“Underground” by David Bowie

David Bowie wrote "Underground" as the theme for Labyrinth, the 1986 film in which he also played Jareth, king of the goblins, and it's one of five songs he made for it. The movie uses it twice: a slower re-scored take by composer Trevor Jones runs under the opening credits, and Bowie's own version plays out the end. He reasoned that a film about a girl working out her feelings, her family and herself needed something emotional, and to him nothing is more emotional than gospel.

So he and Arif Mardin produced it at Atlantic Studios in New York with a choir to match: Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross, Cissy Houston and Daphne Rubin-Vega among the backing singers, plus the Radio Choir of the New Hope Baptist Church. Albert Collins adds guitar. It made number 21 in the UK.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.