years ago a 25-year-old Lulu released the first of a few career resurrections in the shape of the Polydor 45, The Man Who Sold The World/Watch That Man.
Produced and arranged by David Bowie and Mick Ronson the track reached #3 on the official UK singles chart, Lulu’s first top ten hit for five years.
The unlikely coupling created lots of press for the release, the Daily Mirror article in our montage being just one such item.
The success of the single prompted RCA to take full page adverts for the Bowie album of the same name with the wording: Contains the original version of The Man Who Sold The World.
It’s a cracking record with a superb arrangement and unmistakable Bowie backing vocals on the chorus, not to mention a great Bowie sax riff and guitar licks from Ronno that aren’t on the original Bowie version. Apparently DB is a bit partial to the Lulu version himself.
Lulu went on to record a couple more songs with David that ended up on his own Young Americans album after he decided to keep them for himself…but that’s another story.
See Lulu’s promo video for The Man Who Sold The World here on YouTube.
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