113 Fun Facts About David Bowie

Bowie was born with which surname?

He was born David Robert Jones in Brixton, south London, on 8 January 1947, and only adopted the stage name Bowie in September 1965.

Why did Bowie stop performing as Davy Jones in the mid-1960s?

A Monkee shared it: to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees, he renamed himself after the American frontiersman Jim Bowie and the knife that carries his name.

Bowie's permanently dilated pupil was the result of what?

A school fight over a girl: his friend George Underwood struck him in the eye in 1962, yet they stayed close and Underwood went on to create artwork for Bowie's early albums.

Often mistaken for heterochromia, Bowie's mismatched eyes were really which condition?

Anisocoria, a difference in pupil size: an injury at 15 left one pupil permanently dilated, so that eye looked dark beside the clear blue of the other.

Which of Bowie's older relatives introduced him to modern jazz, Buddhism, Beat poetry and the occult?

His half-brother Terry Burns, about a decade older, opened those worlds to him while living at home between spells in psychiatric care; Bowie later wrote All the Madmen about him.

Bowie's Space Oddity was rush-released five days before which Apollo mission lifted off?

Apollo 11 launched on 16 July 1969, five days after the single came out, and the BBC played the song during its Moon-landing coverage even though its astronaut ends up lost in space.

In which 1983 film did Bowie star opposite Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon?

The Hunger casts Bowie as John, a vampire whom Deneuve's Miriam promised eternal life; instead he starts to age years within days, in Tony Scott's first feature film.

Which astronaut's 2013 cover of Space Oddity produced the first music video filmed in space?

Chris Hadfield sang Space Oddity aboard the International Space Station in 2013; Bowie called it 'possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created' and later helped get it back onto YouTube.

Bowie wrote the Hunky Dory song Kooks for whom?

His newborn son: Bowie was at home listening to a Neil Young record when he heard that Zowie, now the film director Duncan Jones, had been born, and he wrote Kooks in that style.

Who were the three members of the Spiders from Mars?

Ronson, Bolder and Woodmansey backed Bowie through the Ziggy years; a row over wages soured their final tour after the drummer learned the newly hired pianist earned three times his pay.

Bowie's July 1972 Top of the Pops performance of which song cemented his UK breakthrough?

Starman, performed on Top of the Pops on 6 July 1972, had Bowie pointing straight down the camera at viewers; the single then climbed to UK number ten, his first hit in three years.

At which London venue did Bowie abruptly retire Ziggy Stardust on stage in July 1973?

Hammersmith Odeon: on 3 July 1973 Bowie told the crowd it was 'the last show that we'll ever do', which many fans took to mean he was quitting music, not just retiring Ziggy.

Which 1973 follow-up to Ziggy Stardust became Bowie's first UK number-one album?

Aladdin Sane topped the UK chart in spring 1973, where Ziggy Stardust had peaked at number five; Bowie wrote most of it on the road in the United States, which is why America runs through its songs.

Which song did Bowie write and produce for Mott the Hoople in 1972?

All the Young Dudes was Bowie's rescue act: Mott the Hoople were about to split, so he wrote them the song and produced it, giving the band its biggest UK hit.

Bowie's Diamond Dogs grew partly from his plan to adapt which novel as a musical?

Bowie wanted to stage Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four but the author's widow refused the rights, so songs like 1984 and Big Brother went into Diamond Dogs (1974).

Fame, Bowie's first US number one, was co-written with which Beatle?

John Lennon joined a one-day jam at New York's Electric Lady Studios in January 1975 and sang the high 'Fame' backing vocals on what became Bowie's first US number one.

On which US TV show did Bowie mime Fame and Golden Years in 1975?

Soul Train rarely booked white acts, and a nervous Bowie reportedly had a few drinks before miming Fame and Golden Years there in November 1975, fluffing some of his lines.

Which persona did Bowie adopt for the 1976 album Station to Station?

The Thin White Duke fronted Station to Station, made in Los Angeles at the depth of Bowie's cocaine use; he later said he could remember almost nothing about recording it.

In The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bowie's alien comes to Earth seeking what for his dying planet?

Water: Thomas Newton grows rich on alien patents to pay for a ship that could carry it home to his drought-stricken world, but drink and his captors leave him stranded on Earth.

Which Iggy Pop song, co-written by Bowie, did Bowie re-record for Let's Dance?

China Girl first appeared on Iggy Pop's 1977 album The Idiot; Bowie's 1983 hit version reached UK number two and earned his co-writer a windfall of badly needed royalties.

Which three Bowie albums make up his Berlin Trilogy?

Low, Heroes and Lodger followed Bowie's 1976 move to West Berlin, where he shared a flat with Iggy Pop while trying to shake the cocaine habit he had built up in Los Angeles.

Which Bowie album was recorded entirely at Berlin's Hansa Studios, with Robert Fripp on guitar?

'Heroes' was made in 1977 at Hansa, a studio so close to the Berlin Wall that his producer recalled border guards watching through binoculars; Bowie said lovers he saw kissing there inspired the title song.

With whom did Bowie record the Christmas duet Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy in 1977?

Bing Crosby taped it with Bowie in September 1977 after Bowie balked at singing Little Drummer Boy, so the show's writers composed the Peace on Earth counter-melody in about an hour; Crosby died weeks later.

Which composer based three of his symphonies on Bowie's Berlin albums?

Philip Glass wrote the first two in the 1990s and had discussed the third with Bowie, but completed the set only in 2019, three years after his friend's death.

Bowie narrated a 1978 recording of which classical work?

Peter and the Wolf fell to Bowie after Alec Guinness and Peter Ustinov turned RCA down; he is said to have recorded it as a Christmas present for his young son.

Bowie recruited regulars from which London club, including Steve Strange, for the Ashes to Ashes video?

Blitz: Bowie turned up at the Covent Garden club night in 1980 and took Steve Strange and three other regulars to appear in the Ashes to Ashes video, a day's shoot that earned each of them £50.

Which title role did Bowie play on Broadway in 1980?

The Elephant Man: Bowie took over as John Merrick at the Booth Theatre in late 1980 and wore no stage make-up, suggesting the man's deformity through posture alone.

Under Pressure grew out of a 1981 jam between Bowie and Queen at which studio?

Mountain, Montreux: Bowie dropped in at the studio Queen owned to sing backing vocals on another of their songs; that part was scrapped, and the jam that followed became a UK number one.

Which rapper had to settle with Bowie and Queen for sampling Under Pressure uncredited?

Vanilla Ice at first insisted the Ice Ice Baby bassline was different because he had added one beat, then settled out of court and gave Bowie and Queen songwriting credits.

Who co-produced Let's Dance, Bowie's biggest commercial success?

Nile Rodgers of Chic heard the title track as a folk-style demo and rearranged it into a dance hit; the album he co-produced became the biggest seller of Bowie's career.

Which then-unknown Texas guitarist played lead on Bowie's Let's Dance?

Stevie Ray Vaughan caught Bowie's ear at a 1982 festival and played the album's blues leads months before his own debut, Texas Flood, then parted ways with Bowie's tour days before it opened.

Bowie's Live Aid-era duet with Mick Jagger was a cover of which Martha and the Vandellas song?

Dancing in the Street replaced a planned live transatlantic duet at Live Aid that the satellite delay ruled out, so Bowie and Jagger cut the record and shot its video in a single night instead.

What was the name of Bowie's Goblin King in Labyrinth (1986)?

Jareth the Goblin King was a role for which Bowie also wrote five songs; Jim Henson's Labyrinth took under $13 million in US cinemas on release, and Henson never directed another feature.

Which Monty Python member wrote the screenplay for Bowie's 1986 film Labyrinth?

Terry Jones wrote the screenplay but said the finished film was not very much his, because George Lucas, Elaine May and others reworked it before shooting.

What was the name of the hard rock band Bowie fronted from 1988 to 1992?

Tin Machine was Bowie's bid to be one of four equals: the members split the profits four ways and shared the interviews, and he insisted it was not his backing band.

At the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, who sang Mercury's part opposite Bowie on Under Pressure?

Annie Lennox took Freddie Mercury's part on Under Pressure with Bowie at Wembley on 20 April 1992; later in his set Bowie knelt and recited the Lord's Prayer.

Bowie married Iman in 1992 in which country, his tax haven since 1976?

Switzerland: the couple married quietly at Lausanne city hall in April 1992, then flew to Los Angeles to house-hunt and arrived as the riots broke out, an experience behind Black Tie White Noise.

Which industrial band did Bowie choose as his tour partner for the 1995 Outside Tour?

Nine Inch Nails opened the US leg in 1995, and instead of a break the two sets merged, with Bowie joining Trent Reznor's band for duets before his own musicians took over.

In 1997 Bowie raised $55 million by selling bonds backed by what?

His song royalties: the Bowie Bonds pledged a decade of income from the 25 albums he had made before 1990, and Prudential bought the lot, shortly before file-sharing sent music sales tumbling.

In which 1996 film did Bowie play Andy Warhol?

Basquiat, Julian Schnabel's 1996 film, cast Bowie as Andy Warhol, an artist he had known and had written a song about on Hunky Dory in 1971, opposite Jeffrey Wright as the painter.

Which inventor did Bowie play in Christopher Nolan's The Prestige (2006)?

Bowie played the inventor Nikola Tesla in The Prestige; Christopher Nolan said Bowie was his only choice and flew to persuade him after he first declined.

What forced Bowie to abandon his 2004 world tour, his last?

Emergency heart surgery: after a festival set in Germany in June 2004, doctors found an acutely blocked artery and operated; a week earlier a fan's lollipop had hit him in the eye in Oslo.

Who collected Bowie's 2014 Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist on his behalf?

Kate Moss collected it wearing one of Bowie's original 1972 Ziggy Stardust stage outfits and read out his speech, which ended with a plea to voters: 'Scotland, stay with us.'

How many days before his death did Bowie release Blackstar, on his 69th birthday?

Two days separated Blackstar's release on 8 January 2016 from his death on 10 January; producer Tony Visconti called the album Bowie's parting gift to his fans.

Bowie recorded Blackstar in secret in New York with what kind of band?

A local jazz quartet: Bowie heard Donny McCaslin's group at the 55 Bar in Greenwich Village and hired them because, his producer said, the goal was to avoid rock and roll.

Bowie's final public appearance was at the opening night of which musical in December 2015?

Lazarus, which Bowie wrote with playwright Enda Walsh, opened in New York on 7 December 2015 and picks up the story of the stranded alien he played in The Man Who Fell to Earth.

With which illness had Bowie been privately diagnosed in mid-2014?

Bowie had been diagnosed with liver cancer about eighteen months before his death, a fact known only to a few; he recorded Blackstar in New York through early 2015 regardless.

Who photographed the lightning-bolt cover of Bowie's album Aladdin Sane?

Brian Duffy shot the cover in his London studio in 1973; Bowie wanted a flash like the one on Elvis Presley's ring, and its shape was copied from a rice cooker standing nearby.

Bowie's only competitive Grammy in his lifetime, won in 1985, honoured what?

A music video: the 1985 award went to Jazzin' for Blue Jean, the short film made for his single Blue Jean; his first Grammys in musical categories came only after his death, for Blackstar.

Which city inaugurated a Rue David Bowie on his birthday in January 2024?

Paris gave the name Rue David Bowie to a new street beside Austerlitz station on 8 January 2024, his 77th birthday; the local mayor, a fan, championed it, though the short street has no homes on it.

For which kind of 1999 release, Omikron: The Nomad Soul, did Bowie write songs and voice a character?

A video game: in Omikron Bowie voiced the hunted revolutionary Boz and fronted a fictional band that players could catch in concert; several of the songs resurfaced on his next album.

Which 1967 Bowie novelty single flopped, then reached UK number six on its 1973 reissue?

The Laughing Gnome, with its speeded-up gnome voice, flopped in 1967 and reached number six on reissue; when Bowie let fans vote by phone on his 1990 tour setlist, a campaign for the song took off and he never played it.

Bowie and Iman's daughter Alexandria 'Lexi' Zahra Jones was born in which year?

Alexandria Zahra Jones was born in New York on 15 August 2000, eight years into the marriage; Bowie said he was 'naming the children the night we met'.

Which 1960s model poses beside Bowie on the cover of his covers album Pin Ups?

Twiggy and Bowie were photographed together for the cover of Vogue, but the picture ended up on his album instead.

Where in London was Bowie's first solo art show, New Afro/Pagan and Work, held in 1995?

