Spaceman (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Spaceman


Artist = Babylon Zoo
from Album = The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes
B-side = "Blue Nude" "Metal Vision" "5th Dimension Remix" "E Before I Remix"
Released = 1995
Format = CD, Cassette, 12"
Recorded = 1995
Genre = Space Rock Alternative rock
Length =
Label = EMI
Writer = Jas Mann
Producer = Jas Mann Steve Power
Certification =
Chart position = * #1 (UK, Ireland, Germany, Norway)
Last single =
This single = "Spaceman" (1995)
Next single = "Animal Army" (1996)

"Spaceman" is a song by Wolverhampton singer-songwriter Jas Mann, of Babylon Zoo. Known for its heavily distorted guitars and metallic, robotic sounding vocals, it went straight to Number 1 on the UK singles chart on January 21, 1996, selling 418,000 copies in the first week of release. At the time it was the fastest selling single by a debut artist in the UK.

Song history

Promotional copies of "Spaceman" had been distributed, and the Arthur Baker remix was chosen to tie in with the release on 1 December 1995 of a new Levi's jeans TV advert titled " [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=g5TXolwA7cE Planet] " which was directed by Vaughan Arnell and Anthea Benton. The advertisement concentrated on the sped-up vocal section at the beginning and end of the song, which was the product of an Arthur Baker remix. The single went straight to Number 1 on the UK singles chart on 21 January 1996, selling 418,000 copies in the first week of release, at the time being the fastest selling single by a debut artist in the UK. The single remained at number 1 in the UK for 5 weeks, selling 893,000 copies in this period. The single also went to Number 1 in the single charts in twenty three countries.

On the promotional version of "Spaceman" there are extra lyrics at the start of the song, with Jas saying "I killed your mother, I killed your sister" and then later "I killed you all". These lyrics were later taken out of the song and replaced with the Arthur Baker introduction; although, the "I killed you all" lyric is still buried in the song (it can be heard after the first chorus). There was a lower budget video made for this version.

The follow-up to "Spaceman", "Animal Army", made it into the U.K. Top 20, and the band made an appearance on "Top of the Pops" to perform it, whilst the title track of the band's album "The Boy with the X-Ray Eyes" was also a Top 40 hit.

Tracklisting

Version 1

#Spaceman (Radio Edit)
#Spaceman (The 5th Dimension)
#Spaceman (Arthur Meets The Spaceman)
#Spaceman (E Before I)

Version 2

#Spaceman (Radio Edit)
#Metal Vision
#Blue Nude
#Spaceman (E Before I)

Covers

*Katie Melua has performed an acoustic version of this song live.
*Metal band Kovenant covered this song in their album Animatronic.
*Cinema Bizarre covered this song both live and in a studio recorded track.