To celebrate 85 years of music at Abbey Road we recently launched three playlists on Spotify and Apple Music of tracks recorded over the years in Studio One, Studio Two and Studio Three. 

As the playlists grow we will be sharing some of the stories behind the most famous recordings, starting this week with a legendary 1980s duet from two of rock's great legends.

Possibly the most famous version of Martha and the Vandellas 1960s Motown hit Dancing In The Streets was recorded in Abbey Road’s Studio Two in June 1985 as a duet by English rock legends David Bowie and Mick Jagger.

The cover came about from an idea that the two superstars had of doing a duet in order raise money for the Live Aid famine relief cause, with both artists originally wanting to perform the track live simultaneously in two different countries via a satellite link-up.

As Bowie was recording music for the Absolute Beginners film soundtrack at Abbey Road at the time, Mick Jagger was flown to London to record the track in Studio Two. A mix was ready in just a few hours and a day later the track was signed off and ready to go, complete with an impromptu video of the pair dancing to the track in the dead of night around the London Docklands.

It went on to top the UK Singles Chart for four weeks, and reached #7 in the Billboard Top 100 in the US.

Listen to the full track now on our Studio Two playlist on Spotify and Apple Music.