Life on Mars? (3:42)

Cover of The Best of David Bowie 1969-74

From The Best of David Bowie 1969-74 and 53 other releases

In 1968, Bowie wrote “Even a Fool Learns to Love”, a song with lyrics by Bowie set to the music of a 1967 French song (“Comme d’habitude”). Bowie’s song was never released, but Paul Anka bought the rights to the original French version, and rewrote it into “My Way,” made famous by Frank Sinatra in a 1969 recording on his album of the same name. The success of the Anka version prompted Bowie to write “Life on Mars?” as a parody of Sinatra’s recording.

Bowie described how he wrote the song in notes for a Bowie compilation CD that accompanied a June 2008 issue of The Mail on Sunday:

Workspace was a big empty room with a chaise longue; a bargain-price art nouveau screen (‘William Morris,’ so I told anyone who asked); a huge overflowing freestanding ashtray and a grand piano. Little else. I started working it out on the piano and had the whole lyric and melody finished by late afternoon.
Bowie noted that Rick Wakeman “embellished the piano part” of his original melody and guitarist Mick Ronson “created one of his first and best string parts” for the song.

The liner notes for Hunky Dory indicate that the song was ‘inspired by Frankie’.

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It's a god-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling "No"
And her daddy has told her to go

MetroLyrics Full lyrics at MetroLyrics

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  • passport90

    Lawman

    3 hours ago Reply
  • ForestSidhe

    My favorite!

    13 May 8:30am Reply
  • Tamguns

    Lovely

    10 May 3:21am Reply
  • jomabbs

    I'm lost in nostalgia.... Rule Britannia is out of bounds to my mother my dog and clowns.

    4 May 9:18pm Reply
  • notaplatypus

    mickey mouse has grown up a cow.

    28 Apr 8:29am Reply
  • Chadipoo

    IS THERE LIFE ON MAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRSSSS?!

    26 Apr 9:00pm Reply
  • TheBarrister

    Rick Wakeman is awesome here.

    14 Apr 5:25pm Reply
  • headey13

    ~4:41 today -How many versions are there loaded here?

    14 Apr 12:23pm Reply
  • lauraculross

    love this

    14 Apr 4:01am Reply
  • CatalystDM

    One of the best songs ever and an underrated TV show as well

    11 Apr 8:12pm Reply
  • MaverickJones66

    I love this song, simply genius.

    8 Apr 10:12am Reply
  • XDRory

    I will always firmly believe that this is one of the best songs to ever have been written. And I love it so much.

    22 Mar 5:52pm Reply
  • Gahbs_

    This is so good I can't even...

    20 Mar 4:20pm Reply
  • Venenatis

    Amazing

    10 Mar 2:02pm Reply
  • CanYouBlush

    most current music....pop....sucks... david bowie's in the deep end of the pool and katy perry's splashing around in two feet or less haha how many classics are going to come out of this era ....compared to what we call classics now 60's,70's 80's

    6 Mar 4:39pm Reply
  • CastrosFidel

    such a great song - i love it !

    27 Feb 8:35am Reply
  • schtum1

    The creation of this song is fascinating - the connections in popular music are amazing!

    27 Feb 12:11am Reply
  • cgiv6n

    holy bejeezus he sounds good live

    26 Feb 3:15am Reply
  • yozhka

    Как я по ней соскучилась... Слеза аж наворачивается ).

    18 Feb 2:36pm Reply
  • ati1978

    this ...space oddity and changes forever!

    6 Feb 7:00pm Reply
  • All 941 shouts

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