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Spaceman (Babylon Zoo song)
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Wikipedia article
"'Spaceman'" is a song by British rock band Babylon Zoo, released on 15 January 1996 as the lead single from their debut album, 'The Boy with the X-Ray Eyes' (1996). Featuring heavily distorted guitars and metallic, robotic sounding vocals, the song entered the UK Singles Chart at number one on 21 January 1996 following its use in a Levi's jeans television advertisement the previous year; "Spaceman" was the sixth song to reach number one in the UK after being featured in a Levi's advert.
Song history
Promotional copies of "Spaceman" had been distributed, and the Arthur Baker remix was chosen to tie in with the release of a new United Kingdom Levi's advertisement titled "Planet" on 1 December 1995, which was directed by Vaughan Arnell and Anthea Benton. The advertisement concentrated on Baker's sped-up vocal section at the beginning and end of the song, featuring an alien neighbourhood inspired by the 1950s with alien parents awaiting the return of their teen daughter. There was a full version of the sped up vocals called "Spaceman (Zupervarian Mix)".[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VukxfnrJaYQ Spaceman's Zupervarian Mix on Youtube] Russian model Kristina Semenovskaya played the daughter, wearing Levi's jeans.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-ntRAV4lg Spaceman Levi's Commercial on Youtube]
The initial intro to "Spaceman" on the promotional copies, before it was used for the advert, featured Mann's whispering vocals of "I killed your mother, I killed your sister, I killed you all." These lyrics were later taken out of the song and replaced with the more radio friendly Arthur Baker introduction. The "I killed you all" lyric remains buried in the mix. There was a lower budget video made for this version.
In 2006, "Spaceman" featured on trailers for Ant and Dec's film 'Alien Autopsy', the BBC's children's channel, CBeebies for the animated preschool series 'Lunar Jim', and Network Ten's advertisement for 'Battlestar Galactica'. "Spaceman" is also used in 'Eesti otsib superstaari' (Pop Idol Estonia). "Spaceman" is also featured in E4's 'My Mad Fat Diary', in the episode "Ladies and Gentlemen", during the scene where Rae and Finn begin their drive to Knebworth.
Music video
Following the release of the single a music video was produced, directed by Mark Neale.https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0623715/ It features a black-and-white prologue with Jas Mann as a night driver who has a close encounter with aliens appearing from fog on the road, with the vocals sped up. When the vocals decelerate and return to normal pitch, the video alternates between the band playing in an underground place full of young people dancing with the band playing alone in a blue-colored desert landscape, with Mann singing to camera. Finally the vocals are sped up again, during a black-and-white epilogue that returns to the prologue's scene, where aliens go missing in the fog but one of them turns in front of the camera pointing to the night sky, showing that he's the night driver, turned into another alien.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETbPRUqL_HE Babylon Zoo - Spaceman video on Youtube]
The song in the video (A minor) is recorded a semitone lower than the record (A minor). The speeded up intro and outro sections are in the 'dominant' key: E minor (video) and E minor (record).
Reception and legacy
Contemporary reception was generally favourable. Chuck Eddy at 'Entertainment Weekly' described the song's "futuristic kitsch" as "both funny and seductive." 'Music & Media' said it's "basically a good pop tune whose hooks grab you by the throat." 'Music Week' gave it four out of five, adding that "the energetic and distinctive guitar rock of Spaceman is featured on the new Levis ad, so expect big sales." Reviewing 'The Boy with the X-Ray Eyes' in 'Select', Ian Harrison described the song as a "bin-lid dancey metal effort with a weakness for vintage Bowie-isms (done like Bauhaus with synths) and a suspected humour deficiency". Also Helen Lamont of 'Smash Hits' rated the song four out of five. She noted: "The intro sounds just like the ad all high pitched and squeaky but then everything takes a turn for the serious. Fear not, though it is still good but in a charming slit-your-wrists, top-of-the-rock charts kind of way." David Sinclair of 'The Times' wrote: "A heavily synthesised rocker, with an oddly lurching, varispeed intro, Spaceman is rich in futuristic imagery, with echoes of David Bowie and Gary Numan that extend well beyond its title... With its bright, icy appeal and a moody undercurrent, it sounds as if it should wear well. Like the jeans."
