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'Life On Mars'

David Bowie



With one of the strangest lyrics ever to have troubled the charts and a towering chorus, “Life On Mars?” sounds like a cross between a Broadway musical and a Salvador Dali painting. The song was originally released on Bowie’s 1971 album Hunky Dory, but Song facts Composer David Bowie Genre Pop Album Hunky Dory Year of release 1971 UK Chart Position 3 that LP failed to sell as well as Bowie had hoped and “Life On Mars?” had to wait until 1973 for a single release, by which time Ziggy Stardust had made him a star.

The song strongly resembles Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” – it has identical chords – and with good reason. Back in 1968 Bowie had written English lyrics for a French song called “Comme, D’Habitude”, calling his version “Even A Fool Learns To Love”. It was never released, but soon afterwards Canadian songwriter Paul Anka heard the original version, bought the rights and rewrote it as “My Way”. Bowie recorded “Life On Mars?” as a Sinatra parody in anger at having missed out on a fortune, although the Hunky Dory liner notes state that the song was merely “inspired by Frankie”.

Otherwise it couldn’t be much more different from “My Way”. A slew of surreal images – “Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow” etc – are combined with Bowie’s operatic delivery, string arrangements by Mick Ronson and piano thrills from Rick Wakeman to ensure this is one of the oddest hit singles ever.



David Bowie on the story behind Life On Mars



David Bowie reveals how the bitter shadow of My Way casts itself over Life On Mars - "there are clutches of melody that was definite parodies of My Way".



Audio help

Other versions



The Flaming Lips recorded their stripped-down version for a John Peel session which was broadcast on 21 November 1992, and was commercially released as an extra track on their This Here Giraffe single in 1995.





Songwriting tips



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