The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

The main sessions began on 8 November 1971 and closed on 4 February 1972, after a rehearsal at Underhill Studios in Blackheath in early January. The band recorded largely live, and the Ziggy concept was developed mostly after the songs. It Ain't Easy, a Ron Davies song, dates from July 1971. RCA wanted a single, so Bowie wrote Starman to replace Round and Round. He recorded it on 4 February with Suffragette City and Rock 'n' Roll Suicide.

Starman came out as a single on 28 April 1972. The album peaked at number five in the UK in February 1973 and reached number 75 in the US that April. It has sold about 7.5 million copies. Contemporary reviews were mostly lukewarm. AllMusic's Erlewine wrote that the vision and the execution met in a grand, sweeping fashion, and Pitchfork's Douglas Wolk called it overflowing with huge riffs and huger personae. Ronson played an autoharp on Five Years and an ARP 2600 on Suffragette City. The Library of Congress added the album to its National Recording Registry on 29 March 2017.