Songoftheday 4/25/13 - Standing here alone the ship is waiting, all systems are go, are you sure?...

Peter Schilling - "Major Tom (Coming Home)"
from the album Error In The System (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10

Today's Song of the Day is by the German singer/musician Peter Schilling, who are from the southern city of Stuttgart, and released his debut album in 1982 in Germany, containing a native-language rework of the David Bowie "Space Oddity" song as "Major Tom", which topped the charts in Austria, Switzerland, and his homeland. After a translation to English, the single got a new life and success in America as "Major Tom (Coming Home)"...

"Major Tom" reached the top-20 on the American pop chart in the winter of 1983. While going to #1 in Canada, the song stalled right under the top-40 in England (odd, considering it's "new-wave" vibe).

Schilling himself wouldn't see another top-40 hit, though in 1988 he had a minor hit (that I loved even more) called "A Different Story", which went to #61. Meanwhile he would also have minor hits in Germany with remixes of "Major Tom" in 1994 and 2000.

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A couple of years ago, American group Shiny Toy Guns covered it for a commercial and brought the song to a new generation..

Here's Peter's version from 1994 featuring Boombastic that hit #29 in his home country...

...and again redone in 2000 with "Ground Control"...



Up tomorrow: Wipe that smirk off those corneas.