Single release: Everyone Says ‘Hi’

David Bowie’s ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” single was released on 16 September 2002.

It was the second single from Heathen – the album had been released on 10 June 2002, a week after the ‘Slow Burn’ single.

When my father died in 1969, I couldn’t actually believe that he was not going to come back again. I kind of thought that he’d just put his raincoat and his cap on, and that he’d be back in a few weeks or something. And I felt like that for years. It really took a long time for me to be able to take in the fact that I wouldn’t see him again. So this one was just a little simplistic reference to that, about how it always feels like somebody has gone on a holiday of some kind. And there’s something sad about ships as well. That’s why this person in this song doesn’t go on a plane. A ship took them away – I guess that’s the boat that took people over the river Styx, isn’t it?

‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” reached number 20 on the UK singles chart. The single had originally been scheduled for release in June.

A video was issued alongside the single, of a live performance from Cologne, Germany, on 12 July 2002.

It was released in an array of formats. Of the six additional tracks, four were re-recordings of David Bowie’s 1960s compositions from the Toy sessions. The two others, ‘Wood Jackson’ and ‘Safe’ were new compositions, the latter of which was originally intended for the Rugrats film soundtrack.

In the UK three CD singles were issued, each of which opened with a 3:29 radio edit of ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi”. CD one contained ‘Safe’ and ‘Wood Jackson’, CD two had ‘When The Boys Come Marching Home’ and ‘Shadow Man’, while the third CD had ‘Baby Loves That Way’ and ‘You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving’.

There were also two European CD singles, again leading with the radio edit. CD one also had the songs ‘Safe’, ‘Baby Loves That Way’, and ‘Sunday’ (Tony Visconti mix), while CD two contained just ‘Safe’ as an additional track.

There was also a promotional 12″ vinyl single, which contained three tracks: ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” (Metro remix), ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” (Metro remix – Radio edit), and ‘I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship’ (Deepsky’s Space Cowboy remix).