Thursday's Child (David Bowie song)

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Thursday's Child is a song by David Bowie from his 1999 album Hours. It was released as the album's lead single on September 20, 1999, two weeks before the album came out. The track was written by Bowie and Reeves Gabrels and produced by the two of them.

The song's title, Bowie later said, was inspired by Eartha Kitt's autobiography, which he read as a teenager. The song, like "Ashes to Ashes," nods to Danny Kaye's "Inchworm," and Nicholas Pegg notes possible references to Ray Charles's "That Lucky Old Sun" and John Donne's poem "The Sun Rising." Gabrels has said Bowie initially wanted TLC to sing backing vocals, but Bowie asked for Holly Palmer instead.

Lyrically, the song portrays a man who has worked hard and felt his life has yielded little, but who experiences a glimmer of salvation when he falls in love. The music video, directed by Walter Stern and shot in New York City in August 1999, shows Bowie in a motel room looking at his younger self and reflecting on what could have been. It has been described as surreal and melancholic, and is often cited among Bowie's best videos.

The single's B-side, "We Shall Go to Town," is a darker track written by Bowie and Gabrels about two people who live in the shadows and decide to go out for one last night, despite the danger.

Bowie performed "Thursday's Child" on Saturday Night Live on October 3, 1999. A live version from Paris in October 1999 appeared on the "Survive" single in 2000, and the full Paris concert was released in 2021 as Something in the Air (Live Paris 99). The track has appeared in various forms on later releases, including radio edits on Best of Bowie (2002) and Nothing Has Changed (2014), and on Bowie Legacy (2016).