Pancho.
Love Is Always.
I debated whether these songs merited an entry, and since Bowie did record demos of them (which I’ve not heard, sadly) they make the cut. Plus, we’re talking about “Pancho” here. Never shirking, always fighting!
Both tunes were written by the Belgian singer Andrée “Dee Dee” Giroud and the composer/pianist Willy Albimoor. Bowie, who was still sitting around waiting for his LP to come out, was asked by his publisher Essex Music to come up with some English lyrics. Bowie’s “Pancho” is a motorbike-riding, law-breaking charismatic thug with a “face lit from inside” (like a jack o’lantern?).
Giroud seemed to vanish soon after this single, but Albimoor would have a long career (he died in 2004). Starting out as a pianist in jazz bands, backing the likes of Josephine Baker, Albimoor by the ’50s was composing for seemingly anyone in Belgium, including the homegrown studio “Hawaiian” band The Waikikis. His camp masterpiece (even beyond “Pancho”) was “Jungle Fever,” which he arranged for Belgium’s The Chakachas in 1970.
Bowie’s demos were likely recorded in April-May 1967, and the Dee Dee single was released (by “Dee Dee and Her Panchos”) on 10 June 1967 as Palette PB 25.479.
Top: Simon Dee, 1967.
Oh my goodness. I’ve read half of your sources and can’t recall ever knowing about this. This is…something. There are bad Bowie songs, but this is the first one that made me giggle uncontrollably. I would love to hear the demos. Is it possible there’s a tie between this and Bowie’s odd preoccupation with Lulu?
I discovered this site only a couple of days ago, and would like to open a door ( window ?). The singer “Dee Dee” of these two tracks is indeed Andrée Giroud. Before these recordings (1967) she was already known in Belgium and France under the name of “Bébé Hong Suong” (since the early fifties)’ and she was performing during the seventies-eigthies and ninetees leading her own band under the name ” Bébé Suong Company”, mainly in Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and France. I’m her husband since 1975, Jean-Luc Van Lommel, still playing the drums.
Love on ya sir. Good to hear from you. Did you ever hear Bowie’s recording of Pancho?
No. Could we listen to this recording somewhere ? That would be amazing !!!
it’s unclear whether Bowie ever cut a demo of Pancho/Love is Always—he may have just written lyrics.