A-side Space Invaders Format 7-inch single Length 3:08 | Released 1979 Genre Space disco | |
B-side A Menacing Glow in the Sky | ||
"Space Invaders" is a song by Australian songwriters Russell Dunlop and Bruce Brown, recording under the band name Player One (commonly stylised as Player [1]) in 1979. The song is based on the hugely successful 1978 video game Space Invaders. It was a novelty hit in Australia, peaking at No. 3 on the Kent Music Report charts, and ending up as the fourth best selling single in Australia for 1980.
The song was released internationally but failed to chart outside Australia. It was, however, influential in the history of dance music, being sampled by Jesse Saunders for the bassline of what is commonly held to be the first Chicago house music record, "On and On" (1984).
Dunlop and Brown also released an album as Player One, Game Over. Dunlop recalled: "We sat down and wrote a bunch of space songs, but instead of sticking to the concept of the hit, we wandered off into the 'clever' musical genre with fancy time signatures, radical chord progressions and so on. The reply came back for the States that this was intended for 13- to 14-year-olds: 'You've lost us.'"
The single and album were released in the US under the band name Playback, which Brown and Dunlop had used for other projects, to avoid confusion with the US band Player. The US version of the album was titled Space Invaders.