David Bowie | Space Oddity | The Man Who Sold the World | Hunky Dory
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars | Aladdin Sane | Pin Ups | Diamond Dogs | Young Americans
Station to Station | Low | "Heroes" | Lodger | Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) | Let's Dance | Tonight | Never Let Me Down
Tin Machine | Black Tie White Noise | The Buddha of Suburbia | Outside | Earthling | 'hours...' | Heathen | Reality | 'hours...'
The Next Day | ★ | Changesonebowie
- Colbert Bump: Nirvana's cover of the title track on MTV Unplugged in New York revived interest in the original.
- Creator Backlash: For a good period of time, Bowie was publicly dissatisfied with Michael Weller's cowboy cartoon on the front cover of the original US release, heavily preferring the UK dress cover and considering it the canonical one, to the point of making it the only cover included on reissues once he regained control of his 1969-1982 back-catalog in 1988 (though the US cover is included on the back of the liner notes booklet from the Rykodisc CD reissue onwards, meaning anyone who prefers that can just flip the booklet around and put it back in the jewel case backwards). Eventually though, Bowie's views on the matter mellowed out, and in 1999 he admitted that the cartoon cover was pretty good in its own right. The dress cover is still considered the canon one, but the cartoon cover has been given a bit more publicity here and there — and it was used as the cover for Metrobolist, the 2020 remixed version.
- Cut Song: The blues/country tune "Lightning Frightening" was recorded during the album's sessions, but was ultimately left off the finished tracklist. An incomplete mono version would first appear as a bonus track on the 1990 remaster before the complete stereo version was included on the Boxed Set Divine Symmetry (which, ironically, was an anniversary release for the album after this one).
- Executive Meddling: The story of this album's four different covers is a long and involved one. Here's the short version: Bowie originally planned a gatefold cover with Michael Weller's cowboy cartoon on the front and a Keith MacMillan photo of Bowie wearing a "man's dress" created by fashion designer "Mr. Fish
" on the inside. However, both British and American executives at Bowie's then-current label, Mercury Records, were put off by the dress photo, and were unwilling to spend the money on a gatefold. US Mercury released the album with the cartoon cover in November 1970note , while UK Mercury finally relented and released it with the dress photo in April 1971. Adding onto this, Mercury's German division, for whatever reason, gave the album an elaborate round◊ cover! Later, when RCA reissued The Man Who Sold the World in 1972, they gave it a fourth◊ trend cover based on Bowie's then-current Ziggy Stardust persona. - Keep Circulating the Tapes: When the album was originally issued in America, US Mercury released "All the Madmen" as a (poorly distributed) single, cutting the 5:38 original down to 3:14 in the process. This single edit wasn't reissued until it was included on the Five Years 1969-1973 Boxed Set in 2015, resulting in it becoming a coveted collector's item during the interim.
- Milestone Celebration: Metrobolist, the 2020 remixed version, released to commemorate the album's 50th anniversary.
- Permanent Placeholder: According to producer Tony Visconti, the music for this album was largely written before the lyrics, and the song "Black Country Rock" was originally only given that title because different sections of the instrumental sounded like blues, country, and rock: Bowie liked the sound of the Working Title enough that he worked the phrase into the lyrics and made it the official title.
- Post-Release Retitle: The 2020 remix retitles the album Metrobolist, its initial Working Title, on the grounds that it was closer to Bowie's original creative intentions than the name it ultimately shipped under 50 years prior.
- Publisher-Chosen Title: The album was recorded under the name Metrobolist (a reference to the film Metropolis), which was kept so late into production that it's still listed on the master tapes; Mercury Records changed it to the final title at the last minute without Bowie's permission. Bowie then attempted to retitle the album Holy Holy in the UKnote after a non-album single he put out at around the same time, only for Mercury to call it The Man Who Sold The World there too when the single flopped. Eventually, the Metrobolist title would be restored for the album's 50th anniversary remix in 2020.
- Referenced by...:
- A Cover Version of the title track by Midge Ure plays in the opening of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and the lyrics foreshadow many of the events in the game.
- A Bloodborne/DC Universe crossover fanfic is named after this album. So is a track on the second Person of Interest soundtrack CD.
- In 2007, Doctor Who Magazine published a comic strip story called "The Woman Who Sold the World".
- A Torchwood novel is titled The Men Who Sold the World.
- The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America, a 2009 book by William Kleinknecht.
- The Man Who Sold America, a 2019 book critiquing Donald Trump by MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid.
- Short Run in Peru: The album took an extra five months to arrive in Bowie's home country, on account of the conflict he had with Mercury over its cover art. As such, The Man Who Sold the World is the only David Bowie album to receive a release exclusively in America before any other region.
- What Could Have Been:
- The cowboy on the original American cover was originally supposed to say "Roll up your sleeves and show us your arms", a reference to record players, drugs, and guns, but Mercury thought that was inappropriate and left the text bubble blank. His text bubble is no longer blank on the 2020 Metrobolist cover, but he's now instead saying "Roll up your sleeves, take a look at your arms."
- The closing line in "All the Madmen" was originally penned as "open the door." Producer Tony Visconti suggested that Bowie rewrite it into the final version, the more surreal "open the dog" (in Gratuitous French), as a nod to Un Chien Andalou.
- Working Title: Bowie originally planned for the album to be released as Metrobolist, then as Holy Holy once that name got rejected, but due to the single "Holy Holy" flopping, the title was changed to The Man Who Sold the World without Bowie's input. The name would eventually revert to Metrobolist for the 2020 remix album.
