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"Thursday's Child"
Single by David Bowie from the album 'hours...'
Released	September 20, 1999
Format	CD single
Recorded	Seaview, Bermuda
Genre	Rock
Length	4:25
Label	EMI/Virgin Records 7423 8 96265 2 9 0
Producer	David Bowie, Reeves Gabrels
David Bowie singles chronology
I Can't Read (1997) Thursday's Child (1999) The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (1999) CD2 sleeve

"Thursday's Child" is a song written by David Bowie and Reeves Gabrels for the album 'hours...' in 1999. As with some of the other songs from 'hours...' it was originally written for the computer game Omikron - The Nomad Soul from 1999.

This was the first single lifted from 'hours...' and preceded the album by two weeks. An error from EMI UK led to a moderate number of mispressed UK CD version 2 being released; most of which made it to the US retail and online CD market. These CDs were indistinguishable from the correct CD version 2, but had the audio tracks from CD version 1 instead of CD version 2. They did however have the correct "Thursday's Child" video on the enhanced CD portion. The mispressed CDs quickly became a collector's item.

There is an old superstitious rhyme which predicts the personality of an individual based on the day they were born. Perhaps Bowie had this in mind when writing the lyrics for this song:

Monday's child is fair of face;

Tuesday's child is full of grace;

Wednesday's child is full of woe;

Thursday's child has far to go;

Friday's child is loving and giving;

Saturday's child works hard for a living.

But the child that is born on the Sabbath day is fair and wise, good and gay

The date of Bowie's birthday was January 8, 1947, a Wednesday. As he sings in the song: "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday born I was Thursday's Child".

In a performance for VH1 Storytellers, he revealed that the title of the song was prompted by the memory of the autobiography of actress Eartha Kitt. The book, also called Thursday's Child, used to be a favourite of his when he was 14 years old.

A "Rock mix" of the song was also released on the single with heavier sounding drums and more guitar.

Contents 1 Track listing 1.1 UK CD version 1 1.2 UK CD version 2 1.3 International CD version 1 1.4 International CD version 2 1.5 Promo version 1.6 CD: Virgin / DPRO-14338 (US) 2 Live versions 3 Other releases

1. "Thursday's Child (edit)" - 4:25
2. "We All Go Through" - 4:09
3. "No One Calls" - 3:51

1. "Thursday's Child (Rock mix)" - 4:27
2. "We Shall Go to Town" - 3:56
3. "1917" - 3:27

This version also includes the full length "Thursday's Child" video in QuickTime format.

1. "Thursday's Child (Radio edit)" - 4:25
2. "Thursday's Child (Rock mix)" - 4:27
3. "We Shall Go to Town" - 3:56
4. "1917" - 3:27

1. "Thursday's Child (Radio edit)" - 4:25
2. "Thursday's Child (Rock mix)" - 4:27

1. "Thursday's Child (Radio edit)" - 4:25
2. "Thursday's Child (Rock mix)" - 4:27
3. "Thursday's Child (Album version)" - 5:24

1. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (edit)" - 3:59
2. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (Call out hook #1)" - 0:11
3. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (Call out hook #1)" - 0:11
4. "Thursday's Child (Radio edit)" - 4:25
5. "Thursday's Child (Call out hook #1)" - 0:12
6. "Thursday's Child (Call out hook #2)" - 0:12

A cassette version was also released with the three tracks from the UK CD version 1 on both sides of the tape.

• A live version recorded in Paris in October 1999 was released on the single "Survive" in January 2000.

• It was released as on a promo release of the single "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell"
• Both the "Rock mix" and a slower version from the Omikron - The Nomad Soul video game was released on the bonus disc that followed the 2004 reissue of 'hours...' .