Songs David Bowie Wrote for Other Artists (1964-1972) 

Ah Bowie, the gift that keeps on giving

The story behind All The Young Dudes is legendary. Good for Bowie & Ian Hunter that this brilliant song was recorded & released.

I'm a MASSIVE Bowie head and i had no clue about 9/10ths of this stuff!!! That Page riff on The Superman?!? Come on - totally legendary‼️‼️‼️ Thank you so much for this video and growing my teeny tiny 🧠

Always impressed with the stories of Bowie helping other bands and musicians throughout his career. I didn't know about these ones and it just confirms what a great person - in addition to brilliant musician - he was and how missed he is!

Professional by age 17, though not scoring his own first hit until age 22. Genius eventually will out, though it takes a cruelly long time for some, as in David Jones/Bowie's case. Thank you for this encyclopedic review of Bowie's oeuvre, and the success others had with it.

The laughing gnome was re-released in 1973 in the UK and actually made the top five

Thanks for introducing me to the song "Silver Tree Top School For Boys". I think both versions are excellent! Bowie was a very special person after all, who writes a song like "When I'm Five"? Surely you must have great empathy and imagination to write something from the point of view of a 4-year-old!

Bowie was good - right from the start. He finally found his way by the time of “Hunky Dory”, one of his greatest albums. Very talented man.

April '65 he'd have been 18 years old when Take My Tip was released, what a talent he was from an early age, almost as if he was on a predetermined trajectory to the unparalled talent he morphed in to 7 years later.

Bowie was ambitious in a good way and it paid off for him eventually.

I'm sure someone else will have mentioned it, but Oscar was Paul Beuselinck and he later achieved fame s Paul Nicholas. Also from Discogs: 'David Bowie appears on the track, uncredited, making a cameo appearance during the prison roll-call (No. 33425) and in the chorus. The "A" side was reissued (with a different mix) in the late 1970's under a different name : Ivor Bird - Over The Wall We Go.

Cannot believe no one has done a youtube video about songs David Bowie has written for other artists before... So original!

My friend Ray Williams who placed the Ad that put Elton and Bernie together, is one of the singers on Over The Wall We Go. He worked at UA and Bowie tried to pitch songs for the Bonzo Dog Band to record.

Fantastic episode! Love that Beatstalkers version of Silver Tree Top School For Boys. I didn't realize Bowie had written it. Now it seems so obvious.

I saw ziggy stardust show in 73 at long Beach arena here in so cal a friend called and said he hat extra ticket and gave it to me I had no idea who bowie was ! I was a sabbath fan I must say it was quite dramatic event ha ha great memories thanks YP cheers ! I never got my notification from boobtube !! 😊

3:47 Interesting to hear more about Alan Mair. He wrote "My Way Out Of Here" on The Only Ones 3rd LP. In my view it has a very Kinks type sound and Mair's 60's pop/psychedelia influences probably help to explain why I like it so much

The time Yesterday's Papers puts into their videos has to be applauded. The research, video and audio is of the quality I'd expect from a major TV production company. If the narration is AI it's the best I've heard... I don't think it is. It's well researched, well presented and naturally narrated.

We had the album "Images" and The Laughing Gnome" was a classic we got stoned too a lot, we still sing it.

Friends and I always viewed Bowie as one who changed the music just as the Beatles had done much earlier. Moon Age Daydream was the song we thought heralded it.

I knew about most of these songs. The big surprise was that he wrote, All Coppers are Bastards. We all enjoyed singing that on nights out. Cheers DJ. RIP. I still remember the days in Bromley….

Hard to believe that Bowie spent so long in relative obscurity before he really broke through. I knew he gave Mott the Hoople "All the Young Dudes" but I didn't know he was quite so instrumental in stopping the band from breaking up.

Most of those very early 7"s from 1965-7 are worth a small fortune nowadays

This is fascinating. I've been a fan since 1973 and I never knew most of this, Thanks a lot

Interesting that the Beatstalkers bassist recalled Bowie going through his Anthony Newley stage when asking the lead singer to use an English accent for When I Was Five. Everything that I’ve been able to read about Bowie is that he was influenced by Anthony Newley. The timbre and phrasing of their voices are very similar. Newley’s stage presence, even though he would wear a tuxedo and looked more conventional, had a bit of a flamboyant style, as did Bowie.

