The release
The Heathen album was released on 10 June 2002, a week after the ‘Slow Burn’ single.‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” followed on 16 September, and reached number 20 on the UK singles chart. The single had originally been scheduled for release in June.
A video was issued alongside the single, of a live performance from Cologne, Germany, on 12 July 2002.
It was released in an array of formats. Of the six additional tracks, four were re-recordings of David Bowie’s 1960s compositions from the Toy sessions. The two others, ‘Wood Jackson’ and ‘Safe’ were new compositions, the latter of which was originally intended for the Rugrats film soundtrack.
In the UK three CD singles were issued, each of which opened with a 3:29 radio edit of ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi”. CD one contained ‘Safe’ and ‘Wood Jackson’, CD two had ‘When The Boys Come Marching Home’ and ‘Shadow Man’, while the third CD had ‘Baby Loves That Way’ and ‘You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving’.
There were also two European CD singles, again leading with the radio edit. CD one also had the songs ‘Safe’, ‘Baby Loves That Way’, and ‘Sunday’ (Tony Visconti mix), while CD two contained just ‘Safe’ as an additional track.
There was also a promotional 12″ vinyl single, which contained three tracks: ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” (Metro remix), ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” (Metro remix – Radio edit), and ‘I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship’ (Deepsky’s Space Cowboy remix).
One of the remixes of ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” appeared in the PlayStation 2 music game Amplitude.
In concert
The first live appearance was on 2 June 2002 at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York, as part of a short set filmed for the BBC’s Top Of The Pops.
It was also performed that month for TV appearances including Rome, and in London for the BBC’s Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.
David Bowie performed ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” throughout the Heathen Tour, from the opening show at New York’s Roseland Ballroom on 11 June 2002. His final live performance of the song was on 12 October at St Ann’s Warehouse, again in New York.
