Space Oddity

About this song

David Bowie created the fictional character Major Tom for this song in 1969, the same year as the first moon landing. The song came a year after Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Kubrick co-wrote with Arthur C. Clarke. Gus Dudgeon produced it after Bowie's usual collaborator Tony Visconti declined to work on it, seeing it as a novelty song.

What it's about

The song is a lost-in-space story following Major Tom from lift-off to floating and then stillness as his circuits fail. Many listeners hear it as a description of a heroin trip.

Fun facts

• Samples “Ground Control (Freestyle) by REVEL STAR CLUB (Ft. Nouddler & VERDERAME)”.
• Sampled in 13 other songs, like “Floating by SET 69”.
• Covered 53 times, including “Space Oddity by Brandi Carlile”.
• Written by David Bowie.
• Produced by Gus Dudgeon.