Ziggy Stardust

The theme I chose for this year is 

Greatest Hits as suggested by AI

It’s important to note that AI was only used for the song suggestion, not in the actual putting together of the post. 

Today our suggested Greatest Hit is:  Ziggy Stardust

Wikipedia tells us this about the song:

Bowie wrote "Ziggy Stardust" and fellow album track "Lady Stardust" "within days" of each other in early 1971. According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, it was registered with Bowie's publisher Chrysalis as early as April 1971, before the recording sessions for Hunky Dory (1971). Bowie recorded an acoustic demo of the track between February and March 1971 at Radio Luxembourg's studios in London, around the same time he recorded "Moonage Daydream" and "Hang On to Yourself" with his band Arnold Corns. This demo was released as a bonus track on the Rykodisc CD release of Ziggy Stardust in 1990. The demo also appeared on the Ziggy Stardust – 30th Anniversary Reissue bonus disc in 2002.

The album version was recorded at Trident Studios in London on 11 November 1971. Co-produced by Ken Scott, Bowie recorded it with his backing band known as the Spiders from Mars—comprising Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey. Musically, it is a glam rock song, like its parent album, that is based around a riff containing both tonic and dominant chords (the latter with a "hammered 4th"), followed by a "shifting-bass run" from C to A minor, thereby going back to the root. Biographer Marc Spitz describes the riff as "instantly recognisable and primal but complex." While Ronson plays the main riff on an electric guitar, Bowie plays an acoustic twelve-string guitar, which is mixed beneath the electric. A second electric guitar riff, inspired by the American rock band the Byrds, what Doggett calls a "jingle-jangle", is also present but almost buried in the mix. Richard Cromelin of Rolling Stone notes the "faint ring" of 1970's The Man Who Sold the World on the track—"stately, measured, fuzzily electric." Bowie begins his vocals, which Doggett describes "like a meteor from a distant galaxy", with "the phrase that defines his hero: 'Ziggy played guitar'." The song ends with a reprise of the same line, but Bowie holds the note "defiantly"; once his voice slides away, and Ronson enters on guitar, sliding away in the same vein. Doggett describes the final seconds: "Then, after one of the most perfectly judged pauses ever captured on vinyl, there was "Suffragette City"."

Enjoy!