"Space Oddity" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was released on 11 July 1969 by Philips and Mercury Records as a 7-inch single, then was included as the opening track of his second album, David Bowie, released in November. Produced by Gus Dudgeon, and recorded at Trident Studios in London, it is a tale about a fictional astronaut named Major Tom; its title and subject matter were partly inspired by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Bowie's feelings of alienation at that point in his career. Its sound departed from the music hall of his debut album to psychedelic folk inspired by the Bee Gees; it was one of the most musically complex compositions he had written up to that point.
The song was rush-released as a single to capitalise on the Apollo 11 Moon landing. It received critical praise and was used by the BBC as background music during its coverage of the event. It initially sold poorly but soon reached number five in the UK, becoming Bowie's first and only chart hit for another three years. Reissues by RCA Records became Bowie's first US hit in 1972, and his first UK number-one in 1975. He re-recorded an acoustic version in 1979. Several promotional videos were produced for the song, including a 1972 one filmed by Mick Rock. It was a mainstay during Bowie's concerts until 1990, after which it was played sporadically until 2002. Bowie revisited the Major Tom character in later singles, notably the sequel song "Ashes to Ashes" (1980).
A range of artists have covered "Space Oddity" and others have released songs that reference Major Tom. A 2013 cover by the astronaut Chris Hadfield gained widespread attention; its music video was the first filmed in space. The song has appeared in numerous films and television series, including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013). In 2019, Tony Visconti remixed Bowie's original recording to mark its 50th anniversary, with a new music video directed by Tim Pope. In later decades, "Space Oddity" is considered one of Bowie's finest recordings and remains one of his most popular songs. It has appeared in numerous "best-of" lists, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Background and writing Following a string of unsuccessful singles, David Bowie released his music hall-influenced self-titled debut studio album through Deram Records in 1967. The album was a commercial failure and did little to gain Bowie notice, leading to his departure from Deram in May 1968 and becoming his last release for two years. After its commercial failure, Bowie's new manager Kenneth Pitt authorised the production of a promotional film in an attempt to introduce Bowie to a larger audience. The film, Love You till Tuesday, went unreleased until 1984; it marked the end of Pitt's mentorship of Bowie.
By the end of 1968, Bowie had begun to feel alienation from his career. Knowing Love You till Tuesday did not have a guaranteed audience and would not feature any new material, Pitt asked Bowie to write something new to "demonstrate David's remarkable inventiveness". Bowie wrote "Space Oddity", a tale about a fictional astronaut named Major Tom. Its title and subject matter were influenced by Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which premiered in May 1968. Bowie said, "I went stoned out of my mind to see the movie and it really freaked me out, especially the trip passage". Other events in Bowie's life influenced the writing of "Space Oddity", including seeing the Apollo 8 Earthrise photograph in January 1969 and his break-up with the dancer Hermione Farthingale the following month. He later said, "It was Hermione who got me writing for and on a specific person". The biographer Marc Spitz stated Bowie's feelings of loneliness and heartache following the break-up inspired "Space Oddity".
One of the first people to hear "Space Oddity" was Calvin Mark Lee, the head of A&R at Mercury Records in London. Lee considered the song "otherworldly" and knew it was Bowie's ticket to be signed by the label. The head of Mercury, Lou Reizner, was unimpressed with Bowie's output and was unwilling to sign him. Eager to sign Bowie, Lee, without Reizner's knowledge, financed a demo session for "Space Oddity". Lee later told Spitz: "We had to do it all behind Lou's back. But it was such a good record."
Composition Lyrics "Space Oddity" tells the story of an astronaut named Major Tom, the first of Bowie's famous characters. Major Tom is informed by Ground Control that a malfunction has occurred in his spacecraft; but the astronaut does not get the message. He remains in space "sitting in a tin can, far above the world", preparing for his lonely death. In 1969, Bowie compared Major Tom's fate to the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey, saying: "At the end of the song Major Tom is completely emotionless and expresses no view at all about where he's at. He's fragmenting ... at the end of the song his mind is completely blown – he's everything then." The authors David Buckley and Peter Doggett comment on the unusual vocabulary in the lyrics, such as "Ground Control" rather than "Mission Control", "space ship" rather than "rocket", "engines on" rather than "ignition", and the "unmilitary combination" of rank and first name for the character.
Bowie's biographers have provided different interpretations of the lyrics. According to Doggett, the lyrics authentically reflect Bowie's mind and thoughts at the time. He writes that Bowie shone a light on the way advertisers and the media seek to own a stake in a lonely man in space while he himself is exiled from Earth. Chris O'Leary said the song is a "moonshot-year prophecy" that humans are not fit for space evolution and the sky is the limit. Similarly, James E. Perone views Major Tom acting as a "literal character" and a "metaphor" for individuals who are unaware of, or do not make an effort to learn, what the world is. In 2004, the American feminist critic Camille Paglia identified the lyrics as representing the counterculture of the 1960s, stating, "As his psychedelic astronaut, Major Tom, floats helplessly into outer space, we sense that the '60s counterculture has transmuted into a hopelessness about political reform ('Planet Earth is blue / And there's nothing I can do')".
