#43: Cat People by David Bowie

City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: July 1982
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #67
Peak Position on Finnish Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Swiss Singles chart ~ #8
YouTube: “Cat People”
Lyrics: “Cat People”

David Robert Jones was born in 1947 in Brixton, a suburb in the southern part of London, UK. From an early age he demonstrated talent as a singer and especially through dance and movement. When he was nine years old his father brought home some 45’s by Elvis Presley, Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, Fats Domino and others. When David Jones heard Little Richard sing “Tutti Frutti” he later said in an interview that he “heard God.” Growing up, David learned to play the recorder, ukulele, piano and baritone saxophone. In 1962, at the age of 15 he formed a band named the Konrads. In 1964 he formed a band named David Jones and the King Bees. They appeared on the variety show Ready Steady Go! to sing their debut single, “Liza Jane”. Jones briefly moved on to join the Mannish Boys before being the front man for Davy Jones and The Lower Third. They released a single in 1965 titled “You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving”. Due to the growing popularity of another English recording artist named Davy Jones (who went on to become lead singer for The Monkees), David Robert Jones decided to change his professional name to David Bowie. He chose his surname after a 19th Century American pioneer named James Bowie who invented the Bowie knife.

In 1966 the first single released credited to David Bowie was with his backing band, The Buzz. However, Bowie continued to be met with a string of commercial failures with each single release and his debut album in 1967. He enrolled in the London Dance Center in the fall of 1967. Bowie added mime to his repertoire and was an opening mime act for a tour with Tyrannosaurus Rex in 1968. David Bowie also appeared in a TV commercial for Lyons Maid ice cream. But it was in 1969 with the release of “Space Oddity”, that David Bowie had his first commercial success as a recording star. The single climbed to #5 on the UK singles chart. It was a commercial failure in North America until it was re-issued in 1973 and became a Top 20 hit nationally in the USA and Canada, and peaking at #4 in Vancouver.

In 1972 Bowie launched a ground-breaking tour billed as the Ziggy Stardust Tour with the Spiders from Mars. The tour promoted his album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and Aladdin Sane. Between January 1972 and June 1973, David Bowie and his band performed at 191 concerts across the UK, North America and Japan. During this time Bowie had a number of Top Ten hits in the UK including “Starman”, “Suffragette City”, “The Jean Genie”, “Drive-in Saturday Night”, “Life On Mars”, “Laughing Gnome”, “Sorrow”, “Rebel Rebel” and “Knock On Wood”. While some of these had local radio market chart success in Canada ~ for example, “Rebel Rebel” climbed to #8 in Ottawa. But most were only known as tracks from albums played on FM stations in Canada (and the USA).

One of the singles in the early 70s was “Changes” from the Hunky Dory album. In 1972 the song stalled at #66 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1975, David Bowie’s Young Americans album produced a minor hit with the title track and a number one hit in the USA with “Fame”. He made the Top Ten again that year with “Golden Years” as his debut single release from Station to Station. 

After his chart-breaking year in the USA in 1975, Bowie again struggled to attain chart success across the Atlantic. In the UK he had several Top Ten singles in the late ’70’s: “Sound And Vision” in 1977 and “Boys Keep Swinging” in 1979. But these best chart runs in the UK did no better than #69 on the Billboard Hot 100. And Low, Heroes and Lodger each failed to crack the Top Ten on the Billboard album chart.

In 1980 “Ashes To Ashes” became his second #1 single in the UK. In 1981 Bowie had a #1 single in the UK, featuring Queen titled “Under Pressure”. The following year Bowie released “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)”.

“Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” was cowritten by David Bowie and Giorgio Moroder. The song was the theme song for the film of the same name. Moroder was born in 1940 in the Tyrrolian Alps in the northern Italian town of Urtijëi. He learned to play guitar at the age of 15. At age 18, he began touring Europe as a professional musician. He performed at night, and during the day, made recordings with two Revox recorders. Around age 25 he moved to his aunt’s in Berlin, working as a sound engineer. In 1970, he began to work at Oasis Records. He founded MusicLand Studios in Munich which put him in a working relationship with the Rolling Stones, Electric Light Orchestra, Deep Purple, T. Rex, Uriah Heep, The Sweet, Iggy Pop, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Donna Summer, Spandau Ballet, and others.

In 1979, Moroder received an Academy Award for Best Original Score for Midnight Express, which included the hit single “Chase”. The album also received a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Score Soundtrack category. In 1980, Giorgio Moroder received an Album of the Year nomination at the Grammy Awards for the Donna Summer album Bad Girls. That year he received a second Grammy nomination for Best Disco Recording with “Dim All the Lights”. Giorgio Moroder produced Donna Summer’s hits “Love To Love You Baby”, “I Feel Love”, “Last Dance”, MacArthur Park”, “Hot Stuff”, “Bad Girls”, “On The Radio”, and her duet with Barbra Streisand titled “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)”.

In 1981, he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score for the film American Gigolo. As well, he received a second Golden Globe nomination which was for Best Original Song for “Call Me” (recorded by Blondie), and also from American Gigolo. In 1984, he won a second Academy Award for Best Original Song with “Flashdance…What A Feeling”. And for that film score Moroder won a Grammy Award. In 1985, Moroder was nominated for And in 1987, Giorgio Moroder won his third Academy Award for “Take My Breath Away” for Best Original Song from the film Top Gun. 

