David Bowie - Aladdin Sane

April 2023 marked the 50th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane. It was released only ten months after his breakthrough album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. The title track and songs such as ‘Panic In Detroit,' ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ and ‘Time’ marked a significant musical progression from its predecessor, adding brass, woodwind, soulful backing vocals and the distinctive piano playing of Mike Garson.

This limited edition 50th anniversary is half-speed mastered. This new pressing of Aladdin Sane was cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios.

The album was preceded by two singles ‘The Jean Genie’ and ‘Drive-In Saturday’, peaking in the UK singles chart at numbers 2 and 3 respectively, and was the first time he topped the UK album charts. It also marked Bowie’s debut on the US charts reaching the top 20 album chart there, where an edited version of ‘Time’ was released as a single. 

The cover of Aladdin Sane has become one of the most striking and memorable images in rock n roll history and was rumoured to be the most expensive produced up to that point. The cover photograph was taken by Brian Duffy, who would also shoot the sleeves for 1979’s Lodger and 1980’s Scary Monsters and features Bowie with the iconic red and blue lightning bolt make-up, an image which has staked out an indelible spot in the planet’s cultural lexicon.  

Bowie described Aladdin Sane as ‘Ziggy Goes To Washington: Ziggy under the influence of America’. The album was to be Ziggy Stardust's last stand, and the persona was laid to rest three months after the album's release in July 1973 at the infamous final show with the Spiders From Mars at London’s Hammersmith Odeon.