Song of the Day 2/22: David Bowie, “Life on Mars?”

Perseverance, NASA’s latest Mars rover, landed on the Red Planet last week, and today the space agency unveiled video of its descent from the lander itself. It’s looking, of course, for life on Mars.

Bowie included the song, featuring Rick Wakeman on piano and a string arrangement by guitarist Mick Ronson, on his 1971 “Hunky Dory” LP. It was released as a single in the UK and reached No. 3, but its stature has only grown with time. In 2016, Pitchfork picked it as the best song of the 1970s, a year after the Daily Telegraph’s rock critic named it the best song of the rock era. At the time of its release, Bowie said it was as “a sensitive young girl’s reaction to the media.” But he also acknowledged that it’s a parody of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” — the chords are identical.

This video was filmed by Mick Rock backstage at a Bowie show in 1973.