Music "Space Oddity" is a psychedelic folk and folk rock ballad, described by Jamie Ludwig of VICE as bridging "folk and prog into a new kind of space rock exploration." It represented Bowie's new interest in acoustic music since joining the experimental trio Feathers. Nicholas Pegg and Doggett compare the song's style, structure, lyrics and arrangement to those of the Bee Gees' 1967 single "New York Mining Disaster 1941", which has similar minor chords and chorus. Hutchinson later stated: "'Space Oddity' was a Bee Gees type song. David knew it, and he said so at the time ... the way he sang it, it's a Bee Gees thing."
"Space Oddity" is one of the most complex songs Bowie had written up to that point. He storyboarded each section, all leading into the next until completion. According to O'Leary, in a little over five minutes, the song includes "a faded-in intro, a 12-bar solo verse, a 'liftoff' sequence, a duet verse, a bridge, a two-bar acoustic guitar break, a six-bar guitar solo, a third verse, another bridge, break and solo, and a 'Day in the Life'-style outro to the fade". Bowie stated in 2002 he was "keen on ... writing in such a way that it would lead me into leading some kind of rock musical".
Although primarily in the key of C major, the song has a variety of chord changes and resonances that aid in telling the story. The intro has a pairing of F major7/E and E minor, while the first verse alternates between C major and E minor. The guitar harmonises E and B while on Stylophone, Bowie "drones" C and B. A D major chord plays on the line "God's love be with you" during the pre-liftoff countdown sequence. In the second verse, an E7 chord on the line "really made the grade" counteracts the overall key of C major. O'Leary said this change "brightens" the song. The bridge's "planet Earth is blue" has a standard folk-style descending progression; (B major 9th/A minor add9/G major add9/F). According to O'Leary, the B major9 chord "ratifies Major Tom's choice (or doom) to stay out in space". The acoustic-guitar break has a C–F–G–A–A note sequence with the two A notes emphasised.
Recording Initial demos and first studio version One of the first demos of "Space Oddity", recorded in January 1969, differs greatly from the album version, including unused vocal harmonies and different lyrics. Rather than the softly spoken "lift-off", an American-accented "blast-off!" is present. "I'm floating in a most peculiar way" is replaced with "Can I please get back inside now, if I may?" The demo also includes the later-revised lines:
The demo's instrumentation uses only acoustic guitar and Stylophone, which were played by John Christopher 'Hutch' Hutchinson and Bowie, respectively. Bowie had used the Stylophone, a recently released electronic instrument that was mainly marketed to children, to compose the song's melody. Both Bowie and Hutchinson sang vocals.
Bowie and Hutchinson recorded further acoustic demos of "Space Oddity", including a performance of the song on a promotional demo tape recorded for Mercury executives in March or April 1969.
The first full studio version of "Space Oddity", which was for Love You till Tuesday, was recorded on 2 February 1969 at Morgan Studios, London. At this point, the lyrics were finalised. The session was produced by Jonathan Weston; Bowie and Hutchinson were joined by Colin Wood on Hammond organ, Mellotron and flute; Dave Clague on bass and Tat Meager on drums. As in the early demos, Bowie and Hutchinson shared lead vocals, with Bowie voicing Major Tom's dialogue and Hutchinson singing Ground Control's lines. Bowie also played an ocarina solo. Pegg calls this version significantly inferior to the David Bowie recording.
Album version
In June 1969, Pitt negotiated a one-album deal, with options for a further one or two albums, with Mercury Records and its UK subsidiary Philips. Mercury executives had heard one of the "Space Oddity" demos earlier in 1969. After Beatles' producer George Martin turned down the project, Pitt hired Tony Visconti, who produced Bowie's later Deram sessions. "Space Oddity" had been selected as the lead single in advance. Visconti, however, saw it as a "novelty record" and "a gimmick to cash in on the moonshot". He declined to produce the song, passing production responsibility to Bowie's former engineer Gus Dudgeon; Visconti produced the rest of the album. On hearing Bowie's demo, Dudgeon said it was "unbelievable"; he and Bowie planned "every detail" of the recording.
Work on the album version of "Space Oddity" and its B-side, "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud", began at Trident Studios in London on 20 June 1969. Mercury insisted the single was released the following month, ahead of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The guitarist Mick Wayne of the British band Junior's Eyes and the keyboardist Rick Wakeman were brought on at Visconti's suggestion, while the composer Paul Buckmaster was hired to arrange the orchestra, which consisted of eight violins, two violas, two cellos, two arco basses, two flutes and an organ. Buckmaster advised Bowie to focus on creating the overall sound rather than the narrative. Dudgeon hired the bassist Herbie Flowers and the drummer Terry Cox of the folk band Pentangle, while Bowie played acoustic guitar and Stylophone. Bowie later said he added the Stylophone at Marc Bolan's suggestion; "[Bolan] said, you like this kind of stuff, do something with it. And I put it on 'Space Oddity', so it served me well." Bowie fell ill with conjunctivitis and overdubs were completed a few days later.