ZIGGY AT 50

We’ve all been jamming good with Weird and Gilly for 50 years now, and to celebrate the golden jubilee of David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars, Parlophone and Rhino are streaming a new mix of Bowie’s 1972 performance of “Starman” on Top of the Pops.

The updated “Starman” takes the backing track (recorded at Trident Studios on 6/29/72) and backing vocals recorded for the show and adds the lead vocal from the album version (recorded at Trident Studios on 2/4/72). The Top of the Pops broadcast recording, derived from the BBC's master, was first released on the “Starman” 7-inch picture disc in 2012.

On Friday, 50 years and one day after the original U.K. release date, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars will be issued as a limited-edition 50th anniversary half-speed-mastered LP and a picture disc featuring the same master and a replica promotional poster.

Bowie put the Ziggy Stardust persona in the closet on 7/3/73 after his last show with the Spiders From Mars at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. Previously unseen footage from that legendary show figures in Brett Morgen's film Moonage Daydream, which will be released in cinemas this September.

Rhino has shared some fun facts about Ziggy and “Starman”:

“Starman” was the last song written for the album and was recorded on the same day as “Suffragette City” and “Rock ’n’  Roll Suicide.” The album took less than two weeks to record over a span of three months—November 1971 to February 1972.

“Starman” was first performed on TV on the Granada children’s music show Lift Off With Ayshea, presented by Ayshea Brough. It was recorded on 6/15/72 and broadcast on 6/21/72. Sadly, no viewable copy of this performance has ever been found.

The first performance of a Ziggy song was on 2/8/72 when Bowie performed “Five Years” on The Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC2.

Ziggy Stardust was released on 6/16/72 and charted on 7/1 at #15 in the U.K. It was that week's highest entry and resided on the U.K.’s top 50 album chart for the next two years.

Among the artists who've cited Bowie's July 1972 Top of the Pops performance of “Starman” as life-changing are Robert  Smith of The Cure, Bono, Boy George, Mick Jones of The Clash, Johnny Marr, Siouxsie Sioux and Noel Gallagher.