How The Beatles' 'Twist and Shout' Inspired David Bowie's 'Let's Dance'

The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” inspired David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” Only one of the two songs reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The other song lasted longer on the chart.

David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” was co-produced by another famous musician. The musician drew influence from The Beatles‘ “Twist and Shout” while making the song. Subsequently, “Let’s Dance” became a massive hit in the United States.

During a 1995 interview with Interview Magazine, Bowie discussed his artistic evolution. “I tried passionately hard in the first part of the ’80s to fit in, and I had my first overground success,” he said. “I was suddenly no longer ‘the world’s biggest cult artist’ in popular music.”

Bowie discussed his feelings on “Let’s Dance” and his subsequent work. “I went mainstream in a major way with the song ‘Let’s Dance,'” he said. “I pandered to that in my next few albums, and what I found I had done was put a box around myself. It was very hard for people to see me as anything other than the person in the suit who did ‘Let’s Dance,’ and it was driving me mad — because it took all my passion for experimenting away.”

Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com

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