David Bowie’s Most Famous Character Made an Unlikely Comeback in This 80s Synth-Pop Hit

Few songs have ever evoked the feeling of déjà vu quite like Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom (Coming Home)”, a No. 14 hit in the US in 1983. After all, some people were already familiar with Schilling’s German-language version of the song in 1982, which hit big in Europe.

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Then there were those who spotted the similarities in its lyrics to the David Bowie classic “Space Oddity”. Schilling retold Bowie’s tale with a few twists to score his American breakthrough.

‘System’ Success

Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Peter Schilling started his pop music career by releasing his first single in 1976 at the age of 20. At that point, he was still using his birth name of Pierre Schilling on his songs. The singles he released for the first half-decade of his career didn’t make much of a mark.

In 1982, Schilling finally hit it big in Europe with the German-language album Fehler Im System. The song from that LP that opened the floodgates for him was one that he composed in his bedroom called “Vollig Losgelost” (roughly translated to “wholly untethered.”)

The song segued from a chilling, minimalistic synth pulse into a soaring chorus. It went to No. 1 in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. That kind of success encouraged Elektra Records to sponsor an English version of the album, titled Error In The System and released in 1983. And that’s when English-speaking fans realized the song’s connection to an old hit.

Back in “Space”

David Bowie released the song “Space Oddity” in 1969. Bowie found the inspiration in the classic 1968 Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Since the song was released right around the moon landing in 1969, it was timed perfectly to succeed. And it did, putting the then-obscure Bowie on the map in places like the United States.

Bowie himself included another reference to the Major Tom character in his 1980 song “Ashes To Ashes”. Schilling, meanwhile, used both the character’s name and borrowed from the original song’s plot for “Major Tom (Coming Home)”. Schilling is credited as the lone writer of the song, and it isn’t clear if there was ever an agreement made by which Bowie received any of the royalties.

There’s no doubt that “Major Tom (Coming Home)” likely owes a little bit of its success to fans’ interest in revisiting the tale of Bowie’s astronaut. But Schilling’s creativity with both the music and the lyrics helped his song stand on its own.

Behind the Lyrics of “Major Tom (Coming Home)”

“Major Tom (Coming Home)” finds our hero once again preparing to journey to far-off planets and stars. “’Send me up a drink,’ jokes Major Tom,” Schilling sings, suggesting that the astronaut is completely at ease. Everything is taking place in lockstep fashion until the end of the second verse. That’s when it becomes clear that Tom isn’t responding to the commands of Ground Control.

“Across the stratosphere, a final message,” Schilling moans. “Give my wife my love, then nothing more.” In the final moments, we realize that he isn’t coming back down. “Now the light commands, this is my home,” Schilling dreamily sings. “I’m coming home.”

The lyrics are just vague enough to make you wonder whether technical difficulties have caused this incident or whether the astronaut consciously decided to leave Earth behind. In any case, “Major Tom (Coming Home)” proved that a good premise can support multiple unique songs.

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