During the first years of his career, David Bowie was constantly seeking success with his songs in different ways, however he had to wait several years for it to arrive.
In 1969 he arrived with “Space Oddity“, which during its time was considered a “new song.” However, the real success came with another of his songs years later, with a similar spatial theme. Song that originally was born as revenge against Frank Sinatra, for an event years ago.
David Bowie’s song that was “revenge” against Frank Sinatra
On David Bowie’s fourth studio album, Hunky Dory (1971), there was a great song that quickly became a fan favorite. This is “Life On Mars”, which was born several years ago
The relationship with Frank Sinatra comes with the song that gave rise to two others. In the months following the failure of Bowie’s debut album, his manager Kenneth Pitt He looked for foreign songs for which he could write new letters in English.
One of those songs was “Comme D’Habitude” of Claude François, Gilles Thibault and Jacques Revaux. In February 1968, Bowie rewrote the lyrics in French and titled his new work “Even A Fool Learns To Love” and recorded a couple of.
Bowie and Pitt They made plans to record the song, but their efforts came to nothing after the song’s French publisher objected. They hoped the song would be recorded by an established star, rather than an unknown singer from south London.
On the other hand, the Canadian singer-songwriter Paul Anka wrote a new lyric and titled it “My Way”, which in 1969 became the famous song of Frank Sinatra.
Bowie’s Annoyance
When asked if he was inspired by “My Way,”Inspired… I think it was more revenge” David Bowie recalled in an interview in 2002.
So when the 22-year-old Bowie learned that his version wasn’t filled, he was upset. “I was really angry. I thought ‘oh, that should have been my song’, you know? So I thought, ‘Ok, I’ll write my own version.’ So it is ‘My Way On Mars‘”.
Therefore, the chords of the verse “Life On Mars?” are a reworking of the chords from “My Way“. That is, the originals of “Comme D’Habitude“.
That “revenge” was reflected on the back cover of the album. There with his own lyrics, he wrote by hand that the song was “inspired by Frankie”.
