David Bowie “Hunky Dory” released 50 years ago today, December 17th, 1971. My absolute favorite Bowie album was his fourth LP. After a slow start, it eventually hit #3 in the UK in ’72 and #57 in the US in 2016 after Bowie’s death. It is regarded as one of the best records ever, hovering at or around the top 100 on many publications’ lists (Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Time, etc.). Bowie released two singles from Hunky Dory: the first in early ’72 was the iconic “Changes” (#66 US in ’72 and then #41 in ’75; #49 UK in 2016), its b-side “Andy Warhol” obviously inspired by the artist of whom Bowie was a huge fan. Bowie performed the song for Warhol; it’s reported that Warhol didn’t say anything about the song to Bowie but “absolutely hated it” which is too bad because it is an excellent hard-strumming acoustic jammer (played by Mick Ronson) that is both glam and pastoral English folk. The other single was “Life on Mars?” which has a complicated and amusing history. Bowie originally wrote the bones of the song in ’68 as an English translation for a French song but they were rejected; Paul Anka rewrote it into “My Way” which had wild success with Frank Sinatra. Irritated, Bowie tweaked it again into “Life on Mars?” to parody Sinatra – the back cover has written next to the song’s title “Inspired by Frankie” The single hit #3 in the UK in ’73. Another fun fact: Bowie originally wanted Dudley Moore (who I associate with early 80’s comedy movies, namely Arthur) to play piano for the song. That plan fell through and Rick Wakeman from Strawbs got the gig. Bowie wrote “Kooks” for his newborn son Duncan (whose birthday is just 2 months before mine so I can pretend Bowie maybe wrote it for me, too) and “Song for Bob Dylan” has the more obvious tribute – Bowie even kinda mimics Dylan’s vocal style (but is a vastly superior singer). My absolute favorite song from Hunky Dory is “Queen Bitch,” an ass-shaking glam-pop rocker inspired by Velvet Unground’s Lou Reed. My kid contributed that song to the birthday playlist that friends and family put together for me this past summer when I also turned 50. I was thrilled because he knew how much I love that song but also amused/annoyed that it’s the song he most connects to me (queen/princess…yes, bitch…?).