Tina Turner and David Bowie share a private joke. The two duetted on Tonight’s title track
Tonight is a product of necessity. Let’s Dance had done something remarkable the previous year, transforming David Bowie from the perennial pop outsider into a stadium-level star. After years striving for the next level of fame, he now found himself with a surfeit of it. The pressure was on to keep the momentum up - and that required a new product.
That may sound a little cynical, but, well, that’s Tonight. Most will agree that it is Bowie’s weakest solo album and one that exists largely to fulfil a perceived commercial obligation. Even Bowie himself was writing it off as early as 1987. His apathy towards the project is apparent throughout. It’s a slight album - just nine tracks, with five of those covers. It’s tonally all over the place and Bowie doesn’t play a note on the record. That wasn’t a problem on Let’s Dance, but that album had something that Tonight sorely lacked: Nile Rodgers.