Changes

Bowie wrote it at Haddon Hall after returning from a promotional tour of America in early 1971, and demoed it in June. The final version was recorded at Trident Studios on 30 July 1971, produced by Bowie and Ken Scott, with Rick Wakeman on piano and Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey as the band. Bowie played the saxophone solo, his first featured on record. He said it began as a parody of a nightclub song.

RCA released it as a single on 7 January 1972 with Andy Warhol on the B-side. It failed to chart in the UK and reached number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1975 it was the B-side of the reissued Space Oddity, which gave him his first UK number one. After his death in 2016 it reached number 49 in the UK and number 10 on the US Rock Songs chart, and the BPI certified it platinum in February 2025.

Live and covers

He played it for the BBC Johnnie Walker Lunchtime Show on 22 May 1972. Bowie said it turned into a monster that nobody would stop asking for at concerts. On 9 November 2006 he sang it with Alicia Keys at the Black Ball in New York, his last live performance before his death. Butterfly Boucher covered it for Shrek 2 in 2004, with new vocals from Bowie. The song entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016, and it is one of four Bowie songs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.