How David Bowie Created the ‘Labyrinth’ Soundtrack

The androgynously stunning David Bowie always had an idea to make music for children. Yes, the same man who wrote about keeping dead hair for making up underwear aspired to write songs for an audience of kids.

It’s not as creepy as it seems. Back in 1983, while performing on his Serious Moonlight Tour, he was approached by the famous Muppet creator Jim Henson about appearing in a new movie called Labyrinth. Several superstars had already been considered for the role — Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Prince and Sting — but it was ultimately Bowie that Henson pursued.

“I’d always wanted to be involved in the music-writing aspect of a movie that would appeal to children of all ages, as well as everyone else,” Bowie said to Movieline back then (via bowiebible.com), “and I must say that Jim gave me a completely free hand with it. The script itself was terribly amusing without being vicious or spiteful or bloody, and it also had a lot more heart than many other special effects movies. So I was pretty well hooked from the beginning.”

A Collaboration With Trevor Jones

To be clear, Bowie did not pen all the music for the film in which he starred as Jareth the Goblin King while wearing what seemed to be the tightest pants in the world. Much of the score was written by the South African composer Trevor Jones, who also worked on movies such as Excalibur (1981), Mississippi Burning (1988) and The Last of the Mohicans (1992), among many others.

And Jones had a lovely time collaborating with the Thin White Duke.

“Jim [Henson] and I went over to Gstaad in Switzerland to work with him on the songs, and he was amazing to work with and loved the project,” Jones recalled in a 1999 interview. “It was like a fairyland, and I have special memories of Jim, David Bowie and myself. We used to stay in and drink mulled wine.”

David Bowie’s Songs

To begin, Jones wrote the music for the initial “Opening Titles Including Underground,” while Bowie wrote the lyrics. From there, Bowie penned “Magic Dance,” “Chilly Down,” “As the World Falls Down,” “Within You” and “Underground.” These songs, co-produced by Arif Mardin (who had worked on Bowie’s Tonight album) were recorded in April and June of 1985 in London, followed by overdub sessions in New York that fall.

In addition to some people Bowie had worked with before, there were a handful of notable names that appeared on the soundtrack: Chaka Khan, Cissy Houston, Luther Vandross and Steve Ferrone, future drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. (In 2024, Khan shared a photo on social media of herself, Houston, Vandross and Bowie recording said music in the studio.)

Listen to ‘Magic Dance’

In true Bowie fashion, he took on many roles.

“‘Dance Magic’ [the title of which was later changed to ‘Magic Dance’] gave me a bit of a problem,” he said in a TV interview around the time of the film’s release. “It’s a song for the Goblin King and the baby. In the recording studio the baby I picked – one of the backing singers, Diva [Gray], had this cute little baby, and couldn’t put two gurgles together! And it wouldn’t work for me. I mean it just wouldn’t go; I kicked it, I did everything to make it scream, and it really buttoned its lip. So I ended up doing the gurgles, I’m the baby on that track as well.”

A few music videos accompanied the soundtrack album, one for “Underground” and one for “As the World Falls Down.” They were both directed by Steve Barron, the same man who directed the videos for Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing,” Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ’69” and many others.

Watch the Music Video for ‘As the World Falls Down’

Bowie himself didn’t care much for the videos, nor did he engage in much promotion for Labyrinth.

“I’ve found that the videos I put into other people’s hands have always been a mistake,” he said to Music & Sound Output in 1987. “Because of my lack of interest, I didn’t get that involved with things like ‘Underground’ which I did for Labyrinth. I just left it up, and the result is just not my kind of video. I was a bit lax there. I didn’t feel involved.”

Still, Henson was grateful. “I think it’s the best thing he could have done for the film,” the puppeteer told the Sun Sentinel in July 1986, just a few weeks after Labyrinth made its debut in American theaters on June 23.

READ MORE: The Best Song From Each David Bowie Album

The soundtrack album itself was well-received by critics and fans — it reached No. 68 on the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S. and No. 38 in the U.K.

Jones was quite pleased in the end, recalling the Labyrinth experience in 1999 as “probably one of the most romantic projects I’ve ever worked on.”