“Life on Mars” by David Bowie

"Life on Mars?" sits on David Bowie's 1971 album Hunky Dory, and it began as a send-up of Frank Sinatra's "My Way". Bowie cut it on 6 August 1971 at Trident Studios in London, co-producing with Ken Scott, with Rick Wakeman on piano, Trevor Bolder on bass, Mick Woodmansey on drums and Mick Ronson writing the string arrangement. What came out is a glam rock ballad with cabaret and art-rock blood in it, building from Wakeman's piano to a swooning, cinema-sized climax.

The song follows a girl who slips into a movie theater to get away from her life, and the surreal pictures it throws up are soaked in Hollywood. RCA put it out as a single in June 1973, with Bowie at his Ziggy Stardust peak, and it went to number three in the UK, backed by a Mick Rock video of Bowie in make-up and a turquoise suit against pure white.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.