Songfacts®:

• David Bowie (from the Mail on Sunday June 29, 2008): "Mike Garson's piano opens with the most ridiculous and spot-on re-creation of a 19th Century music hall 'exotic' number. I can see now the 'poses plastiques' as if through a smoke-filled bar. Fans, castanets and lots of Spanish black lace and little else. Sexy, mmm? And for you, Madam?"
• In the same Mail on Sunday interview, Bowie mentions that this "was written for a wonderful young girl whom I've not seen for more than 30 years. When I hear this song she's still in her 20s, of course." The "wonderful young girl" he refers to is most likely the American black soul singer Claudia Lennear for whom Mick Jagger also wrote "Brown Sugar." A number of authorities have cited her as the inspiration for this song.
• Cherie Currie, as played by Dakota Fanning, mimes to this song during a school talent show in The Runaways, a 2010 film about the '70s Rock band of the same name. Currie was The Runaways' lead vocalist.