Between 1990 and 2003 Giorgio Moroder was 50% stakeholder of the Cizeta-Moroder V16T in a joint venture with automotive engineer Claudio Zampolli. It was designed by Italian car designer Marcello Gandini. The manufacturer was Cizeta Automobili and the Cizeta-Moroder V16T was the only car they sold. Due to the high price, there were only eleven of these made-to-order cars produced. The original and unique Cizeta-Moroder prototype and show car, chassis 001, was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in 2022 for $1,363,500 (USD).

Cizeta-Moroder V16T

In 2005, Giorgio Moroder received the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. in 2013, Moroder wrote one song for Daft Punk’s album Random Access Memories. The album, which included the hit single “Get Lucky”, topped album charts in over twenty countries. In 2014, Moroder wrote and produced “Right Here, Right Now” which was recorded by Klyie Minogue. The following year it topped the pop chart in Argentina and the Billboard US Dance Club chart. Over the decades, Giorgio Moroder has released 15 studio albums.

Cat People was a remake of a 1942 film of the same name.

Original poster for Cat People (1942)
The poster warned “She was marked with the curse of those who slink and court and kill by night!”

In the original film, fashion illustrator, Irena, buys a kitten. But upon meeting her, the kitten hisses. Irena goes to the pet shop where she got the kitten to exchange it. When she enters the shop, the animals go wild in her presence, and Irena becomes uneasy. Irena gradually reveals to new boyfriend that she believes she is descended from the cat people of her village, and that she will transform into a panther if aroused to passion.

In the 1982 remake of Cat People the screenwriter Alan Ormsby was very concerned that the film would appear sexist. In the 1942 film the woman who was sexually intense had to be destroyed, so Ormsby created a male character who has the same problem. In the remake a young woman learns that her brother has descended from werecats. In the remake, Irena travels to New Orleans from Canada to reconnect with her brother Paul. Irena was raised in foster care after they were orphaned. Paul, who spent his childhood in psych wards, is now involved in a church and lives with his Creole housekeeper. Paul explains to Irena that mating with a human transforms a werecat into a black panther, and only by killing a human can it regain human form. This is Paul’s predicament. Later in the film Irena discovers she has the same predicament. Some film critics suggested the remake echoed Dante’s depiction of Beatrice, and the fixation of putting a woman on a pedestal because she is a virgin.

1982 Cat People poster

The lyrics to “Cat People” are sung from the perspective of the cat person in the film. They describe how potential romantic partners, when starting to get to know the cat people “…those who feel me near, close their blinds and change their minds.” The predicament of Paul, (and Irena) has the cat person confide “you wouldn’t believe what I’ve been through.” The wildness and loneliness of the werecat is expressed in these lines: “See these eyes so green, I can stare for a thousand years. Colder than the moon, it’s been so long…. See these eyes so red, red like jungle burning bright…”

“Cat People” peaked at #1 in Ottawa, and Buffalo, #3 in Winnipeg (MB), and #9 in Los Angeles and Toronto. Internationally, “Cat People” peaked at number-one in Finland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, #8 in Switzerland, #13 in Canada, #15 in Australia, and #17 in Ireland. However, it stalled at #67 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2009, “Cat People” was included in the soundtrack for the film Inglourious Basterds.

David Bowie and Giorgio Moroder received Golden Globe award nominations both for Best Original Score (Cat People) and Best Original Song for “Cat People” (losing to “Up Where We Belong” from An Officer And A Gentleman).

1983 album release of Let’s Dance which sent him to the top of the album and singles charts. His singles from the album were the title track “Let’s Dance”, “China Girl” and “Modern Love”.

During the rest of the ’80’s, David Bowie had three notable international hits: “Blue Jean”, “Dancing In The Street” with Mick Jagger, and “Absolute Beginners”. In 1997 Bowie was a featured artist in the #1 hit “Perfect Day”, for the UK fundraising single for Children In Need.

Bowie made the Top Ten internationally for the last time in 2013 with “Where Are We Now?”, breaking into the Top Ten in 13 countries.

In 2016 David Bowie died on January 8. He was 69 years old. His twenty-fifth and final studio album, Blackstar, was released to critical acclaim. The album climbed to #1 in 23 countries.

October 20, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Paul Gallagher, “David Bowie died from liver cancer he kept secret from all but handful of people, friend says,” The Independent, January 11, 2016.
“About David Bowie,” David Bowie.com.
Nicholas Pegg, The Complete David Bowie, (Titan, 2011) 30.
Sophie Heawood, “David Bowie has Gone from New to Old – and What a Beautiful thing it Is,” Independent, January 8, 2013.
Mick Brown, “David Bowie interview from 1996: ‘I Have Done Just about Everything that it’s Possible to Do’,” Telegraph, January 10, 2017.
“Rolling Back: David Bowie’s infamous 1976 interview with Cameron Crowe,” Rolling Stone, Steve Pafford.com, January 2018.
Philip Oakley and Giorgio Moroder, “Together In Electric Dreams“, Virgin Records, 1984.
Jeremy Allen, “Giorgio Moroder – 10 of the best,” Guardian, August 14, 2015.
“Classic interview – Giorgio Moroder: “If you want to make a good dance song, you still need the 303, an analogue drum machine and a Minimoog,” Music Radar.com, March 3, 2024.

CFRA 580-AM Ottawa Top Ten | June 18, 1982