Reissues, remixes, remasters
Never Let Me Down was reissued in 1995 by Virgin Records. It omitted the track ‘Too Dizzy’ at Bowie’s request, which has been respected for every subsequent official release.
The Virgin version did, however, contain three bonus tracks. ‘Julie’ was originally the b-side of the ‘Day-In Day Out’ single; ‘Girls’ (Extended Edit) was the b-side of ‘Time Will Crawl’; and ‘When The Wind Blows’ had been a standalone single in October 1986.
The album was reissued by EMI in 1999. It had 24-bit digitally remastered sound but was without the bonus tracks.
A 2007 re-release in Japan was based on the EMI version. It included ‘Too Dizzy’ in the track listing, although it did not actually feature on the compact disc.
In the same year, the shorter vinyl version of the album was first released as a digital download on iTunes in 2007, without ‘Too Dizzy’.
Never Let Me Down was released on the SHM-CD format in 2009, with the now-standard ten songs.
In 2018 it was included in Loving The Alien (1983-1988), as was the reworked Never Let Me Down (2018).
The box set also included the Re:Call 4 compilation, which contained the single version of ‘Day-In Day-Out’, and the original vinyl album edits of ‘Beat Of Your Drum’, ‘Glass Spider’, ‘Shining Star (Makin’ My Love)’, ‘New York’s In Love’, ‘’87 And Cry’, and ‘Bang Bang’. It also had the album outtakes ‘Julie’ and ‘Girls’ (Extended Edit), and a live ‘promotional mix’ of ‘Bang Bang’.
Notable in its absence from the box set was ‘Too Dizzy’. This was explained in the accompanying book:
The original album featured the song ‘Too Dizzy’, however David subsequently decided that the track should not appear on any future releases of the album and therefore, in continuing to adhere to his wishes, it does not feature in this set.
The set additionally included Dance, a collection of 1980s remixes including ‘Day-In Day Out’ (Groucho Mix), ‘Time Will Crawl’ (Dance Crew Mix), ‘Shining Star (Makin’ My Love)’ (12″ Mix), and ‘Never Let Me Down’ (Dub/Acapella).