I was never a big Bowie fan until I heard the story behind him in Berlin with Iggy Pop and how he not only wrote but produced Iggy’s albums The Idiot and Lust for Life….. an incredible talent….!

As a Bowie fan learning new stuff about David is such a thrill.

Amazing stuff here brother! One of your best! ❤

As a Bowie lover, I loved this video!!! Great job as usual, YP!

He burst onto the music scene like a Meteor when he released Starman and rest is history as they say

He didn't really make it in America until early 1973 with Space Oddity, an already old song. I had been a fan since 1967 or 8 when a friend gave me a promo copy of his first album, saying it was the worst thing he ever heard. But I really liked it and still know all the songs by heart. My favorite was The Gang.

Another brilliantly researched and edited video yp. Caroline's Mister A Go Go is a new one on me, love it!

Actually the laughing gnome song sounded pretty sweet in French.

The great chameleon changed his look as much as his musical style. A great loss.

Interesting stuff!!! I especially liked All the Young Dudes.

Congratulations on doing something which is very difficult to do, introduce me to things I didn’t know about DB. Very informative, and brilliantly out together, with the visuals and artists talking about their recollections. Thank you.

Man, you’re the Smithsonian of pop singles, I bet Tarentino calls you for his OSTs and if he doesn’t, well he should ! 😉 Btw, I recently came across a live version of "I’m Waiting For The Man" with Bowie and Lou Reed and it’s a fantastic version

The early seventies, great music great times❤👍

The recording of "Everything Is You" by The Beatstalkers makes me think of the kind of material which The Move were releasing during that period (e.g., "Cherry Blossom Clinic", "Flowers In The Rain" etc.)

Great video, thank you very much.

YP hits again! For the 100th+ time, thanks for your great video.

Great research and presentation👍

Thanks for this very informative tube!

Nice production guys. I learned some new things Thanks.

Very enjoyable thanks 😊

Enjoyed that thanks.

Love your videos!

Great video. I learned quite a few things that I didn't know before. Now I'll need to try and track down recordings of some of these obscure tracks!

Another terrific post, YP. Thank you!

That was really interesting. Thank you.

As ever, utterly brilliant! Without doubt, one of my favourite channels…informative, impartial and impeccable attention to detail! Every post makes sense, and manages to bring up more interesting, and often ignored, sides of artists usually dismissed by others! Many thanks!

Great stuff! 😺

That was super informative. Lots of stuff I'd never heard of before in there

Amazing. Everyone goes on about him being a chameleon but if you didn't know this story you might not think it might be because he had to try so many different things on just to get a look-in from the record buying public.

Silver tree top boys ,!! I can hear Madness doing that number today..??.

This is good. I love it when research is done.

Again, good and interesting work YP.

Bowie already recorded demos of some of these songs which were not then released, but have appeared on his download only releases. A version of All The Young Dudes featuring Bowie singing the verses, and Ian Hunter singing over the chorus appeared among the bonus tracks on the CD reissue of the album of that name. Bowie's vocals were removed and replaced by Hunter's, so it seems as though Ian Hunter sang lead all the way through, with Bowie on backing vocals on the chorus. He slightly later recorded his own version which was not then released, but has since appeared on a Bowie compilation. This is his version with Mott The Hoople. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mykW6ZEY_g8.html

What bands weren't Jimmy Page in🤔

Yeah, we got a double LP of some of these things (the Bowie versions) in the States after he hit it big, and even that didn't cover it all. Amazingly prolific fellow, and he just did not know the meaning of "time to pack it in."

Thanks for posting

Thank you! Those videos are really delightful.

Just my opinion but "Over The Wall We Go" is absolutely hilarious plus it's been years since I heard Peter Noone's version of "Oh, You Pretty Things", but while Peter's version doesn't top Bowie"s, it has stood the test rather well as far as I'm concerned.

Very good video.

The opening shots on this vid are of Bowie on TV complaining about the discriminatory treatment that long haired men were getting at the time . I think he started the ' Society for the Preservation of long-haired men ' or something similar ? I well recall signs on pub doors in kent saying ' no entry to long hairs , bikers , and hop pickers ' ! I was fortunate to see Bowie ,and later Mott the Hoople , at Chatham Central Hall in that 72/73 period . Both fantastic experiences. Later discovered that it was Queen who supported Mott the Hoople . Having read ' Diary of a Rock and Roll Star ' in the 70's I am astonished that Ian Hunter is still alive 😅. Also saw Roxy Music there in 72 and saw them 50 years later at the O2. Amongst the people i hung with Roxy were more influential than any other band . ✌️☮️

0:34 I think I have seen this while singing arses to arses live in Japan 1990.

