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
- Blooper: Due to an engineering error, both the intro to "Starman" and the third chorus in "Suffragette City" feature audible dropouts in the left channel on the original US release; these glitches also extend to RCA Records compilations that feature the songs (e.g. Changesonebowie and Changestwobowie) as well as the label's CD releases of the Bowie catalog in The '80s. The Rykodisc remaster would fix this by splicing in audio from an unaffected copy tape, with this amended version becoming standard for all subsequent remasters.
- Breakthrough Hit: "Starman" was the album's big hit single. The song and its parent album propelled Bowie to stardom in Britain after years of trying.
- Corpsing: You can hear Bowie chuckle a bit while singing "Hey, that's far out" on "Starman".
- Creator-Driven Successor: Aladdin Sane, which is about a Ziggy expy touring the U.S.; Bowie himself maintained the Ziggy character on-stage while promoting the album, ultimately retiring the character after he was done doing that.
- Cut Song:
- A cover of Chuck Berry's "Round and Round" was recorded but had to be dropped so "Starman" could be added. "Velvet Goldmine" was intended for this album as well, but was regarded as too dirty. Both tracks would eventually surface as B-sides: the former on "Drive-In Saturday", and the latter on the 1975 reissue of "Space Oddity". The tracks would later appear on various re-releases and compilations as well.
- "All the Young Dudes" was similarly intended for the album, but Bowie gave the song to Mott the Hoople, who had a hit with a Cover Version. The song would, however, remain a staple of Bowie's live performances, and his studio version would eventually surface in 1995 on the semi-official compilation Rarestonebowie, later appearing on various other compilations and the 30th-anniversary edition of Aladdin Sane.
- Executive Meddling: How "Starman" came to be — RCA Records execs loved this album but didn't hear a song that would make a great lead-off single. Bowie wrote and recorded this song to serve as such. It's a rare positive example, as that song turned out to be Bowie's Breakthrough Hit.
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: The UK version of the album, which features the single mix of "Starman" in place of the original, has never been reissued since the 1980s, when RCA Records swapped to using the US version worldwide.
- Method Acting: Happened entirely by accident on "Five Years". Bowie got so invested in the sheer despair of the lyrics that he actually broke down crying at the song's climax — which explains the cracked voice and all the screaming. They didn't need to do a second take.
- Rarely Performed Song: "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" was one of six songs to be permanently retired from Bowie's setlists following the 1990 Sound + Vision tour.
- Referenced by...:
- The punk band Crass took its name from the line "the kids were just crass" in "Ziggy Stardust".
- The Cowboy Bebop episode "Honky Tonk Woman" is set in a casino called Spaiders from Mars [sic].
- Metallica's "Leper Messiah" takes its name from a line in "Ziggy Stardust".
- In the Flight of the Conchords episode "Bowie", Brett's first dream about the musician (as portrayed by band member and noted Bowie impressionist Jemaine Clement) takes the form of him as Ziggy Stardust.
- In the Steven Universe episode "Mr. Universe", Greg sings along to a track from a CD by Kerry Moonbeam, a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Ziggy. Kerry is voiced by Jemaine Clement, a prolific Bowie impressionist.
- In Glass Onion, Miles cues up "Star" and "Starman" during the after-dinner party. Later, when fuming over the destruction of the Glass Onion, he alludes to "Moonage Daydream" by mockingly describing Helen with the line "I'm an alligator."
- Throw It In!: How the final look of the album cover came about. While the idea of a nighttime street shot had always been the base idea, the Spiders from Mars opted not to appear with Bowie because he had the flu, and a combination of that and the onset of rainfall during the shoot resulted in him only being willing to go as far as the K. West furriers building.
- Tourist Bump: The album's success brought a lot of extra attention to the K. West furriers building featured on the album cover, becoming a popular tourist attraction and pilgrimage site for Bowie fans. Even though the K. West sign was taken down, a plaque was ultimately put up commemorating the location's significance to British popular culture.
- Uncredited Role: Rick Wakeman's harpsichord part on "It Ain't Easy" was uncredited on the original release of the album. He'd eventually receive a credit in the liner notes for Parlophone Records' repress of the 2012 remaster.
- What Could Have Been: "All the Young Dudes" was originally written for the album, before Bowie gave it to Mott the Hoople. Conversely, "Suffragette City" was another song that Bowie offered the band, only for them to pick "All the Young Dudes".