Retrospectively, Noisey UK managing editor Daisy Jones found the song's verses to be lacklustre but the chorus reminiscent of "the sudden sickly swell of euphoria 20 minutes after popping a surprisingly pure pill". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the track a "bizarre, tuneless collage of hip-hop rhythms, techno keyboards and alternative guitars", that despite sounding distinctive, lacks "any tangible hook to make it memorable".[ 'The Boy with the X-Ray Eyes' review. AllMusic.] Writer Tim Moore and a 'Scotsman' journalist likened the song to a dirge, and unfavourably compared it to the Arthur Baker (Zupervarian) remix ; Moore attributed the single's success to the Baker (Zupervarian) remix and its Levi's advert exposure. Steven Wells of 'NME' recalled: "Millions of pop kids rushed down Woolies and bought the single only to get it home to discover to their horror that it was 'good' (like in the advert) for about ten seconds, and then became rubbish. Very rubbish." Colleague Sarah Anderson wrote: "There can be few more crushing letdowns in pop than the full single mix of 'Spaceman'." Singer Katie Melua, who has performed the song live occasionally, has called it "ridiculously catchy" with "bloody weird" lyrics.
MTV UK ranked "Spaceman" as the number-24 single of the 1990s.[https://web.archive.org/web/20101127180527/http://www.mtv.co.uk/music/charts/official-uk-countdowns/the-official-top-100-singles-of-the-90s The Official Top 100 Singles of The 90's] "Spaceman" was voted number 31 in a 2006 Channel 4 poll of the 50 best songs by one-hit wonders.
Commercial performance
The single charted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, registering first-week sales of 383,000. It became the fastest-selling debut single in British pop music history, and the best-selling single in the United Kingdom in over thirty years, since The Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love". "Spaceman" became a number one chart hit in 23 countries. As of June 2013, "Spaceman" was the 79th best-selling single in the history of the United Kingdom, selling 1.15 million copies.
Track listings
'UK CD1'
# "Spaceman" 4:41
# "Metal Vision" 3:48
# "Blue Nude" 2:09
# "Spaceman" (album version) 5:42
'UK CD2'
# "Spaceman" (album version) 5:42
# "Spaceman" (Electronic Information) 7:43
# "Spaceman" (Arthur Meets the Spaceman) 5:56
# "Spaceman" (E Before I) 6:37
# "Spaceman" (Morbid Television Control) 4:40
'UK 12-inch single'
:A1. "Spaceman" (radio edit) 4:08
:A2. "Spaceman the 5th (Dimension)" 5:09
:B1. "Spaceman" (Arthur Meets the Spaceman) 5:56
:B2. "Spaceman" (E Before I) 6:37
'UK cassette single'
:A1. "Spaceman" (radio edit) 4:08
:A2. "Blue Nude" 2:09
:B1. "Metal Vision" 3:48
:B2. "Spaceman the 5th (Dimension)" 5:09
'US and Australian CD single'
# "Spaceman" (radio edit) 4:08
# "Metal Vision" 3:48
# "Blue Nude" 2:09
# "Spaceman the 5th (Dimension)" 5:09
'US cassette single'
# "Spaceman" (radio edit) 4:08
# "Blue Nude" 2:09
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"!Chart (1996)
!Position
|-
!scope="row"|Australia (ARIA)
|30
|-
!scope="row"|Austria (3 Austria Top 40)
|13
|-
!scope="row"|Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)
|5
|-
!scope="row"|Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)
|13
|-
!scope="row"|Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)
|5
|-
!scope="row"|France (SNEP)
|19
|-
!scope="row"|Germany (Official German Charts)
|19
|-
!scope="row"|Iceland (slenski Listinn Topp 40)
|37
|-
!scope="row"|Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)
|65
|-
!scope="row"|Netherlands (Single Top 100)
|73
|-
!scope="row"|New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)
|27
|-
!scope="row"|Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)
|3
|-
!scope="row"|Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)
|25
|-
!scope="row"|UK Singles (OCC)
|3
|}
Certifications
Release history
Notable cover versions
* Katie Melua has performed an acoustic version of this song live.
* Danish singer M sampled the song for her 2022 album Motordrome.
References
Category:1995 debut singles
Category:1995 songs
Category:1996 singles
Category:Babylon Zoo songs
Category:EMI Records singles
Category:European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles
Category:Irish Singles Chart number-one singles
Category:Number-one singles in Austria
Category:Number-one singles in Denmark
Category:Number-one singles in Finland
Category:Number-one singles in Germany
Category:Number-one singles in Norway
Category:Number-one singles in Scotland
Category:Number-one singles in Sweden
Category:Songs about outer space
Category:SNEP Top Singles number-one singles
Category:Song recordings produced by Steve Power
Category:UK Singles Chart number-one singles
Category:Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles
Category:Ultratop 50 Singles (Wallonia) number-one singles
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