Space Oddity

Bowie made demos between January and April 1969 with John Hutchinson. The first studio version, recorded on 2 February 1969 at Morgan Studios, was for the film Love You till Tuesday. The single was cut on 20 June 1969 at Trident with the producer Gus Dudgeon and the engineer Barry Sheffield. Bowie played a 12-string guitar and a Stylophone, Rick Wakeman played Mellotron, and Paul Buckmaster arranged the orchestra. Herbie Flowers played bass and Terry Cox drums.

Major Tom is an astronaut who is lost in space. Bowie said in 1969 that he wanted him to be human rather than an automaton, and called the song an antidote to space fever. The film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Earthrise photograph and his breakup with Hermione Farthingale all fed into it. It was rushed out around Apollo 11, and the BBC used it in its coverage. It reached number five in the UK in 1969 and number 124 in the US. A 1972 reissue reached number 15 in the US, and a 1975 reissue gave him his first UK number one.

Bowie wrote a sequel, Ashes to Ashes, in 1980.

Covers and afterlife

Pentangle, the Langley Schools Music Project and David Matthews recorded it in the 1970s. Chris Hadfield sang a version aboard the International Space Station in 2013, with changed lyrics so Major Tom lands safely. MF Doom sampled a cover for Rapp Snitch Knishes in 2004. setlist.fm lists 367 performances.