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The Man Who Sold the World" is a song written and performed by David Bowie. The title track of Bowie's third album, it was released in the U.S. in November 1970 and in the UK in April 1971. The song has been covered by a number of other artists, notably by Lulu, who had a UK No. 3 hit with her version in 1974; by Nirvana, whose 1993 performance of the song for the television program MTV Unplugged introduced it to a new audience; and by Midge Ure, whose 1982 cover of the song was featured in the 2015 video game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

"The Man Who Sold the World"
Spaceoddity.png
US picture sleeve
Single by David Bowie
from the album The Man Who Sold the World
A-side
"Life on Mars?" (UK)
"Space Oddity" (US)
Released
4 November 1970 (US)
April 1971 (UK)
22 June 1973 (US and UK reissue)
Recorded
18 April – 22 May 1970
Studio
Trident & Advision, London
Genre
Psychedelic rock folk rock
Length
3:55
Label
Mercury
Songwriter(s)
David Bowie
Producer(s)
Tony Visconti
The song was reworked by Bowie, featuring atmospheric synths, a new bassline, techno-style drums and a notably darker mood, for performances in concerts from 1995 to 1997, including the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards. Bowie later returned to playing the original version in the 2000s.
In his journals, Kurt Cobain of the American grunge band Nirvana ranked the album The Man Who Sold the World at number 45 in his top 50 favourite albums.[13] Nirvana recorded a live rendition of the song in 1993 during their MTV Unplugged appearance and included it on their MTV Unplugged in New York album the following year; the song was also released as a promotional single for the album[14] and received considerable airplay on alternative rock radio stations. The Unplugged cover was also placed into heavy rotation on MTV, peaking at number 3 on MTV's most played videos on 18 February 1995;[15] it also peaked for two weeks at number 7 on Canada's MuchMusic Countdown in March 1995.[16] Nirvana regularly covered the song during live sets after their MTV Unplugged performance up till Cobain's death in 1994. In 2002, the song was re-released on Nirvana's self-titled "best of" compilation.

Bowie said of Nirvana's cover: "I was simply blown away when I found that Kurt Cobain liked my work, and have always wanted to talk to him about his reasons for covering 'The Man Who Sold the World'" and that "it was a good straight forward rendition and sounded somehow very honest. It would have been nice to have worked with him, but just talking with him would have been real cool."[17] Bowie called Nirvana's cover "heartfelt", noting that "until this [cover], it hadn't occurred to me that I was part of America's musical landscape. I always felt my weight in Europe, but not [in the U.S.]." In the wake of its release, Bowie bemoaned the fact that when he performed the number himself, he would encounter "kids that come up afterwards and say, 'It's cool you're doing a Nirvana song.' And I think, 'Fuck you, you little tosser!'"

At a pre–Grammy Awards party on 14 February 2016, surviving Nirvana band members Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl, and Pat Smear teamed up with contemporary Beck to perform "The Man Who Sold the World" in tribute to Bowie–who had died the month before—with Beck performing vocals.[20] To mark what would have been Kurt Cobain's 50th birthday, in 2017 the Phonographic Performance Limited released a list of the twenty most-played Nirvana songs on TV and radio in the UK; "The Man Who Sold the World" ranked at number six.

The man who sold the world

Dead End Street (Alternate Mono Version)

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