For the latest installment of the EHSDA Song of the Week, we’re going back to the early ’80s. New wave was all the rage and as director Paul Schrader was working on the horror film Cat People, he reached out to David Bowie to work on the title track. Bowie teamed up with legendary music producer Giorgio Moroder to create “Cat People (Putting Out Fire),” a goth-drenched slow-burn that explodes with a classic vocal turn on the word “gasoline.”
The song was released as a single in April 1982 and was an instant hit, charting in the U.S. and the U.K. In the U.S., the song reached #67 on the Pop Singles chart, #9 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and #14 on the Club Play Singles chart.
Bowie ended up remaking the song on his 1983 album Let’s Dance, adding a little more rock aggressiveness thanks to lead guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. Most critics felt it was inferior to the first version. But the original has lived on thanks to placements on movie soundtracks, most notably by Quentin Tarantino in a pivotal scene in 2009’s Inglorious Basterds.
And remember, kids, definitely DO NOT try to put out a fire with gasoline.