The show ran at The Gallery in Cork Street, Mayfair, in April 1995; that year's Outside cover was one of his self-portraits, and he had joined the editorial board of Modern Painters in 1994.

The painter Nat Tate, whose biography Bowie launched at a 1998 party, was secretly what?

Fictional: novelist William Boyd invented Nat Tate, Bowie's imprint published the fake life story, Bowie hosted the launch in Jeff Koons's studio, and guests said they had heard of the painter.

Where did Bowie's will ask for his ashes to be scattered?

Bowie's will asked for cremation and for his ashes to be scattered in Bali in a Buddhist ceremony; there was no funeral, and fans gathered at his Brixton mural and his Lafayette Street apartment.

Which London museum created the record-breaking touring exhibition David Bowie Is in 2013?

The V&A: Bowie let its curators borrow freely from his private archive but took no part in shaping the show, and in 2025 the museum opened a David Bowie Centre in east London to house that archive.

Who plays Bowie in the 2020 biopic Stardust?

Johnny Flynn plays the young Bowie on his 1971 trip to America; the estate withheld the songs, so Flynn sings covers Bowie performed at the time, such as Jacques Brel's My Death.

What kind of creature is Heteropoda davidbowie, named in his honour in 2008?

A spider: arachnologist Peter Jäger described the huntsman Heteropoda davidbowie from Malaysia in 2008, naming it with a nod to the singer's Glass Spider and his Spiders from Mars.

Which Bowie song did Nirvana cover on MTV Unplugged in 1993?

The Man Who Sold the World, the title track of Bowie's 1970 album, found a new audience through Nirvana's 1993 MTV Unplugged set; Bowie then reclaimed it on tour in a stark electronic rearrangement.

Which 2022 documentary by Brett Morgen was the first film officially approved by Bowie's estate?

Moonage Daydream: the estate opened an archive of some five million items to Morgen, who let Bowie narrate the whole film himself through old interview clips.

Bowie marked his 50th birthday in 1997 with an all-star concert at which venue?

Madison Square Garden: guests including Lou Reed, the Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth and Robert Smith joined him in New York on 9 January 1997, and the pay-per-view broadcast raised money for Save the Children.

David Bowie took his stage surname from an American frontiersman famous for popularising which weapon?

A knife gave him the name: he borrowed it from James Bowie, the pioneer behind the Bowie knife, so that nobody would mix him up with another young singer.

In which south London district, now home to a much-visited mural of him, was David Bowie born?

Brixton was his birthplace in 1947, and in 2011 a popular vote put his face on a note of the district's own currency, the Brixton Pound.

Which instrument did David Bowie take up as a teenager and later play on his own hits?

Saxophone came before guitar: he got a Grafton model in 1961 after falling for players such as John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, and took lessons from Ronnie Ross.

David Bowie shared his 8 January birthday with which American rock and roll star, twelve years his senior?

Elvis Presley was born on 8 January 1935, twelve years to the day before Bowie, whose father brought home a pile of American singles that included his records.

At 17, David Bowie gave his first TV interview as founder of a society defending men with what?

Long hair was the cause: his Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men got him onto the BBC's Tonight programme in 1964, where his music was never mentioned.

David Bowie's little-noticed debut album came out at the same time as which landmark Beatles album?

Sgt. Pepper arrived just as his self-titled debut did, and Bowie's record was a commercial failure that got little promotion from its label, Deram.

Which BBC police drama about a detective stranded in 1973 took its title from a David Bowie song?

Life on Mars plays the song on an iPod as detective Sam Tyler is run over, then on an 8-track tape when he wakes up in 1973.

Which filmmaker's last feature as director was the 1986 fantasy Labyrinth, starring David Bowie?

Jim Henson directed Labyrinth four years before his death, and George Lucas, its executive producer, helped him edit it.

In which Ben Stiller comedy does David Bowie appear as himself to judge a walk-off between rival models?

Zoolander brings him on with a freeze-frame and a burst of Let's Dance, sending up his image as the ultimate arbiter of cool.

David Bowie voiced Lord Royal Highness, ruler of Atlantis, in a 2007 special of which animated series?

SpongeBob SquarePants cast him in the special Atlantis SquarePantis, and a reworked Bowie song later turned up in the cartoon's Broadway musical.

Which future guitar star was David Bowie's schoolmate in Bromley and later played lead guitar in his touring band?

Peter Frampton was three years younger, and his band the Little Ravens once shared a school bill with Bowie's group, George and the Dragons.

David Bowie played long-missing FBI agent Phillip Jeffries in a film prequel to which cult TV drama?

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me gave him one strange scene, in which his agent reappears after a long absence, recounts a vision of spirits and vanishes again.

Which keyboard player, soon to join Yes, played piano on David Bowie's 1971 album Hunky Dory?

Rick Wakeman was a busy session musician at the time, and he had already played Mellotron on Bowie's 1969 album.

Which 1972 Lou Reed album, home of Walk on the Wild Side, did David Bowie co-produce?

Transformer turned Reed from a cult figure into an international star, and Bowie took the job because Reed's old band, the Velvet Underground, had shaped his own writing.

Which 1973 David Bowie album is made up entirely of covers of 1960s songs he loved as a teenager?

Pin Ups was a stop-gap to keep his record label happy, with versions of songs by the Who, the Yardbirds and Pink Floyd, and it still topped the UK chart.

In which American city, famed for its own soul sound, did David Bowie record the album Young Americans?

Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios was the home of the city's lush soul records and the favourite workplace of hitmakers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff.

Which future R&B star, then unknown, sang backing vocals on David Bowie's 1975 album Young Americans?

Luther Vandross also handed Bowie a song: the album track Fascination grew out of one of his own tunes, with new words added.

During his mid-1970s Los Angeles spell, David Bowie reportedly lived on cocaine, peppers and which drink?

Milk, peppers and cocaine were his diet while he made Station to Station, an album he later said he could recall almost nothing about recording.

Which former Roxy Music member worked with David Bowie on three experimental albums in the late 1970s?

Brian Eno's ambient records were what drew Bowie to him, and the pair teamed up again in 1995 for the album Outside.

Which American producer worked with David Bowie, on and off, from the late 1960s to his final album?

Tony Visconti, born in Brooklyn, produced Bowie records across almost fifty years, and his work on Blackstar won a Grammy for its engineering.

Which British director gave David Bowie his first starring film role, as a stranded alien, in 1976?

Nicolas Roeg also found a part for Bowie's real bodyguard, Tony Mascia, who plays his character's chauffeur in The Man Who Fell to Earth.

In which war film did David Bowie play a British prisoner in a Japanese camp, opposite Ryuichi Sakamoto?

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence cast him as Major Jack Celliers, and the director picked Sakamoto from a book of photographs without even meeting him.

In which country did David Bowie film the Let's Dance video, a comment on its treatment of indigenous people?

Australia supplied the outback setting and both leads, Terry Roberts and Joelene King, students from Sydney's Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre.

Which American singer duetted with David Bowie on the title track of his 1984 album Tonight?

Tina Turner joined him on a reggae-flavoured cover of the song, though her vocals were placed low in the mix.

Which biblical figure did David Bowie play in Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ?

Pontius Pilate gave him only a brief part opposite Willem Dafoe's Jesus, in a film shot entirely in Morocco, and it still won him praise.

David Bowie filmed a live-action introduction for which 1982 animated film based on a Raymond Briggs book?

The Snowman's makers wanted a rock star, so Bowie was filmed in an attic, finding a scarf just like the one the boy is given in the film.

At which English festival did David Bowie headline at the turn of the millennium, decades after first playing there?

Glastonbury gave him its Sunday-night headline slot almost 30 years after his first visit, and the BBC did not show the set in its entirety until twenty years later.

Which royal honour did David Bowie turn down in 2003, three years after declining to become a CBE?

A knighthood held no appeal for him: he said he would never have had any intention of accepting one and did not know what such an honour was for.

What kind of business did David Bowie launch under his own name in 1998?

An internet provider was a bold move for a rock star in 1998: BowieNet's dial-up subscribers got web access, exclusive content and a BowieNet email address.

Which David Bowie album, announced without warning on his 66th birthday, ended a decade-long recording silence?

The Next Day entered the UK chart at number one, his first album to top it since Black Tie White Noise twenty years before.

Which animal features in David Bowie's best-known nickname?

