A Furious David Bowie Wrote 1 Hit Song as ‘Revenge’ on Frank Sinatra
Early in his career, David Bowie turned on the radio and heard a Frank Sinatra song that shocked him. The British singer didn’t feel stunned by the power of Sinatra’s vocals; instead, he felt furious that Sinatra was singing a version of a song Bowie wrote. It was “My Way,” a song that became one of Sinatra’s signature tunes. Later, Bowie wrote a song in retaliation.
David Bowie wrote a song in response to Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’
In 1968, Bowie attempted to compose English lyrics for the French song “Comme d’habitude.” His version of the song didn’t make it far, but he later heard the tune on the radio.
“I wrote some really terrible lyrics [to it] — I think it was called ‘Even A Fool Learns To Love,’” Bowie told Michael Parkinson in 2002 (via ABC). “I sent it back again and I thought that will be the last I hear of that. Then I hear it on the radio and I thought ‘That’s that tune, it must be my song … but hang on, these are different lyrics’, and it was Sinatra singing ‘My Way.’“
He said hearing “My Way” both angered and inspired him.
“That really made me angry for so long — for about a year,” Bowie said. “Eventually I thought, ‘I can write something as big as that, and I’ll write one that sounds a bit like it.’”
He decided to write a similarly epic song. The result was “Life on Mars?”
“So I did ‘Life On Mars?,’ which was my sort of revenge trip on ‘My Way.’”
On the back of Hunky Dory, Bowie included the note “Inspired by Frankie” next to the track listing for “Life on Mars?”
David Bowie’s parody of the Frank Sinatra song wowed people
Though the song began as a parody, it was quite strong in its own right. The backing musicians knew right away that they were working on a hit.
“I remember leaving [the studio] and saying to a couple of friends that I met that evening in a local pub that I’d just played on the best song that I’d ever had the privilege to work on,” pianist Rick Wakeman said. “It had every single ingredient.”
Wakeman believed the song showcased Bowie’s strengths as an artist.
“The great thing about David was he was a wonderful melody man, but it wasn’t just the melodies — he had great ideas for chord structures and would always throw in the odd surprise when you were least expecting it.”
The singer eventually came to dislike ‘My Way’
Sinatra’s “My Way” frustrated Bowie. It also frustrated Sinatra himself, who grew to hate performing it.
“Frank Sinatra hated that song,” songwriter Bill Zehme said, per a 1998 article in Newsweek. “He thought it was pompous and self-aggrandizing, two things he never was.”
His dislike of the song was no secret; he told one audience that he couldn’t stand performing it as a way of introducing it.
“We have a song we haven’t done in a long time, and we’re gonna drop it in here now,” he told an audience in 1984 (per People). “I think we did it for about 10 years, and it got to be a real pain you-know-where.”
Later that same year, Sinatra muttered “I can’t stand the song myself” during the instrumental outro.
