"The Prettiest Star" is a song by English musician
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
, originally released on 6 March 1970 through
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...
as the follow-up
single to "
Space Oddity
"Space Oddity" is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was first released on 11 July 1969 by Philips Records as a 7-inch single, then as the opening track of his second studio album ''David Bowie''. After the commercial f ...
". A
love song
A love song is a song about romantic love, falling in love, heartbreak after a breakup, and the feelings that these experiences bring. A comprehensive list of even the best known performers and composers of love songs would be a large order ...
for his soon-to-be wife
Angie, it was recorded in January 1970 at
Trident Studios
Trident Studios was a British recording facility, located at 17 St Anne's Court in London's Soho district between 1968 and 1981. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield, drummer of the 1960s group the Hunters, and his brother Barry. ...
in London and featured
Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan ( ; born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a pioneer of the glam rock movement in the early 1970s with his band T. Rex. Bolan was posthumously inducted in ...
on guitar, who was brought on by producer
Tony Visconti
Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...
. Despite praise from music journalists, the single flopped and failed to chart. Years later, Bowie rerecorded the track for his 1973 album ''
Aladdin Sane''. A more
glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...
influenced take with lyrics matching themes on the album,
Mick Ronson
Michael Ronson (26 May 1946 – 29 April 1993) was an English musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer. He achieved critical and commercial success working with David Bowie as the guitarist of the Spiders from Mars. He was a session musici ...
recreated Bolan's guitar part almost note-for-note. The remake was more well-received.
Original version
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
wrote "The Prettiest Star" as a
love song
A love song is a song about romantic love, falling in love, heartbreak after a breakup, and the feelings that these experiences bring. A comprehensive list of even the best known performers and composers of love songs would be a large order ...
for
Angie Barnett
This is a list of characters appearing in the television series ''That '70s Show'' and ''That '90s Show''.
Cast table
Main characters Eric Forman
Portrayed by Topher Grace: The protagonist; Eric is a nice guy, generally nerdy, clumsy, and acc ...
, reputedly playing it down the telephone as part of his proposal to her on Christmas 1969. Following the release of his second studio album ''
David Bowie (Space Oddity)'', it was the only new song he wrote over the winter of 1969. Discussing the lyrics, commentators noted the line "you and I will rise up all the way" anticipated the couple's fame during the next decade. Set in the
key of
F major
F major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor.
The F major scale is:
:
F major is the ...
, the song is in the style of the Greek
hasapiko
The hasapiko ( el, χασάπικο, , meaning “the butcher's ance) is a Greek folk dance from Constantinople. The dance originated in the Middle Ages as a battle mime with swords performed by the Greek butchers' guild, which adopted it fr ...
dance as a tribute to Angie's Cypriot ethnic origin. Similar to Bowie's other compositions of the time, it was musically influenced by songwriter
Biff Rose
Paul "Biff" Rose (born October 15, 1937) is an American comedian and singer-songwriter.
Biography
Born in New Orleans, Rose moved to Hollywood where he found a job working as a comedy sketch writer with George Carlin working sometimes on the M ...
's ''
The Thorn in Mrs. Rose's Side'' (1968), particularly the track "Angel Tension", which contains a similar tempo, phrasing, chord changes and lyrics to "The Prettiest Star" (Bowie's "staying back in your memory" compared to Rose's "going back in memory"). Author
Paul Trynka
Paul Trynka is a British rock journalist and author. He was the editor of the music magazine ''Mojo'' from 1999 to 2003, and has also worked as editorial director of '' Q'' and editor of ''International Musician''. In 2004, he edited publisher D ...
describes the track as "languid, uncharacteristically simple" and "an almost unique
dditionto Bowie's canon". Biographer Chris O'Leary finds the song "hummable, warm and sweet", although felt "its dragging tempo made its sentimentality leaden".
Recording for the song began at
Trident Studios
Trident Studios was a British recording facility, located at 17 St Anne's Court in London's Soho district between 1968 and 1981. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield, drummer of the 1960s group the Hunters, and his brother Barry. ...
in London, in tandem with a new version of Bowie's
Deram-era track "London Bye Ta-Ta", on 8 January 1970—Bowie's 23rd birthday—and completed on 13 and 15 January. It was produced by
Tony Visconti
Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...
, who hired drummer Godfrey McLean and bassist Delisle Harper of Gass, a
funk Santana-like band, for the session; he had produced Gass's recent single, although he found Harper's playing inadequate and
overdubbed
Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...
a bass part himself. Visconti also brought
Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan ( ; born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a pioneer of the glam rock movement in the early 1970s with his band T. Rex. Bolan was posthumously inducted in ...
to guest on guitar, having produced Bolan's works with
T. Rex; Bowie and Bolan would spend the next few years as rivals during the
glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...
era. Bolan rehearsed his part extensively beforehand, as he wanted to showcase his newfound
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
skills. The recording atmosphere was reportedly fraught, Bolan being jealous at the success of "
Space Oddity
"Space Oddity" is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was first released on 11 July 1969 by Philips Records as a 7-inch single, then as the opening track of his second studio album ''David Bowie''. After the commercial f ...
". Bowie recalled of the session: "I don't think we were talking to each other that day. I can't remember why, but I remember a strange atmosphere in the studio. We were never in the same room at the same time. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife." The guitarist was accompanied by his wife June, who voiced her disapproval, saying "the only good thing about this record is Marc's guitar". The couple left the studio shortly after.
After its recording, Bowie premiered "The Prettiest Star" live at a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
radio session on 5 February 1970. To the displeasure of his manager
, Bowie chose the song as his next single, Pitt favouring "London Bye Ta-Ta"; it ultimately marked the end of Pitt's influence on the artist. Bowie's label,
, hoped the song would demonstrate Bowie's range as a songwriter. Issued as the follow-up single to "Space Oddity" in the United Kingdom only on 6 March 1970, with "