Few songs in this world are capable of evoking the overwhelming emotion that the correct performance of David Bowie’s classic song ‘Heroes’ can. The track remains one of the Starman’s finest songs and is a fitting reminder of his mercurial and wise talent.
‘Heroes’ isn’t only a classic because of the studio recording, though its feature as the titular number of Bowie’s 1977 Berlin influenced album is undoubtedly breathtaking. No, ‘Heroes’ is a landmark track because its themes of humanity’s need for connection set against a bleak backdrop offer up something we can all attach ourselves too.
The song may not have been a commercial success in either the United Kingdom or the United States but has since gone on to become one of the most covered songs of all time. Whether it was because of the song’s ability to bring down the Berlin wall will never be confirmed but it hasn’t stopped people trying to emulate Bowie’s effort.
The song was written alongside frequent collaborators Brian Eno and Tony Visconti while Bowie was in Berlin. In fact, in 1977 while he was recording at Hansa Tonstudio, he overlooked the Berlin Wall. The two lovers in the song Bowie later confirmed to be Visconti and the German girl he was having an affair with.
However people arrive at it, normally after listening to Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ for the first time you’re hooked. The artists below certainly were. In fact, they were hooked enough to produce their own covers. Below we’ve got eight of the finest covers of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ you’ll ever hear.
The best covers of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’
Depeche Mode
Never afraid to change the pace of things, Depeche Mode provided an electronic-inspired version of Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ back in 2017 when they covered the track as part of its 40th-anniversary celebrations.
Recorded as part of Highline Sessions, Gahan and co are expertly directed by Tim Saccenti while delivering a breathtaking performance of the song. “Heroes is the most special song at the moment,” said frontman Gahan during the performance, recalling how influential the Starman had been on his life.
Fans, it would seem, are capable of providing a new take on their favourite music. Depeche Mode are proof.
Blondie
Just three years after Bowie and his partner in crime Brian Eno wrote, recorded, and released ‘Heroes’ Harry and her Blondie bandmates were taking it on the road for special moments, covering the track occasionally as part of their live show.
Blondie, who had notably covered the track during performances at The Palladium in New York and the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in 1978, arrived in London two years later for a triple-header of sell-out performances at the Hammersmith Odeon where the band would play three shows in a row.
The band would record their rendition of ‘Heroes’ and subsequently release it shortly after. Enjoy that recording, below.
Oasis
That’s something that Oasis pull off with ease on their cover of the enigmatic seminal single from the Bowie. The cover was released as a B-side to their 1997 single ‘D’You Know What I Mean?’, and with it, the Manchester band deliver a lethal concoction of bravado, acknowledgement, and rock and roll star power.
“This is the first song I heard by David Bowie,” remarks Noel in an interview mourning the Starman’s passing. Gallagher shares how the song changed his life and how seeing Bowie, explaining: “Singing this song with the light behind him. It totally fucking blew me away. I went down to my local second-hand record shop a couple of days later and got Best of Bowie and never looked back.
“And for all my talk of, ‘Well, what are his songs about? We don’t really know what they’re about’, I think ‘Heroes’ is quite straightforward. The sentiment is amazing: We can be heroes, if only for one day. We all can’t make it in life, but we can feel like we make it, for one day at a time. That’s why it’s my favourite.”
King Crimson
Perhaps because of Robert Fripp’s connection with the original recording or because Fripp and King Crimson really understood the sentiment of the track, but the band do a stand-up job of covering the iconic track in this 2016 recording from a Berlin concert.
Fripp recalled how he came to work on the original song: “I got a phone call when I was living in New York in July 1977. It was Brian Eno,” he said.
“He said that he and David were recording in Berlin and passed me over. David said, ‘Would you be interested in playing some hairy rock ‘n’ roll guitar?’ I said, ‘Well, I haven’t really played for three years – but, if you’re prepared to take a risk, so will I.’ Shortly afterwards, a first-class ticket on Lufthansa arrived.”
David Byrne
If one cover from this list was as capable of garnering goosebumps from your skin as David Bowie then it would be his namesake David Byrne and the brilliant Choir! Choir! Choir! who gave an astounding rendition of the song back in 2018.
On the performance, Byrne said: “There is a transcendent feeling in being subsumed and surrendering to a group…One becomes a part of something larger than oneself, and something in our makeup rewards us when that happens. We cling to our individuality, but we experience true ecstasy when we give it up.”
It’s a truly joyous moments shared between Byrne and the choir but also with his audience as it becomes an anthemic moment of connection.
Prince
The moment when Prince performed a moving rendition of the iconic David Bowie song ‘Heroes’. The performance, which came as part of Prince’s final tour, took place at the Sony Centre for the Performing Art in Toronto, Canada, just a weeks after David Bowie passed away following a battle with cancer.
Prince’s Piano & A Microphone Tour saw the musician perform solo, arriving at the stage without a band and armed only with his voice and the keys. “I’m doing it to challenge myself, I won’t know what songs I’m going to do when I go on stage,” he said of the tour. “I won’t have to, because I won’t have a band,” he added.
Opening up with ‘I Would Die 4 U’, Prince rolled through his extensive back catalogue and returned for two encores which would include renditions of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, ‘Purple Rain’ and more. Earlier on in the set, Prince decided to pay homage to his friend, inspiration and colleague David Bowie.
Motörhead
In 2017, two years after Lemmy Kilmister’s death, Motörhead decided to pay tribute to some of their musical heroes and influences by releasing a covers album titled Under Cover.
The LP would see previously heard covers of Sex Pistols ‘God Save The Queen’, the Ramones’ ‘Rockaway Beach’, Metallica’s ‘Whiplash’ and a quite astounding cover of David Bowie’s fantastic song, ‘Heroes’.
The recording of the cover was one of the last things Lemmy would ever go into the studio for. “It’s such a great Bowie song, one of his best, and I could only see great things coming out of it from us, and so it proved to be,” explained the band’s Phil Campbell upon its release.
“And Lemmy ended up loving our version.” Mikkey Dee added, “He was very, very proud of it, not only because it turned out so well but because it was fun! Which is what projects like this should be – fun!”
Nico
Nico may well be best placed to replicate Bowie’s iconic song ‘Heroes’. Not only was the German star able to draw directly on the landmark’s nation-splitting power but also she had grown artistically in the same fields Bowie had frequented during his early days.
The 1981 cover of the track featured on Nico’s return to the recording studio Drama of Exile and is flourished with post-punk overtones that are undersold by the synthesisers and electronic push. There’s an undeniable groove in the original and it’s one that Nico has seized upon.