“You’ve really made the grade”
On Sunday, 2nd February 1969, David Bowie entered Morgan Studios in London’s Willesden to record the soundtrack version of Space Oddity for the proposed television special and promotional vehicle, Love You Till Tuesday.
Four days later and fifty years ago today, the Space Oddity segment was filmed for the special and it was clear from this first ‘public’ outing of the song that David Bowie had composed something extraordinary.
Here’s Ken Pitt (David’s manager at the time), from his book Bowie The Pitt Report:
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The next day, February 6, proved to be an important landmark in David’s career for it was then that he was filmed performing the new song Space Oddity.
That this was an unusually clever song was apparent from the first hearing, but it was only during the course of the day’s shooting that its wide appeal became evident. During the break for lunch, freed from the silence imposed on them on the set, people were laughing, chattering and singing about the unconventional hero Major Tom. When David came through a doorway someone said “Well, if it isn’t Major Tom.“
After lunch he walked onto the set and rehearsed the final scene where the astronaut, resigned to his chosen fate, is caressed by two seductive sirens, played by Samantha Bond and the production assistant Suzanne Mercer. Admiration was now coupled with envy, perhaps two important ingredients for the hit that had so long eluded us.
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The Love You Till Tuesday film was not broadcast at the time and the Space Oddity segment didn’t surface for another six years, when the BBC showed it on TOTPs to accompany the reissue of the song that topped the charts in 1975. But that’s a whole other story.
The original Love You Till Tuesday film was finally released on video in 1984 and on DVD in 2005.
Watch the original Space Oddity segment here.
#SpaceOddity50