Rock and roll music
| "Magic Dance" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by David Bowie | ||||
| from the album Labyrinth | ||||
| B-side | "Within You" | |||
| Released | January 1987[1] | |||
| Recorded | 1985 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 5:13 (Album Version) 4:00 (Single Version) | |||
| Label | EMI America V-19217 | |||
| Songwriter(s) | David Bowie | |||
| Producer(s) | ||||
| David Bowie singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
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Singles chronology
Magic Dance
David Bowie
Discográfica: EMI AmericaV-19217 · · Productor: David Bowie , Arif Mardin
"Magic Dance" (also known as "Dance Magic") is a song written and recorded by the English singer David Bowie for the Jim Henson musical fantasy film Labyrinth (1986). It was released as a single in limited markets worldwide in January 1987. Upon Bowie`s death in 2016, the single version of "Magic Dance" reached #63 on the iTunes chart in the UK.[3]
Details and background
Leer másReview
"Magic Dance" (also known as "Dance Magic") is a song written and recorded by the English singer David Bowie for the Jim Henson musical fantasy film Labyrinth (1986). It was released as a single in limited markets worldwide in January 1987. Upon Bowie`s death in 2016, the single version of "Magic Dance" reached #63 on the iTunes chart in the UK.[3]
Details and background
Leer másBowie wrote and recorded five songs for Labyrinth, in which he also starred as Jareth, the king of the goblins.[4] "Magic Dance" was written for a scene in which Jareth and his goblins entertain a crying baby that has been wished away to them by the film`s heroine, Sarah Williams. In the film, Bowie performs the number with Toby Froud as the baby, and 50 puppets and 12 costumed extras as the goblins.[5]
Described as a "simple dance number that`s driven by electric bass and emphatic drums",[6] "Magic Dance" includes song lyrics that refer to the film The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) starring Cary Grant and Shirley Temple, in which the two have a call and reply verse: "You remind me of a man." "What man?" "The man with the power." "What power?" "The power of hoodoo." "Who do?" "You do!". In "Magic Dance," "man" is replaced with "babe" and "hoodoo" with "voodoo".[6] According to Nicholas Pegg, the verse is an "old playground nonsense-chant" that was originally popularized by The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.[1]
Bowie performed the baby`s gurgles in the song recording of "Magic Dance", as backing vocalist Diva Gray`s baby, the intended vocalist, wouldn`t gurgle on the microphone.[1][6] In the actual scene of the film, baby vocals were dubbed in by a more cooperative infant.[7] During the movie`s production, and in the end credits, the song was referred to as "Dance Magic."[1]
Release
"Magic Dance" is the third track on the Labyrinth soundtrack, released in July 1986 to coincide with the film`s US premiere.[8] In 1987 the song was released on 12" in limited markets, including the US. A single version was mixed but never released, and an edit of the "Dance Mix" (incorrectly labeled as the `single mix`) was released on the New Zealand edition of Best of Bowie (2002).[1] The single was not released commercially in the UK until the digital download version was made available in early 2007.
