Rhino Factoids: David Bowie duets with Cher

This month, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of the great musical moments in the history of television, a brain-melting medley performed by two singers with longstanding reputations for following their muses and being themselves, no matter what reactions they might receive.

The venue was Cher's CBS variety show, and when David Bowie kicked off his guest appearance on that week's episode, it was with a performance of “Fame,” his most recent hit single. From there, Bowie's next number was “Can You Hear Me,” on which he was joined by Cher, and no matter what you may witness in the next few minutes, it must be said this was actually a very strong duet, as you can hear for yourself if you click right here.

The next duet, however, was…well, let's just say that it was memorable.

To say that the medley is all over the place is to come nowhere near doing it justice - it starts and ends with “Young Americans” and in between finds Bowie and Cher venturing into portions of a dozen other songs, including portions of numbers by Neil Diamond, the Beatles, and Bill Withers, among many others - but it really isn't that bad. No, really, it isn't: both singers are giving it their all from start to finish, and you can tell that they're having a ball.

Here are the songs the duo tackle:
Young Americans
Song Sung Blue
One
Da Doo Ron Ron
Wedding Bell Blues
Maybe
Maybe Baby
Day Tripper
Blue Moon
Only You (And You Alone)
Temptation
Ain't No Sunshine
Young Blood
Young Americans (reprise)

And now that you're duly prepared, here's the performance: