This David Bowie Song Was Nearly Abandoned in the Studio and Became One of His Most Covered Tracks

Not every artist knows what their major hit is going to be, even the most seasoned at their practice. But they especially didn’t expect it to be the track they almost threw away. Yet somehow, that was the case with English legend David Bowie’s "Space Oddity.” While he’s certainly found himself widely known by defining tracks like “Under Pressure” and “Heroes,” "Space Oddity” has long held its own kind of magic.

Cloaked as a song about an astronaut, the track allegedly describes a drug trip between the lines, from “lift-off” to “floating” to being “still” with “circuit's dead” ending in “nothing I can do.” Released as a single in July 1969, it served as Bowie's first commercial hit, reaching the UK top five. So why is it that the song almost never came to be?

The Lore Behind David Bowie's 'Space Oddity'

Just as Bowie was always known as a larger-than-life figure, “Space Oddity” mirrored that magnitude. Following a string of unsuccessful releases, "Space Oddity" shook the terrain and established itself as one of Bowie's most important and popular recordings of his entire catalog. It’s been covered by countless artists and has appeared in numerous "best-of" lists, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Bowie, however, was pretty close to not even recording the song altogether. This was because his regular, longtime, and favorite producer Tony Visconti thought it was a cheap, novelty song capitalizing on the Apollo 11 space race. Not feeling like it would properly serve as a lead single for Bowie’s self-titled ‘69 album, he refused to produce it. “I thought it was a bad choice for a first single because I saw it as a novelty record,” Visconti shared with Yahoo Entertainment in 2016. “There was a man who had just been in orbit a few weeks earlier. And it sounded to me a little like the Beatles.” Visconti ultimately didn't want to be involved in something he felt was exploiting a major event, as the public was still overtly fascinated by the Apollo 11 moon landing. This rejection forced Bowie to hand the song over to another producer, Gus Dudgeon, to get it done and eventually secure the album deal with Mercury Records. Dudgeon had no problem seeing the potential of the song and helped craft its hit version.

Beyond Visconti’s critiques, Bowie himself later grew to dislike the song, calling it a "farce song" and even threatening to destroy the master tape. He openly described it as a disposable pop track that overshadowed his more authentic work, though his audience had a very opposite reaction to the track. Before the song, Bowie had struggled to find commercial footing. Yet, “Space Oddity” reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, becoming his first Top 5 hit and skyrocketing his career into the next up-leveling. It also served as Bowie's first hit in the United States in 1972, before going number-one in the UK in 1975. This major boost may have had something to do with BBC using the song to soundtrack its television coverage of the moon landing, though the song had much less to do with space travel than one may realize.

There are countless interpretations of what the storytelling is ultimately trying to convey. Major Tom, the fictional character the song births, quickly became a symbol of alienation, a metaphor for fame and disconnection, and insight into how Bowie felt navigating an industry that ultimately didn’t value his authenticity. Some make the song as the soundtrack for loneliness, loss of control, and drifting away from what grounds you.

This is Major Tom to Ground Control

I'm stepping through the door

And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

And the stars look very different today

For here am I sitting in a tin can

Far above the world

Planet Earth is blue

And there's nothing I can do

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles

I'm feeling very still

And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

Tell my wife I love her very much

She knows

Through another lens of interpretation, however, the song is said to be a journey through a drug trip. The song is believe to serve as an imaginative platform to explore Bowie’s own struggles with addiction, as Major Tom also reoccurs in songs like "Ashes to Ashes" and is referenced as a “junkie, strung out in heaven's high.” No matter what the true meaning of the song is, there is no negating the fact that “Space Oddity” is one of Bowie’s most impressive feats. It introduced a new way for pop music to build narrative and fixed characters, all while exploring the emotional cost of belonging to nothing.