"Fascination" әнінің тарихы мен шығу тегі

"Fascination" is a song written by the English singer songwriter David Bowie and the American musician Luther Vandross for Bowie's Young Americans album in 1975. The song originated from a Vandross song called "Funky Music (Is a Part of Me)" which The Mike Garson Band used to play before Bowie concerts in 1974. An alternate mix appeared on the 1989 Sound + Vision box set, though this was replaced with the original on the 2003 reissue of the compilation. While Bowie never performed this track live in concert, it was rehearsed for potential inclusion in Bowie's set at the 1985 London Live Aid concert, though, along with "China Girl," it was eventually dropped from his final set list.

Luther Vandross had written a song entitled "Funky Music (Is a Part of Me)" and was serving as a backup singer to Bowie's live tour in 1974. Vandross would sing "Funky Music" during the supporting portion of the shows on the tour. Bowie retained Vandross as a backup singer for the sessions of Young Americans. When Bowie asked Vandross for permission to record "Funky Music" himself, Vandross responded "What do you mean 'let' you record it. I'm living in a building with an elevator that barely works and you're asking me to 'let' you record one of my songs." "Fascination" thus became Vandross' first published songwriting credit. Music writer Chris O'Leary describes the lyrics as being "a sales pitch for himself, a New York hustle" with lyrics such as "I do the singing, just give me a beat" that O'Leary describes as "pure George M. Cohan." Pegg also notes that Bowie had been fascinated by the word "fascination," as evidenced by the lyrics of his 1971 song "Changes" O'Leary notes that one of the changes Bowie made from Vandross' original lyrics was to change a description of "a man walking down the street looking for a good song into one prowling around for a fix."

Allmusic critic Ned Raggett describes "Fascination" as "a dramatic and at times seriously groovy song" that "one could imagine Nile Rodgers giving an ear to in the early days of Chic." Buckley regards the song as having the best riff on Young Americans. Raggett notes that Bowie's vocals are "either pitched low or almost half whispered" and speculates whether this was intentional or just the unintentional result of trying to sing in a new style, and says that this results in the backup singers being more prominent in the refrain than Bowie is.