Space Oddity

"Space Oddity" is a song written and performed by David Bowie and released as a 7-inch single on 11 July 1969. It was also the opening track of the album David Bowie.

The song is about the launch of Major Tom, a fictional astronaut, and was released during a period of great interest in space flight. The United States' Apollo 11 mission would launch five days later, and would become the first manned moon landing another five days later. The lyrics have also been seen to lampoon the British space programme, which had only launched rockets at that time and has never attempted a moon landing.

Besides its title, which alludes to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the introduction to the song is a barely audible instrumental build-up that is analogous to the deep bass tone in Also sprach Zarathustra that is prominently used in the film.

"Space Oddity" was David Bowie's first UK Top 5 hit, and was awarded the 1969 Ivor Novello Award, together with Peter Sarstedt's "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?". It became one of Bowie's signature songs, and his second album, originally released as David Bowie in the UK, was renamed after the track for its 1972 re-release by RCA Records, and became known by this name. In 1975, upon re-release as part of a maxi-single, the song was Bowie's first UK No. 1 single.

Space Oddity (disambiguation)

Space Oddity may refer to:

David Bowie (1969 album)

David Bowie is the second studio album by English musician David Bowie, released under that title by Philips in the UK, and as Man of Words/Man of Music by Mercury in the US, in November 1969. It was rereleased in 1972 by RCA as Space Oddity (the title of the opening track, which had been released as a single in July 1969 and reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart). Space Oddity was the name used for CD releases of the album in 1984, 1990 and 1999, but it reverted to the original, eponymous title for 2009 and 2015 reissues.

Regarding its mix of folk, balladry and prog rock, NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray have said, "Some of it belonged in '67 and some of it in '72, but in 1969 it all seemed vastly incongruous. Basically, David Bowie can be viewed in retrospect as all that Bowie had been and a little of what he would become, all jumbled up and fighting for control..."

The album came about after Bowie had made the transition from a cabaret/avant-garde-inspired musician to a hippie/folk-based sound and as such the album is a major turning point from his 1967 debut.