All the Young Dudes

By 1972, Mott the Hoople were on the verge of splitting up. Having been together for three years, the band had released four well-received albums and developed a small loyal following but had failed to garner commercial success. An appearance on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops in late 1971 wasn't enough to push their recent single "Midnight Lady" onto the charts.[1][2] The band had also finished a tour, which left them financially unstable.[3]

On 4 February 1972,[2] David Bowie sent the band – one of his favourites[4] – a demo of "Suffragette City" in hopes they would record it. The band played it and believed it didn't fit their style. Bassist Pete Watts contacted Bowie in late March 1972 and politely rejected it, stating the band broke up. Upon learning this, Bowie contacted Watts back two hours later and said, "I've written a song for you since we spoke, which could be great."[1][2] At the time, Bowie had just finished recording two albums back-to-back and had another single, "John, I'm Only Dancing", prepared for release, so he was eager to write for other artists.[3] While Defries worked on signing the band with CBS Records,[3] Bowie met with Watts a few days later and played "All the Young Dudes" on acoustic guitar. Watts recalled: "He hadn't got all the words but the song just blew me away, especially when he hit the chorus."[1] Watts then introduced Bowie to the rest of the band at an office located at Regent Street in London, where Bowie sat cross-legged on the floor and played the band "All the Young Dudes".[2][5]

The band were ecstatic. Hunter recalled: "He just played it on an acoustic guitar. I knew straightaway it was a hit. There were chills going down my spine. It's only happened to me a few times in my life, when you know that this is a biggie".[4] Drummer Dale Griffin said: "We couldn't believe it. In the office at Regent Street he's strumming it on his guitar and I'm thinking, he wants to give us that? He must be crazy! We broke our necks to say yes! You couldn't fail to see it was a great song."[6] After playing it, Bowie told them he would produce the track for release as a single while his manager, Tony Defries, informed them he would become their manager. Knowing the track would be a hit, the band agreed to not break up.[2]

Mott the Hoople recorded "All the Young Dudes" at Olympic Studios in London on 14 May 1972, with Bowie producing.[lower-alpha 1][10] The song was engineered and mixed by Keith Harwood, and featured handclaps by Nicky Graham and security guard Stuey George.[7] Describing the session, Hunter said: "It was a high, because we knew we were singing a hit."[11] Bowie recorded a guide vocal for Hunter,[5] which was remixed over the original backing track and released on the 1998 box set All the Young Dudes: The Anthology.[7]

"All the Young Dudes" is a glam rock song[12] that's sung in the key of D.[9] With its dirge-like music, youth suicide references and calls to an imaginary audience, the song bore similarities to Bowie's own "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide",[9] the final track from Ziggy Stardust. Described as being to glam rock what "All You Need Is Love" was to the hippie era, the lyrics name-checked contemporary stars T. Rex and contained references to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.[5] NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray have described the track as "one of that rare breed: rock songs which hymn the solidarity of the disaffected without distress or sentimentality".[12]

Bowie himself once claimed that the song was not intended to be an anthem for glam, that it actually carried a darker message of apocalypse. According to an interview Bowie gave to Rolling Stone magazine in 1973, the boys are carrying the same news that the newscaster was carrying in the song "Five Years" from Ziggy Stardust; the news being the fact that the Earth had only five years left to live. Bowie explains: "All the Young Dudes is a song about this news. It's no hymn to the youth, as people thought. It is completely the opposite."[13] "All the Young Dudes" is also thought of as a gay anthem.[14] Lou Reed said "It's a Gay Anthem! A rallying call to the young dudes to come out in the streets and show that they were beautiful and gay and proud of it."[15] The song contains the line "And Wendy's stealing clothes from Marks & Sparks", Marks & Sparks being a British colloquialism for the shop chain, Marks & Spencer.

"All the Young Dudes" was released by CBS Records in the UK on 28 July 1972, with the catalogue number CBS 8271.[3] It was a commercial success, peaking at No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart,[16] No. 37 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (in November),[17] and No. 31 in Canada (also in November). Mott the Hoople titled their fifth album after the song, which was produced by Bowie and recorded at Trident Studios in London during the summer of 1972.[11] Throughout autumn 1972, the band joined Bowie and the Spiders from Mars on tour in the US. On 29 November, Bowie boosted their profile by introducing them on stage, including at the Tower near Philadelphia and performed the song with Hunter; this performance was released on the 1998 compilation album All the Way from Stockholm to Philadelphia.[11]

The original Mott the Hoople release had to be changed lyrically in order that it might be played on UK radio and television. The line in the second verse: "Wendy's stealing clothes from Marks and Sparks" was a reference to UK retailer Marks & Spencer, also known by that colloquialism. As such, air play of the song in its original form would have breached broadcasting regulations relating to advertising in force at the time. The line was replaced with: "Wendy's stealing clothes from unlocked cars".[11]

Bowie took to performing "All the Young Dudes" on his Ziggy Stardust Tour, and a medley version appears on the album Ziggy Stardust – The Motion Picture, the live recording of the last Ziggy show that was finally released officially in 1983. Bowie's first released version of the song was in 1974 on David Live. Bowie had also offered "Drive-In Saturday" to Mott the Hoople following "All the Young Dudes", but they turned down this offer, at least partially owing to the then-current success of their own "Honaloochie Boogie".[11] According to an anecdote by Bowie on the VH1 Storytellers (2009) album (track 7), his annoyance at the rejection prompted Bowie to shave his eyebrows while in Florida.

In 1992, twenty years after their duet in Philadelphia, Bowie and Hunter again performed the song together with the surviving members of Queen, Mick Ronson, and Def Leppard's Joe Elliott and Phil Collen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. The song was also featured during the Outside Tour as well as the A Reality Tour, and is included on the video and audio releases of the latter.

"All the Young Dudes" was featured in the 1995 film Clueless, the 2007 Jason Reitman film Juno and the 2008 film The Wackness. It is also used in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's 2010 film, Cemetery Junction.[18]

"All the Young Dudes" has received critical acclaim, and is regarded as one of glam rock's best recordings.[12][19] In a review for its parent album, in which he describes it as one of the "most satisfying glam records", Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic calls "All the Young Dudes" "one of the all-time great rock songs", further praising Bowie's involvement.[20] Mark Deming, also of AllMusic, further praised the song, calling it one of Hunter's best songs, even if he didn't write it.[21]

In 2004, Rolling Stone rated "All the Young Dudes" No. 253 in its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time,[19] and on its 2010 update was ranked at number 256. It is also one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Jon Savage of The Guardian ranked it the fifth best glam-rock song of all time in 2013.[22]

1. "All the Young Dudes" (David Bowie) – 3:32
2. "One of the Boys" (Mick Ralphs, Ian Hunter) – 6:46

Personnel per biographer Chris O'Leary.[8]

• Ian Hunter – lead vocals, piano
• Mick Ralphs – acoustic guitar, lead guitar, backing vocals
• Pete Overend Watts – bass, backing vocals
• Dale Griffin – drums, tambourine
• Verden Allen – Hammond organ, backing vocals
• David Bowie – backing vocals
• Stan Tippins – backing vocals
• Stuey George – handclaps
• Nicky Graham – handclaps

"All the Young Dudes" has been covered by many artists as album tracks, B-sides and in live performances.

Bruce Dickinson (of Iron Maiden) released the song as a single in 1990, which became a minor hit in the UK, peaking at number 23 in the UK singles chart.[23] The song also features on his first solo album,Tattooed Millionaire.

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics