Little known fact: this could have happened. Sort of.
Bowie and Paul Anka were both interested in a French song called
"Comme d'Habitude", and both wrote songs based on it. But Anka
acquired the rights, so Bowie's version disappeared. Anka's version
was "My Way", which he wrote for Frank Sinatra.
Okay, so the title is a bit of a tease, because Anka knew Sinatra and
wrote the song just for him. Bowie had never met Sinatra at that
point (and they probably wouldn't have liked each other much). So,
Bowie wouldn't write a "My Way". OTL the song he wrote was the
instantly forgettable "Even a Fool Learns to Love". Very likely, if
he gained the rights, he'd write that... and it would immediately
disappear.
But! Two knock-ons. One, Bowie never writes "Life on Mars". LoM was
his /second/ take at writing a song based on "Comme d'Habitude", and
it uses the same chord structure as "My Way". You can sing the two in
harmony, as seen in this remarkable video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxCj2MO02AE
-- starting around 1:45 but, hell, view the whole thing.
Bowie -- who was miffed at missing out on the fortune that Anka had
made by buying the rights -- dedicated "Life on Mars" 'to Frankie'.
I don't think removing this song will have a /huge/ knock-on effect on
Bowie's career, but it might have some. IMS it came near the
beginning of his early-70s explosion of hits, when his career -- which
up until then had seemed stalled as the one-hit-wonder kid who did
"Space Oddity" (you know, the 'Major Tom' song) -- suddenly went
straight to the stratosphere, with something like five #1 hits in less
than two years. I think taking one of his early hits out (second?
third?) there'd be be some difference, though it would need a better
Bowieologist than me to say just what.
Oh, and we'd lose the song itself. Which would suck, because it's an
awesome song.
Second knock-on: no "My Way". Is this good or bad? Sinatra's career
may never recover -- "My Way" was what gave him his second wind in the
early '70s. On the other hand, the rest of us won't have to listen to
"My Way" at funerals and testimonial dinners for the next forty years.
And, hey! There would be no 'Sinatra Doctrine' for the Warsaw Pact
countries in the last year or so of the Cold War. Poor old Gorbachev
(who must have thought he was being very clever) would have to call it
something else.
Thoughts?
Doug M.
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