Life on Mars?
by David Bowie
- 63
- BPM
- Bb major
- Key
- 6B
- Camelot
- 45
- Danceability
- 64
- Acousticness
Mick Ronson had never written a string arrangement before "Life on Mars?", and he took charge of it anyway. David Bowie's song was recorded on August 6, 1971 at Trident Studios, the last day of the Hunky Dory sessions, with Ronson nervous in front of professional players from the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He captured two takes, and the string section leader asked for a third. That is the take on the record.
Bowie had written the song as a parody of Frank Sinatra's "My Way". The hit had made him angry for about a year. He said he decided he could write something as big. He started humming the melody in a park in Beckenham and finished the rest that afternoon on the piano at Haddon Hall. Rick Wakeman played piano, with Trevor Bolder on bass and Mick Woodmansey on drums. Bowie sang it in one take, and Ken Scott, who co-produced, said he was the only singer he worked with where nearly every take was a master.
Woodmansey called it the highlight of his recording career with Bowie. RCA issued it as a single in June 1973, when Bowie was at the height of his fame as Ziggy Stardust, and it reached number three in the UK. Mick Rock filmed a video of Bowie in make-up and a turquoise suit against a white backdrop.
Life on Mars? runs at 63 BPM, the tempo of slow ballads, ambient and downtempo. In classical terms it sits in largo territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 3.81 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 952 ms. It is in Bb major, Camelot 6B, which shares its notes with G minor and mixes cleanly with Eb major and F major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.