The David Bowie song that inspired a classic Paul McCartney album

It’s indicative of the seismic effect David Bowie had on popular culture that a host of contemporary musical icons cite him as an influence. Whether this be Chris Cornell, Shirley Manson, or Gary Numan, the Londoner’s work was so far-reaching that his impact can be clearly found across the varied environment that is modern popular music.

Perhaps the most prominent figure David Bowie influenced is former Beatles legend Paul McCartney. This is an ironic point, as in 1968, when the future ‘Starman’ had been released from his label Decca after a series of commercial and critical failures and was looking for a new home, he was rejected by the Liverpool band’s iconic, but famously chaotic label, Apple Records.

Bowie’s then-manager, Kenneth Pitt, damningly wrote the following in his biography, with a dig included at Apple’s Head of A&R, Peter Asher: “It took me some considerable time to make contact with him, but when I did he told me that the label was not interested in David. I asked him if he would let me have a letter to that effect, and on July 15 he wrote: ‘As we told you on the phone, Apple Records is not interested in signing David Bowie. The reason is that we don’t feel he’s what we’re looking for at the moment. Thank you for your time.’ Peter Asher couldn’t spare any of his own time to personally sign the terse letter, his name being inscribed by a secretary whose initials were CO”.

Despite being spurned by the hottest record label of the day, Bowie kept trudging on and would finally get the recognition he sought. Following the hit that was 1969’s ‘Space Oddity’, he refined his craft, breaking through as a bonafide star with 1972’s glam-rock masterpiece Ziggy Stardust. After this monumental release, the decade would be his, and he would continue to artistically metamorphose and keep fans and critics on their toes.

Already widely influential in Europe, Bowie took over America and became a global icon with the release of the 1983 disco-inflected album Let’s Dance, which was produced by Chic leader Nile Rodgers and featured the choppy guitar licks of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Unsurprisingly, the hit title track inspired Paul McCartney and impacted the creation of one of his classic albums, 1986’s Press to Play.

Notably, McCartney enlisted esteemed producer Hugh Padgham, known for his work with Phil Collins and XTC, to give the album a contemporary feel. When speaking to The Washington Post in 2017, he discussed the writing of Press to Play and explained that Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ and The Cars’ ‘Drive’ were the two songs that inspired its sound.

He recalled: “Sometimes you get caught up in trying to be the current flavour, trying to go along and flavour your cooking with the food of the month, and I think Press to Play was certainly that. . . . I remember the records I listened to. ‘Let’s Dance.’ Or ‘Drive’ by the Cars. Records that were of the time, and I probably just thought, ‘Yeah, it’d be quite nice to get into a bit of that.'”

While this may appear to be a flippant comment from the songwriter, Bowie’s jump from the experimental 1970s into the flashy side of pop music in the 1980s was hugely successful and undoubtedly inspirational to McCartney, who craved a similar uplift in popular standings.