Chameleon of rock was the label that stuck, as he moved from glam to soul to electronic music and gave every phase a new look of its own.

Which traditional Japanese theatre inspired the make-up and tear-away costumes of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust persona?

Kabuki actors change costume in an instant on stage, a trick his tear-away outfits copied, and the star actor Bandō Tamasaburō taught him make-up techniques.

Which stock clown of old Italian comedy did David Bowie dress as in the Ashes to Ashes video?

Pierrot's costume was modelled on a Renaissance original and made by Natasha Korniloff, who had known Bowie since his theatre days in 1968.

Which persona did David Bowie introduce on the title track of his 1974 album Diamond Dogs?

Halloween Jack arrived just after Bowie's glam-era band had gone, so he played the album's lead guitar himself.

Which British designer co-created the Union Jack coat David Bowie wears on the cover of his album Earthling?

Alexander McQueen designed the coat together with Bowie, who wore it at summer festivals before taking it to the 1997 VH1 Fashion Awards.

Which 1975 BBC documentary followed a gaunt David Bowie across America during his struggle with cocaine?

Cracked Actor was made by Alan Yentob for the Omnibus strand, and it borrowed its title from one of Bowie's own songs.

Which Japanese designer created the androgynous, futuristic stage costumes for David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust shows?

Kansai Yamamoto's outfits were first lent to Bowie by a stylist friend of the designer, who was then commissioned to dress his 1973 British and American tours.

Which detective did David Bowie invent as the diarist of his 1995 concept album Outside, a tale of art and murder?

Nathan Adler investigates the killing of a teenage girl in the fictional Oxford Town, and his diary entries were printed in the album's CD booklet.

Under which seafaring handle did David Bowie drop into online chats with his own fans?

Sailor is an anagram of Isolar, a word he coined from isolation and solar and also used as the name of his 1976 tour.

Which word did David Bowie put before 'soul' to label the sound of his 1975 album Young Americans?

Plastic soul was his own wry label, and his pianist Mike Garson later argued that Bowie ran himself down because he was unsure he was any good at the style.

Which English rock 'n' roll singer, whom David Bowie met after a breakdown, inspired the Ziggy Stardust character?

Vince Taylor had come to believe he was a cross between a god and a being from space, which handed Bowie the idea of a rock star as messiah.

According to David Bowie, the name Ziggy came from what kind of business that he passed on a train?

A tailor's seemed fitting to him because the whole project was going to be about clothes, so the name was his own private joke.

Which West End side road has a plaque marking where David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album cover was photographed?

Heddon Street was home to the furriers K. West, whose sign hangs above him on the sleeve; the sign came down in 1991, but fans still make the pilgrimage.

Which opening track of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album announces that the Earth is doomed?

Five Years is all the time a news broadcast gives the planet before disaster strikes, the crisis into which Ziggy is sent as a saviour.

Which closing track of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album was also the closing number of his Ziggy live shows?

Rock 'n' Roll Suicide charts Ziggy's collapse as a washed-up star, and its title soon turned into a slogan on fans' jackets.

Which Ziggy Stardust track did David Bowie first offer to Mott the Hoople, who turned it down?

Suffragette City came with a condition: the band, whom he greatly admired, had to give up their plan to split.

Which documentary maker, famed for Bob Dylan's Dont Look Back, filmed David Bowie's final Ziggy Stardust concert?

D. A. Pennebaker shot the 1973 farewell, but the film was first shown at the Edinburgh festival in 1979 and waited until 1983 for a worldwide cinema release.

Which Stanley Kubrick film inspired the early stage outfits of David Bowie's band in the Ziggy Stardust era?

A Clockwork Orange supplied the Droogs' big boots and tucked-in trousers, which Bowie softened by remaking them in the most ridiculous fabrics he could find.

Which American institution chose David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album for its National Recording Registry in 2017?

The Library of Congress preserves recordings it judges culturally, historically or aesthetically significant, and it heard blues, garage rock and stadium rock in Ziggy.

What colour was the mullet David Bowie wore as Ziggy Stardust, a style pieced together from fashion magazines?

Red was the dye used by hairdresser Suzi Fussey, who built the cut from three different magazine photographs and then went on the road with the Ziggy tour.