Format 7" single Length 4:16 | ||
Released 28 April 1972 (1972-04-28) Recorded Trident Studios, London4 February 1972 | ||
"Starman" is a song by David Bowie, recorded on 4 February 1972 and released as a single that April. The song was a late addition to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, included at the insistence of RCA’s Dennis Katz, who heard a demo and loved the track, believing it would make a great single. It replaced the Chuck Berry cover "Round and Round" on the album.
Contents
Music and lyrics
The lyrics describe Ziggy Stardust bringing a message of hope to Earth's youth through the radio, salvation by an alien 'Starman'. The story is told from the point of view of one of the youths who hears Ziggy. According to Bowie himself, speaking to William S. Burroughs for Rolling Stone magazine in 1973, Ziggy Stardust is not the Starman but merely his earthly messenger – contrary to received opinion which often paints Ziggy as an extraterrestrial. The song has inspired interpretations ranging from an allusion to the Second Coming of Christ, to an accurate prediction of the plot for the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
The music is in a gentle pop rock vein, featuring prominent acoustic guitar and a string arrangement by Mick Ronson, not dissimilar to the style of Bowie's previous album Hunky Dory (1971). The chorus is loosely based on Harold Arlen's "Over the Rainbow" from the film The Wizard of Oz, alluding to the "Starman"'s extraterrestrial origins (over the rainbow) (the octave leap on the word "Starman" is identical to that on the word "Somewhere" in "Over the Rainbow"). Other influences cited for the track are the T. Rex songs "Telegram Sam" and "Hot Love" (the "boogie" references and "la la la" chorus) and Holland–Dozier–Holland's "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (the morse code-esque guitar and piano breaks).
Release and aftermath
From a commercial point of view, "Starman" was a milestone in Bowie’s career, his first hit since 1969's "Space Oddity" three years before. NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray reported that "many thought it was his first record since 'Space Oddity'", and assumed that it was a sequel to the earlier single.
The single initially sold steadily rather than spectacularly but earned many positive reviews, John Peel for example calling it "a classic, a gem". Its turning point came when Bowie scored a place on Top of the Pops in July 1972. (Although this performance, recorded on 5 July 1972 and broadcast on 6 July, is often cited as being the first UK TV performance of the song, it had in fact been performed on ITV's Lift Off With Ayshea three weeks earlier.) Bowie's performance with the Spiders became famous; according to author David Buckley, "Many fans date their conversion to all things Bowie to this Top of the Pops appearance". It embedded Ziggy Stardust in the nation’s consciousness, helping push "Starman" to No. 10 and the album, released the previous month, to No. 5. The single remained in the UK charts for 11 weeks. The Top of the Pops performance is included on the DVD version of Best of Bowie.
In the United States, the song was Bowie's first single to reach the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number 65 in August 1972.
In addition to the TV performances, Bowie played the song for radio listeners on the BBC's Johnny Walker Lunchtime Show on 22 May 1972. This performance was broadcast in early June 1972 and eventually released on Bowie at the Beeb in 2000.
In February 1999, Q magazine listed the single as one of the 100 greatest singles of all time, as voted by readers.
A limited edition 7" picture disc of the single was released on 21 April 2012, coinciding with 2012's Record Store Day.
The "Starman" single originally featured a "loud mix" of the "morse code" section between the verse and the chorus. This single mix appeared on the original UK album, but not on other vinyl editions of the album internationally (which had a more subdued mix of this section), and it did not appear on CD until the song was included on the compilation album Nothing Has Changed in 2014.
Track listing
- "Starman" (Bowie) – 4:16
- "Suffragette City" (Bowie) – 3:25