Critical reception
In 1986, "Magic Dance" peaked at #40 in New Zealand.[9]
At the time of Bowie`s death in 2016, "Magic Dance" was the 19th highest selling Bowie song digitally downloaded in the United Kingdom.[10]
BBC America called "Magic Dance" "one of Bowie`s most playful and underrated songs",[11] while Vice`s Kamila Rymajdo considered it to be "perhaps the most joyous song about magic, ever".[12]
David Brusie of The A.V. Club called the song "infectiously silly", and wrote that it has a "manic energy".[13] Writing for Gizmodo, Cheryl Eddy referred to the song as an "eternal tear-the-club-up fantasy jam".[14] Ranking "Magic Dance" at number 3 on the list "The 10 Best Uses of David Bowie Songs in Movies", Screen Rant`s Ben Sherlock considered it the best song from Labyrinth and wrote that it "still has the ability to reinvigorate a dying party more than 30 years later."[15] Empire listed the song among the "catchiest earworms" from cinema.[16]
Some critics have observed similarities between "Magic Dance" and Bowie`s earlier song "The Laughing Gnome", as both are constructed around traditional nursery rhymes and feature comic goblin/gnome voices.[1][17] Sasha Frere-Jones of the Los Angeles Times described the song as Bowie "essentially performing “The Laughing Gnome” again, except this time he and his gnomes come perilously close to rapping."[18]
Track listing
"Magic Dance" (also known as "Dance Magic") is a song written and recorded by the English singer David Bowie for the Jim Henson musical fantasy film Labyrinth (1986). It was released as a single in limited markets worldwide in January 1987. Upon Bowie`s death in 2016, the single version of "Magic Dance" reached #63 on the iTunes chart in the UK.[3]
Details and background
Bowie wrote and recorded five songs for Labyrinth, in which he also starred as Jareth, the king of the goblins.[4] "Magic Dance" was written for a scene in which Jareth and his goblins entertain a crying baby that has been wished away to them by the film`s heroine, Sarah Williams. In the film, Bowie performs the number with Toby Froud as the baby, and 50 puppets and 12 costumed extras as the goblins.[5]
Described as a "simple dance number that`s driven by electric bass and emphatic drums",[6] "Magic Dance" includes song lyrics that refer to the film The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) starring Cary Grant and Shirley Temple, in which the two have a call and reply verse: "You remind me of a man." "What man?" "The man with the power." "What power?" "The power of hoodoo." "Who do?" "You do!". In "Magic Dance," "man" is replaced with "babe" and "hoodoo" with "voodoo".[6] According to Nicholas Pegg, the verse is an "old playground nonsense-chant" that was originally popularized by The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.[1]
Bowie performed the baby`s gurgles in the song recording of "Magic Dance", as backing vocalist Diva Gray`s baby, the intended vocalist, wouldn`t gurgle on the microphone.[1][6] In the actual scene of the film, baby vocals were dubbed in by a more cooperative infant.[7] During the movie`s production, and in the end credits, the song was referred to as "Dance Magic."[1]
Release
"Magic Dance" is the third track on the Labyrinth soundtrack, released in July 1986 to coincide with the film`s US premiere.[8] In 1987 the song was released on 12" in limited markets, including the US. A single version was mixed but never released, and an edit of the "Dance Mix" (incorrectly labeled as the `single mix`) was released on the New Zealand edition of Best of Bowie (2002).[1] The single was not released commercially in the UK until the digital download version was made available in early 2007.
Critical reception
In 1986, "Magic Dance" peaked at #40 in New Zealand.[9]
At the time of Bowie`s death in 2016, "Magic Dance" was the 19th highest selling Bowie song digitally downloaded in the United Kingdom.[10]
BBC America called "Magic Dance" "one of Bowie`s most playful and underrated songs",[11] while Vice`s Kamila Rymajdo considered it to be "perhaps the most joyous song about magic, ever".[12]
David Brusie of The A.V. Club called the song "infectiously silly", and wrote that it has a "manic energy".[13] Writing for Gizmodo, Cheryl Eddy referred to the song as an "eternal tear-the-club-up fantasy jam".[14] Ranking "Magic Dance" at number 3 on the list "The 10 Best Uses of David Bowie Songs in Movies", Screen Rant`s Ben Sherlock considered it the best song from Labyrinth and wrote that it "still has the ability to reinvigorate a dying party more than 30 years later."[15] Empire listed the song among the "catchiest earworms" from cinema.[16]
Some critics have observed similarities between "Magic Dance" and Bowie`s earlier song "The Laughing Gnome", as both are constructed around traditional nursery rhymes and feature comic goblin/gnome voices.[1][17] Sasha Frere-Jones of the Los Angeles Times described the song as Bowie "essentially performing “The Laughing Gnome” again, except this time he and his gnomes come perilously close to rapping."[18]
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