Dancing In The Street (40th Anniversary) (Limited) (White Vinyl)

LPSA

1. Dancing In The Street (Clearmountain Mix)
2. Dancing In The Street (Instrumental)
3. Dancing In The Street (Steve Thompson Mix)

LPSB

1. Dancing In The Street (Edit)
2. Dancing In The Street (Dub)

40 years ago today, Live Aid, the benefit concert organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the famine in Ethiopia, was announced with a press conference on the pitch at Wembley Stadium. The show was held simultaneously on Saturday, 13th July 1985, at Wembley and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. One of the day's highlights was the surprise duet of the Motown classic, 'Dancing In The Street', between David Bowie and Mick Jagger.

The video for the track, which, like the song, had only been recorded and filmed in thirteen hours, only fourteen days earlier, was shown at 7 pm in the UK (2 pm in Philadelphia), just before Bowie took to the stage at Wembley Stadium. The single version of the song was released on 27th August, with all the proceeds benefiting famine relief. It topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks and reached No. 7 in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the track, a limited edition white vinyl 12" will be released on 29th August, 2 days after its anniversary, bringing together all of the song's mixes for the first time. 30% of the retail price from the sale of this single will be donated by David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Parlophone Records to The Band Aid Charitable Trust (Charity Number 292199).

The original plan for Live Aid was to perform the track together live, with Bowie at Wembley Stadium and Jagger at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. It soon became apparent that the satellite link-up between the two countries would mean a half-second delay, rendering the plan impossible. Instead, the pair convened at Westside Studios in London on 29th June, where Bowie was working with producers Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley. The duo went directly from the studio to Spillers Millennium Mills in the East End to shoot the video with director David Mallet, who had previously worked with Bowie on the groundbreaking Ashes To Ashes video. The video has been upgraded to high resolution to celebrate the anniversary using the original film negative.

Speaking about the song and video at the time, Bowie said “We thought about it on a Thursday night and we just went through a bunch of old songs and thought that ‘Dancing’ was one we both knew very well and then we went into the studio between 7 and 11 on Saturday night and then we went over to the Docklands and shot the video for the rest of the night so we did the whole thing in ten hours, it was great.” He also talked about the spirit of Live Aid, saying, “Everybody out there who sent money in, you’re the real heroes because it’s easy for me to go up there and sing some songs, but it’s much harder for you to give money and not be recognised. Good on ya!”