A long forgotten track featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Madonna has just been unearthed. The song is a remix of Was (Not Was)’s “Shake Your Head,” which was originally released with actress Kim Basinger’s vocals in place of Madonna’s.
Both Ozzy and Madonna – then an up-and-coming artist – had recorded vocals for the 1983 track off of Was (Not Was)’s album “Born to Laugh at Tornadoes.” However, Madonna (or her team) ultimately refused to allow her vocals to be used on the final release.
This alternate version of “Shake Your Head” was brought to light by Ozzy’s eldest son Louis Osbourne during a new interview on half-brother Jack Osbourne’s podcast “Trying Not to Die.”
“Was (Not Was) did a duet with Madonna. It was written for Madonna and Was (Not Was), and it was when dad was pumping in the early ’80s and so was she and she really f*cking popped and then didn’t give approval on the record,” Louis revealed.
“So that was canned,” he explained. “And then when Kim Basinger was having that big acting moment in the middle of her career in the ’80s, they decided they were going to try and make her a pop star, as well. So they tracked Kim Basinger on it instead.”
Jack then chimed in, saying: “No one really knows it because commercially it was promoted as Was (Not Was) and Kim Basinger. They didn’t really push that it was my dad as well.
“They didn’t credit dad for being the other vocalist on there. I don’t know why. It might have been the record label just being like ‘Oh, let’s market it as Was (Not Was) with Kim Basinger.”
The version of “Shake Your Head” featuring both Madonna and Ozzy did eventually surface nearly a decade after it was initially recorded when it ended up on a vinyl version of the “Now Dance 92” compilation.
While the remixer, Steve “Silk” Hurley, thought he was accidentally given Madonna’s vocals for the compilation, Was (Not Was) member Don Was recently revealed that they sent the Madonna version to him on purpose.
“[Madonna] did a great job… but it didn’t sound like Was (Not Was) to me anymore,” Was recently told Rolling Stone. “We realized about eight years later that we had Ozzy and Madonna on parallel tracks, so we gave it to a remixer… and he turned it into a Ozzy/Madonna duet.”
The Ozzy and Madonna version of “Shake Your Head” was quietly uploaded to YouTube several years ago, but only gained recognition after Was and Louis’ comments.
