From humble beginnings… the world got its first listen to David Bowie on this day in 1964. It was less than world-shattering however; the then 17 year old Bowie’s first single, “Liza Jane” was released on the small Vocalion label. The record is under the name Davie Jones and the King Bees, his first band , years before the Monkees led him to pick the “Bowie” moniker to avoid confusion with their Davey Jones.
The single sounds rather like a second-rate imitation of the Beatles of the day and although it got some radio airplay in Britain, it failed to chart or sell more than a few thousand copies. The song is credited to Leslie Conn, Doris Day’s manager (who was also the King Bees manager), but the melody dates back to an old Negro spiritual and recorded first by Earl Fuller in 1917. Interestingly, Bowie pulled double-duty on the song as well as the flipside (a cover of Paul Revere & The Raiders’ “Louie Louie Go Home”) playing the sax as well as singing. One must wonder if anyone who heard it back then would have foreseen the lad becoming a major international star people still listen to six decades on.
The record was re-released on Decca Records in 1978, but even then with Bowie’s popularity it didn’t do much. Bowie would have to wait about five years after “Liza Jane” to place one of his songs onto the British charts, with “Space Oddity”…but as we know, once he got past that first hurdle, there was no stopping him! If you are lucky enough to have one of the original copies of “Liza Jane” and are tired of it, you might be sitting on a little vinyl gold mine. Some of the few copies available are listed online for over $3500, although some have only been listed in the $100 range recently. A copy of the 1978 reissue might still fetch $15 or so.