This day in music - November 10, 1970: David Bowie is at No. 1 on the UK singles chart with "Space Oddity"

By Richard K. Barry

If you spend enough time, you will find some very interesting things on YouTube. The clip below would appear to be an awards show of some kind, featuring a performance by a very young David Bowie of "Space Oddity."

The song was on Bowie's 1969 album called "David Bowie," and was, of course, inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001, A Space Odyssey. At some point the album was renamed "Space Oddity," but then reverted back to its original title years later. These marketing guys are brilliant and not at all fickle.

I'm also pretty sure the Lawrence Welk Orchestra is backing him up in this performance. By the way, the chatter in the comments section of the YouTube clip would suggest that this might not have been his first television gig, as the title suggests. I really wouldn't know.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)