[2] Gardiner thought of the riff in early 1977 as he was wandering throughout the countryside, "in the field beside an orchard, on one of those glorious spring days with the trees in full blossom.
The lineup consisted of Pop, Gardiner, David Bowie on piano, Carlos Alomar on guitar, and brothers Tony and Hunt Sales on bass and drums, respectively.
[3] They were inspired by a Jim Morrison poem, titled "The Lords",[4] that saw "modern life as a journey by car", as well as rides on the Berlin S-Bahn, according to Pop's former girlfriend Esther Friedmann.
[7] In an interview with The Guardian in 2016, Pop said "The Passenger" was partly inspired by touring with Bowie: "I'd been riding around North America and Europe in David's car ad infinitum.
[8] Biographer Paul Trynka states that the song was "a simple celebration of life", of the "long walks" Pop would take growing up and his own reputation at the time.
[10][11] RCA Records issued Lust for Life on September 9, 1977,[12] with "The Passenger" as the fourth track on side one of the original LP, between "Some Weird Sin" and "Tonight".
[2][15] Pop's press officer Robin Eggar attempted to pursue RCA to issue "The Passenger" as an A-side, feeling it would be a hit, but he was ignored.
[16] Following its use in a car commercial two decades later,[2] the song was released as an A-side by Virgin Records in March 1998 with "Lust for Life" and The Idiot track "Nightclubbing", with the catalog number 7243 8 94921 2 5.
More recently, Up in the Air, The Weather Man, Kurt Cobain: About a Son, Scarface: The World Is Yours, 24 Hour Party People, If I Stay, Sons of Anarchy, War Dogs, Ash vs Evil Dead, 12 Monkeys, Berlin Station, The Boys, Dexter: New Blood, Lucifer, Sugar, The Lincoln Lawyer, and The Umbrella Academy in addition to advertisements for Dublin Bus, Captain Morgan, Kohl's "Simply Vera" collection, Guinness, the fifth season of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, and the film Waking Life.
[40] Consequence of Sound described Pop and Sioux's duet as an "ethereal setting, with a slower tempo and a silky soundscape of harps and strings".
[41] Rolling Stone reviewed the 2024 version as a "moody, downtempo ballad that erupts with cinematic and orchestral splendor as Siouxsie and Iggy deliver fittingly dramatic vocal performances.