Magic Dance

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"Magic Dance"
Single by David Bowie
from the album Labyrinth
B-side"Within You"
ReleasedJanuary 1987[1]
Recorded1985
Genre
Length5:13 (Album Version)
4:00 (Single Version)
LabelEMI America
V-19217
Songwriter(s)David Bowie
Producer(s)
David Bowie singles chronology
"When the Wind Blows"
(1986) 		"Magic Dance"
(1987) 		"Day-In Day-Out"
(1987)

"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[edit]

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[edit]

"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[edit]

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[edit]

12": EMI America / V-19217 (US)[edit]

  1. "Magic Dance" (A Dance Mix) – 7:06
  2. "Magic Dance" (Dub) – 5:22
  3. "Within You" – 3:28

Download: EMI / i19217 (US)[edit]

  1. "Magic Dance" (Single Version/Edit of 7" Remix) – 4:00
  2. "Magic Dance" (12" Remix/Dance Mix) – 7:16
  3. "Magic Dance" (Dub) – 5:31
  4. "Magic Dance" (7" Remix) – 4:39

Personnel[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Pegg (2016), "Magic Dance" in chap. The Songs from A to Z.
  2. ^ Magic Dance Discogs
  3. ^ "David Bowie – 'Magic Dance (Single Version)' British iTunes Chart Performance". Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  4. ^ Pegg (2016), "Labyrinth" in chapt. Stage and Screen
  5. ^ Des Saunders (director), Jim Henson (writer) (1986). Inside the Labyrinth (Televised Documentary). Los Angeles: Jim Henson Television.
  6. ^ a b c Block & Erdmann (2016), pp. 166–167
  7. ^ Sargent, Ryan. "30 Years in the Labyrinth". Nerdist. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  8. ^ Pegg (2016), "Labyrinth" in chapt. The Albums
  9. ^ "David Bowie – Magic Dance (Song)". charts.org.nz. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  10. ^ Myers, Justin (11 January 2016). "David Bowie's Official Top 40 Biggest Selling Downloads revealed!". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  11. ^ "10 Of Our Favorite Movie Performances By Musicians-Turned-Actors: From David Bowie To Harry Styles And Mariah Carey". BBC America. 24 July 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  12. ^ Rymajdo, Kamila (1 November 2017). "A Brief Timeline of Magic in Music". Vice. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  13. ^ Brusie, David (12 June 2017). "Labyrinth's soundtrack is an essential part of David Bowie's legacy". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  14. ^ Eddy, Cheryl (29 August 2019). "8 Fantasy Films From The 1980s To Fuel Your Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance Obsession". Gizmodo. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  15. ^ Sherlock, Ben (14 February 2021). "The 10 Best Uses Of David Bowie Songs In Movies". Screen Rant. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  16. ^ Plumb, Alastair (14 February 2014). "25 Of Cinema's Catchiest Earworms". Empire. Archived from the original on 27 June 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  17. ^ O'Leary, Chris (12 February 2019). Ashes to Ashes: The Songs of David Bowie, 1976–2016. Watkins Media. ISBN 978-1-912248-30-8.
  18. ^ Frere-Jones, Sasha (12 January 2016). "Appreciation: David Bowie was a vivid and gentle presence who never stopped exploring". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 12 January 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2021.

Bibliography

External links[edit]

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