"Starman" was released as the lead single of
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars on 28 April 1972 by
RCA Records (as RCA 2199) with "
Suffragette City" as the B-side. The single originally featured a "loud mix" of the "morse-code" piano-and-guitar section between the verse and the chorus. This single mix appeared on the original UK album, but not on other vinyl editions of the album internationally, in which the "morse-code" section was lower in the mix. The single mix appeared on the 1980 compilation album
The Best of Bowie, but
ChangesTwoBowie (1981) and subsequent compilations featured the more subdued mix, until the "loud mix" finally reappeared on
Nothing Has Changed (2014) and on
Re:Call 1 as part of the 2015 box set
Five Years (1969–1973). According to Cann, the single was released in the US on 20 May 1972 with a slight variant from the UK single: Bowie's spoken intro was edited out and, "to comply with the preferred duration among American radio stations," the song was shortened by ten seconds. The US single was released in both mono and stereo formats. It was his first charting single in Canada. "Starman" was sequenced as the fourth track on the album, between "
Moonage Daydream" and "It Ain't Easy", released on 16 June 1972. It was a late addition to the album, replacing a cover of American singer-songwriter
Chuck Berry's "
Round and Round". According to
Rob Sheffield, "Round and Round" would have fit the concept of the album but it was excessive, as side two featured multiple Berry-style tracks. Pegg also commented: "It's extraordinary to consider that one of Bowie's definitive songs replaced a Chuck Berry cover almost as an afterthought." From a commercial point of view, "Starman" was a milestone in Bowie's career: it was his first hit since "Space Oddity" three years before.
NME critics
Roy Carr and
Charles Shaar Murray reported that "many thought it was his first
record since 'Space Oddity'", and assumed that it was a sequel to the earlier single. Pegg states that due to this assumption, the title and acoustic intro might have given the suggestion that Bowie had "only one song in his playbook", but the first lyric changes that. While "Space Oddity" was a pure "science-fiction story", "Starman" is less that and more of a "self-aggrandizing announcement that there's a new star in town." The single initially sold steadily rather than spectacularly but earned many positive reviews. BBC broadcaster
John Peel, in his
Disc & Music Echo column wrote: "Now this is magnificent – quite superb. David Bowie is, with
Kevin Ayers, the most important, under-acknowledged innovator in contemporary popular music in Britain and if this record is overlooked it will be nothing less than stark tragedy."
Chris Welch of
Melody Maker predicted: "[Bowie] is taking longer than most to become a superstar, but he should catch up with Rod and
Marc soon." On 15 June, Bowie and the Spiders from Mars performed "Starman" on the
Granada children's music programme
Lift Off with Ayshea, which was presented by
Ayshea Brough, whom Bowie had met as a performer in 1969. Joined by
Nicky Graham on keyboards, according to Pegg, they performed against a "backdrop of coloured stars"; Woodmansey had at this point not "peroxided" his hair. The performance was broadcast on 21 June in a "post-school" time slot, where it was witnessed by thousands of British children. On 24 June, "Starman" rose to number 49 on the
UK Singles Chart and by 1 July, number 41, earning Bowie an invitation to perform on the BBC television programme
Top of the Pops.
Top of the Pops performance , Bowie pointed directly at the camera when singing the lyric "I had to phone someone so I picked on you ooh ooh". David Hepworth of The Guardian calls this the exact moment in which Bowie became a star. The group mimed to a pre-recorded backing track, four takes of which were recorded on 29 June, and sang live as per Musicians Union rules. Bowie appeared in a brightly-coloured rainbow jumpsuit, "shocking" red hair and astronaut boots while the Spiders wore blue, pink, scarlet and gold velvet attire. Transmitted the following day, the three minute performance launched Bowie to stardom. According to author David Buckley, "Many fans date their conversion to all things Bowie to this Top of the Pops'' appearance". It embedded Ziggy Stardust in the nation's consciousness, helping push "Starman" to number 10 and the album, released the previous month, to number five. The "Starman" single remained in the UK charts for 11 weeks. In the United States, the single peaked at number 65 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in August 1972. The performance was watched by a large audience, including many English musicians before they became famous, including
Boy George,
Adam Ant,
Mick Jones of
the Clash,
Gary Kemp of
Spandau Ballet,
Morrissey and
Johnny Marr of
the Smiths,
Siouxsie Sioux of
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
John Taylor and
Nick Rhodes of
Duran Duran,
Dave Gahan of
Depeche Mode, and
Noel Gallagher of
Oasis. Reflecting on Bowie's impact on music in 2003,
Robert Smith of
the Cure said: "He was blatantly different, and everyone of my age remembers the time he played 'Starman' on
Top of the Pops."
Bono of the Irish rock band
U2 told
Rolling Stone in 2010: "The first time I saw [Bowie] was singing 'Starman' on television. It was like a creature falling from the sky. Americans put a man on the moon. We had our own British guy from space – with an Irish mother." The
Top of the Pops performance was included as a video on the
DVD version of
Best of Bowie in 2002, and an audio track of the performance appeared in the 2024 box set ''Rock 'n' Roll Star!
, along with two early demos of the song and a "2022 mix" comprising the 29 June 1972 backing track recorded for the Top of the Pops'' performance and the original vocals from the February 1972 master.
Later live performances In addition to the TV performances, Bowie played the song for radio listeners on the
BBC's
Johnny Walker Lunchtime Show on 22 May 1972. This performance was broadcast in early June 1972 and eventually released on
Bowie at the Beeb in 2000. Bowie performed "Starman" occasionally on the
Ziggy Stardust Tour from 1972 to 1973, retiring the song before it reappeared on the 1990
Sound+Vision Tour. Following that tour, it was performed on the British
Channel 4 programme
TFI Friday on 23 June 2000. The song made further appearances on the 2002
Heathen Tour and the 2003–2004
A Reality Tour. A performance of the song from the
Montreux Jazz Festival on 18 July 2002 was released on the box set ''
I Can't Give Everything Away (2002–2016)'' in 2025. ==Critical reception==