{"id":242165,"date":"2025-09-20T19:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T19:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242165\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T19:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T19:41:10","slug":"on-this-day-in-1975-david-bowie-landed-his-first-us-no-1-with-a-little-help-from-this-beatles-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242165\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1975, David Bowie Landed His First US No. 1 With a Little Help From This Beatles Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifty years ago, the United States had never seen anything quite like David Bowie. In the early \u201970s, the Londoner gained fame in his home country with his flamboyant alter ego Ziggy Stardust, an androgynous extraterrestrial rocker with a bright red mullet and a penchant for sparkling jumpsuits. Then, just like that, Ziggy was gone<\/a>, his life snuffed out in front of 5,000 unsuspecting fans.<\/p>\n

Two years later, Bowie ushered in a brand-new persona: The Thin White Duke, an impassive, often controversial figure described as \u201cdry ice masquerading as fire.\u201d In the space between Ziggy Stardust and The Thin White Duke came his ninth studio album, Young Americans. The record gave Bowie his first #1 hit on this day in 1975.<\/p>\n

David Bowie Vented His Frustration With \u201cFame\u201d On His First U.S. No. 1 Hit<\/p>\n

In the early \u201970s, both David Bowie and John Lennon were in New York seeking\u2026 something. Bowie was still grappling with Ziggy Stardust fame, whereas Lennon was trying to discover who he was without the Beatles.<\/p>\n

Their paths eventually crossed at a party hosted by Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor. At that nexus of celebrity, soul-searching, and substance use came \u201cFame.\u201d Puerto Rican guitarist Carlos Alomar gifted Bowie the song\u2019s instantly recognizable guitar riff<\/a>, originally intended for Bowie\u2019s cover of the Flares\u2019 doo-wop hit \u201cFoot-Stompin.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Deciding the riff would be wasted on a cover, the \u201cStarman\u201d crooner teamed up with Lennon to write what would become \u201cFame.\u201d Together, they painted a less than rosy (but ridiculously catchy) picture of celebrity: Fame (fame) lets him lose hard to swallow \/ Fame (fame) puts you there where things are hollow.<\/p>\n

\u201cFame\u201d didn\u2019t quite take off in Europe, where Bowie was already a household name. But clearly, listeners in the U.S. were paying attention. The song gave Bowie his first Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: David Bowie Was Working on a Secret Final Project Before His Death]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It Wasn\u2019t His Favorite<\/p>\n

Without \u201cFame,\u201d David Bowie\u2019s career may never have taken off across the pond. Still, the six-time Grammy winner never embraced it quite as much as Americans did. In 1990, Bowie called \u201cit \u201cFame\u201d his least favorite track on Young Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d had very upsetting management problems and a lot of that was built into the song. I\u2019ve left all that behind me, now,\u201d he said in 1990.<\/p>\n

Summing up his breakout hit, Bowie added, \u201cI think fame itself is not a rewarding thing. The most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured image by Ellen Graham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifty years ago, the United States had never seen anything quite like David Bowie. In the early \u201970s,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":242166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[976,7654,171,975,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-242165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-classic-rock","9":"tag-david-bowie","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115238331024547222","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}