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Tehuan Harris is a news and features journalist at Collider, reporting and writing about all things music and reality TV (sometimes). She is a talented journalist and a natural storyteller who writes with curiosity and interest. After graduating from university, she jumped straight into journalism, with one goal in mind: to tell stories that matter.
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Unlike his successful peers, David Bowie was not a huge perfectionist, which was why he clashed with Queen while recording “Under Pressure”. He was an artist who was spontaneous and authentic, which is what makes him special and rare. As he was responsible for hits such as “Life On Mars?” and “Heroes,” it was no secret that Bowie would take the world by storm with his talents. His early hit, “The Jean Genie,” was proof of that, as it was a jam session that turned into a one-take wonder.
David Bowie Was On Tour Before Recording “The Jean Genie”
Bowie was on the Ziggy Stardust tour, where “The Jean Genie” was born. It was an impulsive jam session, originally titled “Bussin”, taking place between the first two concerts in Cleveland and Memphis. Mick Ronson, who was also on the tour, started the tour jam by playing a guitar riff, unbeknownst to him that he would trigger something magical and iconic.
“The Jean Genie” ended up being the first song composed for his album, Aladdin Sane, in August 1972, while he was still on tour. The recording took place in New York City and was recorded in one take. He believed that the song was perfect as it was, authentic and an accurate presentation of the tour bus jam that inspired the song. Woody Woodmansey, a drummer who had worked with Bowie for many years, told Far Out Magazine, “David was not into this perfection thing. It might sound like it was, but it wasn’t. It was like he knew instinctively when something had that special something in a song, or when you’d captured it, even before we did.”
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In the 90s, Bowie described the song as his “first New York song” and “a smorgasbord of imagined America” and his “first New York song”. He also alleged that he wrote it about Cyrinda Foxe, an American actress known for her work with Andy Warhol. “I wrote it for her amusement in her apartment,” he said.
David Bowie’s “The Jean Genie” Was Recorded In One Take
What Bowie did in that studio was shocking, to say the least. It was widely expected to record several takes and versions of a song, which was something Bowie had rejected. He may be on the same wavelength in terms of legacy and musical impact as Queen and Pink Floyd, who were known to take their time with their art and their music. However, Bowie taking huge risks with his music (and paying off) is what separates him from other music giants.
In the same interview with Far Out Magazine, Woodmansey recollected how “The Jean Genie” was recorded in one take, and other songs. “We expected to do five versions of a song and pick the best one,” he said. But we’d sometimes just do the first one, and he’d go, ‘Yeah, that’s it,’ and you’d go, ‘What? That’s the first time we’ve played it,’ and he’d say, ‘Yeah, that’s what I want.’ I thought, ‘Oh, no, he’s lost the plot. He’s written these amazing songs, but he can’t be bothered to get them done right.’”
“We never went past three takes of a song,” he continued. “It was usually first take, second take, or third take. Second take, mainly. Like ‘Life on Mars?,’ second time we’d ever played it. ‘Jean Genie’ – first take, first time we'd ever played it. And he just went, ‘No, that’s it, you go it. Let’s not kill it. That’s got what it needs.’”
“The Jean Genie” Was One of David Bowie’s Earliest Successes
Image via RCA Records“The Jean Genie” was released as a single in 1972 and became Bowie's biggest success in the UK at the time, spending 13 weeks in the charts. The song became a chart topper in the UK, peaking at number one on the UK charts. It did not have much success in the US, with critics being less than pleased with “The Jean Genie,” and it peaked at number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album, Aladdin Sane, performed better on the Billboard 200 and broke into the top 20 on the US Billboard 200.
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Many songs may need a bit of polishing. Bowie’s music didn’t. Bowie recorded “The Jean Genie” in one take, believing that it was perfect as it was, since it captured the raw and spontaneous energy of the jam session on the tour bus, which was the key ingredient that the song needed to be iconic. “The Jean Genie” was also proof that overthinking will never make a song great; authenticity and imperfection work. It was a risky strategy that not only paid off but would define his career until Bowie’s death at the age of 69.
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