Friday Featured Track for Feb. 5, 2010: “Major Tom”
The song that has been on my brain the most this week:
- “Major Tom (Coming Home)” by Peter Schilling and covered by Shiny Toy Guns.
Since hearing Shiny Toy Guns’ rendition of this song in heavy rotation during Sunday night’s Grammy Awards, the Shinys cover version AND Peter Schilling’s original version have been stuck my head. Even blogging Wednesday about the Shinys rendition of the song, which was Googled heavily during and after the Grammys, didn’t exorcise it from my brain.
It’s probably because this song and I have history. I can recall so vividly sitting in front of the TV as a kid and watching Schilling’s music video. My sister and I liked it so much my dad taped it on our VCR and played it for us all the time. I’m not sure why the appeal was so strong, but I think the stack of cars with Schilling sitting in a pink hot rod on top of the pile had a lot to do with it.
The German synthpop singer recorded this song about a fictional astronaut involved in a space accident in both German and English and released it 1983. It’s an obvious reference to the character David Bowie developed for his 1969 song “Space Oddity,” but as a child of the ’80s, I don’t remember hearing Bowie sing about Major Tom until much later in life.
In 2009, synthpop/electroclash group Shiny Toy Guns, originally formed in Shawnee, recorded a cover of the song that was featured in a 2010 Lincoln MKZ commercial. It was later released as a single and on the remix album Girls Le Disko.
On Sunday, Lincoln played a snippet of the Shinys performing it live in several ads aired during the Grammys.
The result: The permanent groove worn in my brain by “Major Tom” just got much deeper.
-BAM
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