"Kooks" is a song written by David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 from 1971 on the album Hunky Dory

Hunky Dory

Hunky Dory is the fourth album by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, released by RCA Records in 1971. It was Bowie's first release through RCA, which would be his label for the next decade...

. Bowie wrote this song to his newborn son Duncan Jones

Duncan Jones

Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones , also known as Zowie Bowie is an English film director, best known for directing the science fiction films Moon and Source Code .-Childhood and family life:...

. The song was a pastiche of early 1970s Neil Young. Bowie was listening to a Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

 record at home as he got the news of the arrival of his son. British indie band The Kooks

The Kooks

The Kooks are an English indie rock band formed in Brighton, East Sussex, in 2001. Formed by Luke Pritchard , Hugh Harris , Paul Garred , and Max Rafferty , the lineup of the band remained constant until 2008 and the departure of Rafferty...

 named themselves after the song. Duncan Jones became a successful film and advertising director.

Live versions

• It was recorded for the BBC
  BBC
  The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
  
   In Concert radio show with John Peel
  John Peel
  John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
  
   3 June 1971 and broadcast 20 June 1971. In 2000 this was released on the Bowie at the Beeb
  Bowie at the Beeb
  Bowie at the Beeb is a compilation album by David Bowie, first released in 2000. Originally, it came in a three CD set, the third, bonus CD being a recording on at the Portland BBC Radio Theatre...
  
  album.

Cover versions

• Robbie Williams
  Robbie Williams
  Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...
  
   - Bonus track on "Old Before I Die
  Old Before I Die
  "Old Before I Die" is a 1997 song by Robbie Williams, and the first single to be taken from his debut album, Life Thru A Lens. It became a number two hit in the United Kingdom when it was released in April that year. The video has Williams performing for the camera with ageing rock stars as his...
  
  " single
• Smashing Pumpkins - Parsian Black Session
• Danny Wilson
  Danny Wilson (band)
  Danny Wilson were a New Wave group formed in Dundee, Scotland.-History:Having been initially formed in the early 80's performing under the names Perfect Strangers and then Dream Kitchen, brothers Gary Clark and Kit Clark formed a band with friend Ged Grimes in 1984, initially under the name...
  
   - Single/David
• Tindersticks
  Tindersticks
  Tindersticks are an Indie rock band from Nottingham, England formed in 1991. They released six albums before singer Stuart A. Staples took on a solo career. The band reunited briefly in 2006, but more permanently the following year...
  
   - Bowie Songbook
• Andrea Perry - Spiders from Venus: Indie Women Artists and Female-Fronted Bands Cover David Bowie (2003)
• The Abbreviations BP - Hero: The Main Man Records Tribute to David Bowie (2007)
• Kim Wilde
  Kim Wilde
  Kim Wilde is an English pop singer, author and television presenter who burst onto the music scene in 1981 with the number 2 UK Singles Chart new wave classic "Kids in America". In 1987 she had a major hit in the United States when her version of The Supremes' classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On"...
  
   - Snapshots (Kim Wilde album)
  Snapshots (Kim Wilde album)
  Snapshots is the twelfth studio album and the first covers album by British singer Kim Wilde. It was released in Germany on 26 August 2011 by Columbia SevenOne and was released in other regions as an import on 13 September 2011...
  
  , 2011