David Bowie: “Can’t Help Thinking About Me”

In 2000, Bowie went into the studio and updated a handful songs he had written and recorded in the 1960s. The results were not released until five years after his death.

Over the last year, I’ve been listening to a number of latter-day David Bowie albums for the first time. One of those albums is Toy, which was recorded in 2000, but not released until late 2021 (posthumously). That’s all I knew about it, which was good, because my ignorance led to several surprises.

I liked the songs quite a bit — they sounded like old pop songs, nothing overtly serious, just a fun time, and done well. I could tell these songs would sink into your brain and get catchier on repeated listening. So I was listening — maybe not 100%, but absorbing the music — and “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” started.

It grabbed me more than the previous tracks. I’m a sucker for simple, crunchy guitar riffs, and that digging-in guitar sound that arrives after “family name” (0:23) . . . completely irresistible. An alternate mix highlights a distorted guitar in the beginning and a piano on the verses.

Bowie on acoustic guitar and little else, strumming and vocals high in the mix.

Why was this album — and especially this song — not released in his lifetime? (Bowie wanted to release Toy in March 2001, but financial issues at the label led put it on the shelf. Bowie left the label and began work on what became Heathen.) I wondered how much enjoyable music I had missed because Bowie fell off my radar, probably after I had tried and failed to be captivated by Tin Machine.

I was listening on YouTube and I noticed one of the recommended or related videos on the right-hand side had, as its thumbnail, a picture of a very young Bowie. When I clicked on it, I discovered that “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” was from 1966! Bowie recorded it with his then-band, The Lower Third, and the original version sounds exactly like a British pop-rock song from the mid-60s. I hear the Kinks in the chorus and the Who’s influence throughout. (And it turns out alienation was always a theme in his songwriting.)

I also found a live version from October 1999 — before they recorded it for Toy. Bowie introduced it as the first song he recorded under the name “David Bowie”. People cheer and he says, “You won’t know it, but it’s good. It’s fast.”

Bowie’s animated delivery, with those minimal gestures that both conveyed a relaxed attitude as well as his command of both the song and crowd, while quite possibly wearing the casual clothes he had on that afternoon, all add up to a perfect performance. Special mention to his half-hearted shrug (1:18) about wishing he was sorry and his hand on his cocked-hip (2:45) in impersonation of his girlfriend. If you ever entertained the thought Bowie might not have been a terrestrial being, here’s your proof — he’s in the middle of a set, performing under hot lights, in a semi-thick, long-sleeved shirt (the sleeves of which, you will note, cannot be pushed up) and there is not even one drop of sweat visible.

When he sings the line, “My girl calls my name, [she says] ‘Hi, Dave’”, I immediately thought of “Teenage Wildlife” from 1980 —

You’ll take me aside and say, “Well, David, what shall I do? They wait for me in the hallway”
I’ll say, “Don’t ask me, I don’t know any hallways”

— and wondered how many of his other songs feature someone speaking his name. It turns out those are the only two!

The Lower Third recorded “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” on December 10, 1965, at London’s Marble Arch Studios (they recorded six songs that day). It was released as a single by Pye Records a little over one month later — on January 14, 1966 — six days after Bowie’s 19th birthday!

Wikipedia explains:

Upon release as a single, “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” was a flop like Bowie’s previous releases, but peaked at number 34 on the Melody Maker chart after chart-rigging by Ralph Horton. Disputes with Horton led to Bowie’s departure from the Lower Third two weeks after its release. In March 1966, Bowie performed the song on the ATV programme Ready Steady Go! with the Buzz. Two months later, it was issued in the United States by Warner Bros. Records, becoming Bowie’s first US release. The original recording later appeared on the compilation albums Early On (1964–1966) (1991) and Nothing Has Changed (2014).

Over thirty years after its initial release, Bowie revived “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” during his 1999 Hours Tour. He then re-recorded the song during the sessions for Toy in mid-2000, along with other tracks he wrote and recorded during the mid-1960s.

Here’s another song from the ‘60s that was updated for Toy.