“Tell my wife I love her very much”
Claudia Brücken is no stranger to the David Bowie cover version, having previously created excellent versions of both Drive-In Saturday and This Is Not America.
On her latest album, The Lost Are Found, she has made a moving and affectionate version of Everyone Says “Hi”.
We asked her why she settled on this particular track, which is to be her new single:
Stephen & I wanted to do an album of covers that was ‘melancholy, but not miserable’, we are both big fans of Bowie and thought this song fit the bill perfectly.
Both single and album were produced by studio genius, Stephen Hague, who has produced countless classic albums over the years and boasts a very impressive CV having worked with various artists including Pet Shop Boys, A-Ha, New Order, OMD, PIL, Siouxie, Blur and Robbie Williams.
The track is being released as a 3-track digital only package on March 18th to tie in with a short tour of the UK and Germany. Details of the tour here:
The package will include a piano/vocal version of Everyone Says “Hi”, the album version and the brilliant video which we can exclusively reveal here:
You may notice some familiar themes in the video (thus today’s lyric quotation), not to mention some familiar faces.
We’ll leave you with a blurb written by Paul Morley, who says these things far better than we can anyway
Claudia Brucken: “Hi” x 3 : 180313
The latest song to be released as a single from the Claudia Brucken album she made with producer Stephen Hague, The Lost are Found, is a song written by David Bowie, ‘Everyone Says “Hi”‘ It was the only single available in the U.K. from Bowie’s 2002 Heathen album.
Claudia first thought of singing the song months ago, when Bowie was to some extent less present, a little more in the shadows, than he is now. She wanted to cover the song not least because its themes – loss, mourning, and, essentially, how a great, bitter-sweet sad song can somehow, in its presentation, its sensitivity, the overall sense of love whatever the circumstances -fitted well with the sequence of melancholic but inspirational songs chosen for The Lost are Found.
It was also a form of recommendation, very much confirmed recently with the unexpected appearance of Bowie’s ‘Where Are We Now,’ how Bowie’s later, not so widely known songs can be as powerful and resonant as his more obvious early classics.
Claudia is releasing “Hi” three ways in one theatrical digital package on March 18th – the original Hague version from the album, along with an ‘as live’ piano and voice version of the version, and a “Hi” video, which features a host of Claudia friends and family coming along for the emotional “Hi” ride. A great largely unexplored late Bowie song brilliantly performed in loving full colour, with stripped back delicacy, and with Claudia’s own sense of drama – what more could you ask for?
