David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ is 50 years old. ‘Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ was released on 6 June 1972.
‘Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ was the fifth David Bowie album. In the UK it peaked at no 5, lower than the predecessor ‘Hunky Dory’ which reached no 3. However ‘Ziggy Stardust’ became a consistent seller over the years and would eventually sell 2x Platinum in the UK, double that of ‘Hunky Dory’.
‘Ziggy’ eventually sold over 1.5 million in the UK and 7.5 million copies worldwide. It reached no 11 in Australia and no 21 in the USA.
‘Ziggy’ featured Bowie’s live backing band The Spiders from Mars with Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey. The Ziggy character is in part based on David’s friend Iggy Pop.
The single that fueled the album was ‘Starman’ backed with ‘Suffragette City’.
There was also a second and final single ‘Rock and Roll Suicide’.
Sessions for Ziggy became in mid-1971. ‘It Ain’t Easy’ was the first song completed on 9 July 1971, five months before the release of ‘Hunky Dory’. The album got properly underway on 8 November 1971 with the same line-up of ‘Hunky Dory’ minus keyboard player Rick Wakeman.
‘Hang On To Yourself’ and ‘Star’ were first up from the November sessions as well as the title track and the unused ‘Looking For A Friend’, ‘Velvet Goldmine’ and ‘Sweet Head’.
The very next day Bowie recorded ‘Moonage Daydream’, ‘Soul Love’ and ‘Lady Stardust’. ‘Five Years’ came three days later plus more unused tracks ‘Its Gonna Rain Again’ and ‘Shadow Man’. The Chuck Berry cover of ‘Around and Around’ and Jacques Brel ‘Amsterdam’ were recorded at this time. Bowie considered called the album ‘Round and Round’ that week.
The band then took a Christmas break and came back 4 January 1972. ‘Suffragette City’ and ‘Rock and Roll Suicide’ began and then Bowie wrote ‘Starman’ and recorded that on 4 February 1972. When he had ‘Starman’, ‘Around and Around’ was dropped and the ‘Round and Round’ title was abandoned. Ziggy Stardust was built up as a concept album about an alien rock star who comes to earth.
Tracklisting
‘Five Years’
‘Soul Love’
‘Moonage Daydream’
‘Starman’
‘It Ain’t Easy’
‘Lady Stardust’
‘Star’
‘Hang On To Yourself’
‘Ziggy Stardust’
‘Suffragette City’
‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide’
Bowie’s next album was ‘Aladdin Sane’ on 13 April 1973. ‘Pin-ups’ came the same year on 19 October 1973.
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