As The World Falls Down

Written by: David Bowie
Recorded: April-June; October-November 1985
Producers: David Bowie, Arif Mardin

Released: 23 June 1986

Available on:
Labyrinth

Personnel

David Bowie: vocals
Nicky Moroch, Jeff Mironov: guitar
Robbie Buchanan: keyboards, synthesizer, programming
Will Lee: bass guitar
Steve Ferrone: drums
Robin Beck: vocals

The ballad ‘As The World Falls Down’ was written by David Bowie for the soundtrack of the 1986 film Labyrinth.

The song was written for a dream sequence in which Jareth the Goblin King, played by Bowie, dances with Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly) at a masquerade ball.

I wrote ‘As The World Falls Down’ for the ballroom scene. Jim [Henson] wanted something which was fairly old-fashioned in its sentiments and it is, for me, the prettiest tune in the movie, and the most relaxed.

Robbie Buchanan played keyboards and was responsible for programming and production on the song.

I loved doing ‘As The World Falls Down’; it’s a magical song that’s really far out and spacey, it’s so Bowie. It starts off real innocent. They gave me the song and I came up with an intro. That was definitely a ‘go with it’ kind of song, because it starts off like a pop song and it evolves.

‘As The World Fall Down’ was planned as a single to be released at Christmas 1986, as the follow-up to ‘Underground’, but it never came to fruition. Bowie did, however, take part in a promo video directed by Steve Barron, which contained Labyrinth footage, an adult Sarah played by French actor Charlotte Valandrey, new scenes featuring Hoggle, and, as a firm reminder of when it was made, a fax machine.

The song was included as a bonus track on the 1995 reissue of Tonight, and the video was included in The Video Collection and Best Of Bowie.

‘As The World Falls Down’ was included on a five-track CD compiled and signed by Bowie, and included with initial copies of his wife’s autobiography I Am Iman.

Also titled I Am Iman, only 200 copies of the privately-pressed CD were made, some of which were also given away in BowieNet competitions. The tracklisting was ‘The Wedding’, ‘Wild Is The Wind’, ‘Loving The Alien’, ‘As The World Falls Down’, and ‘Abdulmajid’.