Thursday's Child

Infobox Single
Name = Thursday's Child


Artist = David Bowie
from Album = 'hours...'
Released = September 20, 1999
Format = CD single
Recorded = Seaview, Bermuda
Genre = Rock
Length = 4:25
Label = EMI/Virgin Records
7423 8 96265 2 9 0
Producer = David Bowie, Reeves Gabrels
Chart position =
* #15 (Slovenia)
* #16 (UK)
Last single = "I Can't Read"
(1997)
This single = "Thursday's Child"
(1999)
Next single ="The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell"
(1999)Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = CD2 sleeve
Type = single


Cover size =
Lower caption = "Thursday's Child" is a song written by David Bowie and Reeves Gabrels for the album "'hours...'" in 1999. As with some of the other songs from " 'hours...' " it was originally written for the computer game "Omikron - The Nomad Soul" from 1999.

This was the first single lifted from " 'hours...' " and preceded the album by two weeks. An error from EMI UK led to a moderate number of mispressed "UK CD version 2" being released; most of which made it to the US retail and online CD market. These CDs were indistinguishable from the correct CD version 2, but had the audio tracks from CD version 1 instead of CD version 2. They did however have the correct "Thursday's Child" video on the enhanced CD portion. The mispressed CDs quickly became a collector's item.

There is an old superstitious rhyme which predicts the personality of an individual based on the day they were born. Perhaps Bowie had this in mind when writing the lyrics for this song: :Monday's child is fair of face;:Tuesday's child is full of grace;:Wednesday's child is full of woe;:Thursday's child has far to go;:Friday's child is loving and giving;:Saturday's child works hard for a living.:But the child that is born on the Sabbath day is fair and wise, good and gayThe date of Bowie's birthday was January 8, 1947, a Wednesday. As he sings in the song: "Monday, Tuesday, "Wednesday born I was" Thursday's Child".

In a performance for VH1 Storytellers, he revealed that the title of the song was prompted by the memory of the autobiography of actress Eartha Kitt. The book, also called Thursday's Child, used to be a favourite of his when he was 14 years old.

A clip from the song was featured in the fourth season premiere of the MTV cartoon Daria.

A "Rock mix" of the song was also released on the single with heavier sounding drums and more guitar.

Track listing

UK CD version 1

# "Thursday's Child (edit)" - 4:25
# "We All Go Through" - 4:09
# "No One Calls" - 3:51

UK CD version 2

# "Thursday's Child (Rock mix)" - 4:27
# "We Shall Go to Town" - 3:56
# "1917" - 3:27

This version also includes the full length "Thursday's Child" video in QuickTime format.

International CD version 1

# "Thursday's Child (Radio edit)" - 4:25
# "Thursday's Child (Rock mix)" - 4:27
# "We Shall Go to Town" - 3:56
# "1917" - 3:27

International CD version 2

# "Thursday's Child (Radio edit)" - 4:25
# "Thursday's Child (Rock mix)" - 4:27

Promo version

# "Thursday's Child (Radio edit)" - 4:25
# "Thursday's Child (Rock mix)" - 4:27
# "Thursday's Child (Album version)" - 5:24

CD: Virgin / DPRO-14338 (US)

# "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (edit)" - 3:59
# "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (Call out hook #1)" - 0:11
# "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (Call out hook #1)" - 0:11
# "Thursday's Child (Radio edit)" - 4:25
# "Thursday's Child (Call out hook #1)" - 0:12
# "Thursday's Child (Call out hook #2)" - 0:12

A cassette version was also released with the three tracks from the UK CD version 1 on both sides of the tape.

Live versions

* A live version recorded in Paris in October 1999 was released on the single "Survive" in January 2000.

Other releases

* It was released as on a promo release of the single "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell"
* Both the "Rock mix" and a slower version from the "Omikron - The Nomad Soul" video game was released on the bonus disc that followed the 2004 reissue of " 'hours...' ".