"The Passenger" is a song by the proto-punk artist Iggy Pop. This song was first released on the Lust for Life album in 1977; it was also released as the B-side of the album's only single, "Success". In the summer of 2007 alternative rock radio stations around the USA resumed playing the song in concordance with Iggy Pop and The Stooges tour in that country.
The lyrics, written by Iggy Pop allegedly aboard Berlin's S-Bahn, have been interpreted as embodying the nomadic spirit of the punk outcast. The music was written by guitarist Ricky Gardiner. Whilst possessed of a distinctive riff, "The Passenger" is perhaps most recognizable by its chorus of repeated "la-la" scatting on which David Bowie originally sang backup.
In 1998 the song was released as a single in the UK after being used in a TV commercial for Toyota's new Avensis. The single peaked at number twenty-two.
Guinness used the song for a television advertisement featuring an airplane flying through a pint-glass-shaped valley with clouds representing the beer's foamy head.
"Passenger" is a song from Powderfinger's third studio album Internationalist. It was released as a single on August 9, 1999, and reached #30 on the Australian music chart. The single was nominated for Single of the year in 2000 at the Australian ARIA Music Awards. "Passenger" was also featured as the opening song performed by Powderfinger while supporting Crowded House's Farewell to the World charity concert in November 1996. The recording of that performance was available in early pressings of Internationalist on a bonus disc entitled P2K.
