March 7th, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of David Bowie's ninth studio album, Young Americans. The album saw Bowie broaden his musical horizons once more, embracing what he called 'Plastic Soul' and would give Bowie his first number one single in the U.S., "Fame," co-written with John Lennon and Bowie's then-guitarist Carlos Alomar. The album was partly influenced by the 'Philly Sound' and recorded in Philadelphia at Sigma Sound studios during a break in the Diamond Dogs tour with a band that featured amongst others Bowie stalwart Mike Garson on keys, along with the late Luther Vandross on vocals and David Sanborn on saxophone. During the Tony Visconti-produced sessions at Sigma Sound, Bowie immersed himself in soul music and created a new persona called The Gouster, a slang term for a hip street character. An early version of the album using this title was issued on the box set Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976). When the tour recommenced, Bowie radically reworked the setlist to incorporate the new material and stripped the elaborate production of the tour back to reflect a radically new musical direction. At the end of the tour in December '74, sessions continued at The Record Plant and, while recording in New York, Bowie connected with John Lennon, where they recorded a cover of The Beatles' "Across the Universe" and a new collaborative composition, "Fame," at Electric Lady Studios. The New York sessions were co-produced by David and Record Plant engineer Harry Maslin. Bowie opted not to tour following Young Americans' release, and within nine months, had moved on again, releasing his next album, Station to Station, and reinventing himself once again in the persona of The Thin White Duke. This new pressing of Young Americans was cut on a customized late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original Record Plant master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios.
