The best No 1 records: David Bowie – Space Oddity

Space Oddity was originally a top five hit in 1969, after featuring in advertisements for the miniature Stylophone synthesiser , which Bowie plays on the song, and during the BBC's coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing . But the space age sounds and lyrics such as "Ground control to Major Tom" still sounded incredibly futuristic on its 1975 re-release, by which point Bowie bestrode pop like a Technicolor-clad colossus. As one of the multitudes that took Space Oddity's second mission to No 1, the appeal for me wasn't just Bowie's science fiction odyssey of a doomed spaceman, but the fact that it was marketed as a "maxi-single" containing the equally dazzling Changes and Velvet Goldmine on the flip. Eerily, while Major Tom ended up lost in the outer galaxies, my copy underwent its own tragic meltdown after contact with a radiator at school. See every No 1 hit from 1975