Love You Till Tuesday

Written by: David Bowie
Recorded: 25 February; 3 June 1967
Producer: Mike Vernon
Engineer: Gus Dudgeon

Released: 1 June 1967

Available on:
David Bowie
Laughing With Liza

Personnel

The fourth song on David Bowie’s 1967 debut album, ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ was also the title of a 1969 promotional film made to showcase his talents.

It’s a strange little number. I sound like Tony Newley. I sound more like Tony Newley than Newley.

Bowie recorded a demo of the song in 1966, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. This version contains a middle section which was cut from later recordings:

I’m the coffee in your coffee
The spoon in your tea
If you’ve got a problem then it’s probably me
I’m hiding every place that you are

In the studio

The album version of ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ was recorded on 25 February 1967, with an arrangement by Bowie and Arthur Greenslade. It was one of three such collaborations on the album, the others being ‘Rubber Band’ and ‘When I Live My Dream’.

The song was one of ten reviewed by Syd Barrett for Melody Maker’s Blind Date column. The interview was conducted at EMI’s Studio 3 at London’s Abbey Road on 21 May 1967, the day Pink Floyd recorded the song ‘Bike’ for their own debut album.

This was Barrett’s verdict on Bowie’s song:

Yeah, it’s a joke number. Jokes are good. Everybody likes jokes. The Pink Floyd like jokes. It’s very casual. If you play it a second time, it might be even more of a joke. Jokes are good. The Pink Floyd like jokes. I think that was a very funny joke. I think people will like the bit about it being Monday, when in fact it was Tuesday. Very chirpy, but I don’t think my toes were tapping at all.

Two days after its 1 June release, a second version of ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ was recorded for single release. It featured a new vocal by Bowie, and an Ivor Raymonde string arrangement – including an instrumental coda taken from ‘Hearts And Flowers’ by 19th Century Austro-Hungarian composer Alphons Czibulka.

We re-recorded ‘Love You Till Tuesday’, which we all thought was a potential hit single. We got Ivor Raymonde to do a string arrangement for that, an orchestration which made the record more acceptable to radio. That was the last [Bowie] record that got released by Decca. It was a record we thought should really do some damage chart-wise and it got close, but it was at that point Ken Pitt made a decision to go somewhere else, even though nothing happened to Bowie for a couple of years after that. That was when he started to rethink things.

The release

The ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ single was released in the UK on 14 July 1967, with ‘Did You Ever Have A Dream’ on the b-side. It received warm reviews in the music press, with Disc’s Penny Valentine saying:

This is a very funny rather bitter little love song about how he’ll always love her – at least for four days. His incredible sense of timing and humour come over perfectly in this record. It would be nice if more people appreciated him.

Despite similarly positive reviews in Record Retailer, Record Mirror, and Melody Maker, the single failed to chart. It was Bowie’s third and final single release on the Deram label.

The single was released in the USA on 28 August 1967 and, although it was again critically acclaimed, it once more failed to trouble the charts.

Bowie sang ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ in Amsterdam on 8 November 1967, on the Dutch TV show Fan Club. The single had been released in Holland and Germany the previous month.

On 18 December 1967 Bowie recorded five songs for the BBC radio show Top Gear, at the Piccadilly Number 1 Studio at 201 Piccaddilly, London, from 2.30-6pm. This was Bowie’s first BBC session, and was produced by Bernie Andrews.

Bowie was accompanied by Arthur Greenslade’s 16-piece orchestra for the BBC session, with Tony Visconti on backing vocals for some songs. The performances of ‘Love You Till Tuesday’, ‘When I Live My Dream’, ‘Little Bombardier’, ‘Silly Boy Blue’, and ‘In The Heat Of The Morning’ were first released in 2010 on the deluxe edition of David Bowie.

‘Love You Till Tuesday’ was performed by Bowie during the London run of Lindsay Kemp’s mime stage show Pierrot In Turquoise in early 1968.

The song was also performed on the German TV show 4-3-2-1 Musik Für Junge Leute on 27 February 1968. During the appearance, which was first broadcast on 16 March, he also sang ‘Did You Ever Have A Dream’, and mimed to ‘Please Mr Gravedigger’.

Bowie recorded German-language versions of ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ (‘Liebe Dich Bis Dienstag’) and ‘When I Live My Dream’ (‘Mit In Deinem Traum’) on 24 and 29 January 1969 at London’s Trident Studios. These were new vocal performances overdubbed onto the album backing tracks, for a mooted German version of the Love You Till Tuesday film.

The 3 June 1967 version was remixed in 1969 for the film, with Raymonde’s ‘Hearts And Flowers’ ending omitted. The song featured over the opening credits.

Filming took place from 26 January to 7 February 1969, with the ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ sequence shot on 3 February.

Lyrics (album version)

Just look through your window
Look who sits outside
Little me is waiting
Standing through the night
When you walk out through your door
I’ll wave my flag and shout

Ah, beautiful baby
My burning desire started on Sunday
Give me your heart and I’ll love you till Tuesday

Da da da dum
Da da da dum
Da da da dum
Da da da dum

Who’s that hiding in the apple tree?
Clinging to a branch
Don’t be afraid, it’s only me
Hoping for a little romance
If you lie beneath my shade
I’ll keep you nice and cool

Ah, beautiful baby
I was very lonely till I met you on Sunday
My passion’s never-ending and I’ll love you till Tuesday

Da da da dum
Da da da dum
Da da da dum
Da da da dum
Da da da dum
Da da da dum
Da da da dum

Let the wind blow through your hair
Be nice to the big blue sea
Don’t be afraid of the man in the moon
Because it’s only me
I shall always watch you
Until my love runs dry

Ah, beautiful baby
My heart’s a-flame, I’ll love you till Tuesday
My head’s in a whirl and I’ll love you till Tuesday
Love, love, love, love, love you till Tuesday
Love, love, love, love, love you till Tuesday

Da da da dum
Da da da dum
Bo bo bo bom
La la la bom
Da da da dum
Da da da dum
La la la la
La la la lum
Da da da dum
Da da da dum
Da da da dum

Well I might stretch it till Wednesday