Many thanks for that fascinating and informative video!!! 😊

“Dig everything” by Bowie, I believe came out in 1966. Great song. Check it out.

Yesterday’s Papers again proving they are THE COOLEST AND HIPEST channel on RU-vid 😊💯🎶👍🏾💙

David Bowie along with Elton John the Who the Rolling Stones and the Beatles are easily the top 5 British Pop Rock artists to come out of the 1960s and 70s and this excellent video showcased David Bowie's great songwriting skills. My favorite song in this video is the Laughing Gnome as this funny upbeat 1967 song will make just about any one laugh or smile and that is what music is all about.

All The Young Dudes, fantastic single by Mott. Bowie did them proud.

Right up to your usual standards. Your whole project is a history of rock in the making.

Major Tom is still out there

I just want to say that was a really interesting video I didn't realise that David Bowie wrote so many songs are artists

The laughing gnome was rereleased 6 years later in September 1973

Nice job. Thanks!

If George Formby were still alive by the late 60's, he would have covered "The Laughing Gnome".

great!

The version of Silly Boy Blue you mentioned wasn't Bowie's first recording of this, it was available on the albums David Bowie ( The first album of that title ) and The World of David Bowie in the early 70's.

Ziggy & Lou Reed Transformer I often play in one go.

Interesting, puts Starman in context.

The Laughing gnome was the first Bowie song I heard and I loved it but he seemed to go undercover and when he re-emerged with Starman and Suffragette City I wasn’t sure if I liked it as much.

I knew that Bowie gave All The Young Dudes to Mott the Hoople but I didn't know about his back story from the 60's. Can you imagine a world where Bowie just wrote songs for others and never recorded again? Thank the music gods that he decided to push on and putting out his own music or else a huge slice of music history would be gone.

I love songwriters. Most of them are not performing artists. Carole King wrote dozens of songs that ended up on the Top 10 or Top 40 list. James Taylor wrote 100 songs that we know. Vander and Young, and Lennon and McCartney will never be forgotten. I love song writers.

At the end when some songs that Bowie wrote for other artists that were recorded later than 1972 are mentioned, one is not mentioned: Madman, written by Bowie and Marc Bolan. Written in 1977, but was not recorded until the 80s, then by Cuddly Toys and Swedish duo Blue For Two.

***** better and better each time.

I'm 44 next month. I remember hearing Bowie in the 80s and just thinking he was ok. Then when I was a teen I discovered space oddity. That led to me becoming a total fan. My favourite song/s of all time are now "Life on Mars" and "Saviour Machine"(Which I think has more meaning today with AI and President Joe). My favourite album of his is the Man who sold the world. A true loss for music.

He originally wrote "Andy Warhol" for Dana Gillespie, but her version wasn't actually released until a year after his own version on Hunky Dory.

"Silly Boy Blue" might be one of his first treasures. Peter Noone singing Bowie looks strange 👈😁

wow a lot of well very British songs there and well that's where they stayed thank god

Never knew about the Mott the Hoople/David Bowie connection.

Dudes is the best song he ever gave away... if not the best song he ever wrote... if not one of the best songs anyone ever wrote... if not one of.... OK, I'll stop here.

This podcast is the gift that keeps on giving. We 73 yr. old perennially nostalgic American curmudgeon shredders love it; thank you Sir!

Great post as usual

If there was a compilation of early David Bowie songs from 1964-1968, I would buy it. This phase is important but has been ignored.

*Bowie first recorded 'Silly Boy Blue' in the late 60's, not 2000.* I have an record with it included on it from back then (buried in the garage somewhere!)

Woah....interesting ...got all Bowie's early 60's releases, but haven't heard most of what you tagged here. Trainspotter allert!!!....wasn't "Silly Boy Blue" already on the 1967 "David Bowie" Deram label ? he indeed rerecorded it later.

Excelente video por la recopilación de la carrera de Bowie que muchos desconociamos🎉

There is another version of Silver Tree Top School for Boys from the 60s by The Riot Squad

I love the fact you concentrate on just certain parts of an artists career, instead of the same old junk these other sites are offering, things we already know about a certain artist....Great job......😎

Silver tree top ..sounds like the theme to The Sweeney