Why it took David Bowie song ‘Space Oddity’ half a decade to hit number one
‘Space Oddity’ remains perhaps the most iconic song David Bowie ever wrote. When the icon died in the early days of 2016, it wasn’t ‘Modern Love’ or ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ or even ‘Heroes’ that became the focal point of his legacy – it was ‘Space Oddity’ and Bowie’s uncanny ability to bring the sci-fi wonders of outer space to the pop charts.
For a brief period, ‘Space Oddity’ was the only claim to fame that Bowie had. “It was a very good song that possibly I wrote a bit too early,” Bowie acknowledged in 1983, “Because I hadn’t [had] anything else substantial [to follow it] at the time.” Rush-released in the wake of the Apollo 11 moon landing, ‘Space Oddity’ nearly doomed Bowie to the realms of one-hit-wonderdom before he re-emerged a few years later with Ziggy Stardust.
“It was picked up by British television and used as the background music for the landing itself in Britain,” Bowie later observed. “Though I’m sure they really weren’t listening to the lyric at all; it wasn’t a pleasant thing to juxtapose against a moon landing. Of course, I was overjoyed that they did. Obviously, some BBC official said: ‘Right, then. That space song, Major Tom…’ blah blah blah, ‘That’ll be great.’ Nobody had the heart to tell the producer: ‘Um… but he gets stranded in space, sir.'”
Initially, ‘Space Oddity’ was a slow seller in the UK and made virtually no impact in the US. Initially debuting at number 48 on the UK Singles Chart, some strong promotional pushes from Bowie eventually got the song all the way up to number five. After that, Bowie was in the popular music wilderness, even as he released some of his most alluring albums, including The Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory.
With the rebirth of Bowie’s career thanks to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, RCA Records decided to reissue Bowie’s self-titled 1969 album under the title Space Oddity. The title track was also reissued as a single, backed with ‘The Man Who Sold the World’, and reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972, Bowie’s first top 20 hit in America.
RCA once again reissued the song as a single in 1975, this time backed with ‘Changes’ and ‘Velvet Goldmine’. Bowie had already moved past both the Major Tom and Ziggy Stardust personas by this time, having adopted a “plastic soul” sound on that year’s Young Americans. Bowie was entering his Thin White Duke phase and began recording Station to Station when ‘Space Oddity’ was re-released for the third time. Despite no longer lining up with his previous image, Bowie scored a surprise hit with the new release of ‘Space Oddity’, giving Bowie his first number one single in his home country.
‘Space Oddity’ would prove to be perhaps Bowie’s most enduring work. 1983 saw yet another re-release, while Bowie himself re-recorded the track in a more stripped-down fashion in 1979, later appearing as the B-side to Bowie’s cover of ‘Alabama Song’ in 1980. Peter Schilling nabbed a top 20 hit in the US by referencing Major Tom in his song ‘Major Tom (Coming Home)’, while Bowie himself would later make reference to his famous spaceman in the songs’ Ashes to Ashes’, ‘Hallo Spaceboy’, and ‘Blackstar’.
When Bowie passed away, ‘Space Oddity’ shot back into the UK Singles Chart, serving as Bowie’s final farewell to pop music. No other character in Bowie’s discography continued to have the resonance that Major Tom did, and it served as a fitting departure for Bowie’s first and final hit single.
