''Love You till Tuesday'' is a promotional film designed to showcase the talents of a 22-year old

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

, made in 1969. The film was an attempt by Bowie's manager,

Kenneth Pitt Kenneth Cooper Pitt (10 November 1922 – 25 February 2019) was a British publicist and talent manager, who managed the career of musicians including David Bowie in the late 1960s. Biography Pitt was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex. In the 1950 ...

, to bring Bowie to a wider audience. Pitt had undertaken the film after a suggestion by Günther Schneider, producer of German TV show ''4-3-2-1 Musik Für Junge Leute'' for the

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

network. The film ended up being shelved, and was not released until 1984, when it finally came out on VHS. A DVD version was released in UK in 2005.

Production

Pitt hired his friend Malcolm J Thomson to direct the half-hour film, which was originally planned to showcase seven of Bowie's songs, including four from his 1967 debut album (three of them newly re-recorded for the film), plus the follow-up single "Let Me Sleep Beside You" and new compositions "When I'm Five" and "Ching-a-Ling". It would also include a

mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...

piece performed and narrated by Bowie, ''The Mask''. Before shooting started on 26 January 1969, Bowie added another new song to the planned film—"

Space Oddity "Space Oddity" is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was first released on 11 July 1969 by Philips Records as a 7-inch single, then as the opening track of his second studio album ''David Bowie''. After the commercial f ...

". His girlfriend at the time,

Hermione Farthingale David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

, and his friend John Hutchinson also performed in the movie (billed as Hermione and Hutch) and sang lead vocals on "Ching-a-Ling" with Bowie singing backup. Bowie himself wore a wig throughout the shoot, having cut his hair to army regulation length to audition for '' The Virgin Soldiers'' film, based on the same name novel by Leslie Thomas. German language versions of three songs (''Love You Til Tuesday'' as ''Lieb' Dich bis Dienstag'', and ''Did You Ever Have a Dream'' as ''Mit mir in Deinem Traum'', while the third song is unknown), and the narration for the mime sequence, were also recorded. Filming was finished by 7 February 1969. The film was considerably more costly than Pitt had anticipated, and he clashed with Thomson, who wanted to make the "Space Oddity" segment (featuring Bowie playing both 'Ground Control' and 'Major Tom', with the latter becoming seduced by space maidens) considerably more risqué. The film failed to interest any buyers, however, and Schneider had left ZDF. Pitt shelved the results, and would continue to be Bowie's manager until 1971. In 1984, with Bowie's global fame at an apex, the growing success of home video led Pitt to contact

Polygram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

, who released the film on VHS in May of that year. Deram issued a 'soundtrack' compilation in the same month. The film was released on Laserdisc in the US in 1990 and on DVD in the UK in 2005.

Performances

# " Love You till Tuesday" # "Sell Me a Coat" # "When I'm Five" # "

Rubber Band A rubber band (also known as an elastic band, gum band or lacky band) is a loop of rubber, usually ring or oval shaped, and commonly used to hold multiple objects together. The rubber band was patented in England on March 17, 1845 by Stephen P ...

" # "The Mask (A Mime)" # "Let Me Sleep Beside You" # "Ching-a-Ling" # "

" # "When I Live My Dream"

References

Nicholas Pegg Nicholas Pegg is a British actor, writer and director. Educated at Nottingham High School and graduating with a Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Exeter, Pegg subsequently trained at the Guildford School of Acting. Acti ...

, ''The Complete David Bowie'', Page 521, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2004, {{DEFAULTSORT:Love You Till Tuesday (Film) 1969 films David Bowie video albums 1960s musical films Promotional films