Song · David Bowie
“Absolute Beginners” by David Bowie
Released 1986
“Absolute Beginners” by David Bowie appears on 3 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1986 and 1989. It was first released in 1986. Its best result is #3 on the Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 1986. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #30 alternative song of 1986, #6,187 alternative song of all time and #368 of the '80s.
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"Absolute Beginners" was David Bowie's theme for the 1986 film of the same name, recorded in August 1985 and released in March 1986, and it ended up far outliving the movie, which flopped while the song reached number 2 in Britain and cracked the top 10 in ten other countries. Bowie wrote it alone and co-produced it with Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley.
The session is stacked: Kevin Armstrong on guitar, Matthew Seligman on bass, Neil Conti on drums, Luís Jardim on percussion, Steve Nieve on keyboards and piano, and Rick Wakeman on piano too. A full reed section fills out the sound, with tenor saxophones from Gary Barnacle, Willie Garnett and Paul Weimar, baritones from Andy Mackintosh and Gordon Murphy, and Don Weller taking the baritone solo. Bowie kept it in his sets on the Glass Spider, Mini and Heathen tours.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | 75 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1986 | 107 |
| 1986 | 3 | Studio Brussel Flanders, Belgium | Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 1986 | 30 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 364 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1989) | 495 |
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