The Story of "Major Tom (Coming Home)" by Peter Schilling

In the United State, Peter Schilling is con­sid­ered a one-hit won­der for “Major Tom (Com­ing Home).”  Orig­i­nally recorded in Ger­man, “Major Tom (Völ­lig los­gelöst)” was released on Jan­u­ary 3, 1983 in West Ger­many, where it reached #1.  The Eng­lish ver­sion of the song was released in the U.S. on Sep­tem­ber 24 of that year and peaked at #14 on the Bill­board Hot 100 Sin­gles chart and #2 on the dance chart.  It was Schilling’s only Top 40 hit in the U.S., although his col­lab­o­ra­tion with Michael Cretu of later Enigma fame, “Dif­fer­ent Story (World of Lust and Crime)” peaked at 61 in 1989.

“Major Tom (Com­ing Home)” is con­sid­ered to be a rein­ter­pre­ta­tion of David Bowie’s “Major Tom” from his Space Odd­ity album.  Schilling’s work is known for fea­tur­ing sci­ence fic­tion influ­ences and dystopian themes of tech­nol­ogy tak­ing over or break­ing down, as well as aban­don­ing the planet.

The song was remixed and rere­leased in 1994, 2000, and 2004.

Ver­sions

Major Tom (Com­ing Home) [Ger­man Ver­sion] 3’57

Major Tom (Com­ing Home) [Eng­lish Ver­sion] 3’57

Major Tom (Com­ing Home) [Spe­cial Extended Ver­sion] 7’58

Major Tom (Com­ing Home) [Spe­cial Instru­men­tal Ver­sion] 4’53

Music Video

The music video for “Major Tom (Com­ing Home)” was a sta­ple of early MTV.  It still exudes an early 80s charm.  Scenes of Schilling and what I assume is his band sit­ting in clas­sic cars stacked on top of one another in a junk yard while home­less men drink around a fire below are inter­cut with footage of var­i­ous of astro­nauts and space mis­sions from what appears to be the 60s.  When Ground Con­trol loses con­tact with Major Tom, Schilling van­ishes from the car.  His wife gives an emo­tional good-bye on tele­vi­sion while a shirt­less body­builder irons behind her.  Major Tom seems to ascend to an after­life inhab­ited by car hops on rollerskates.

This is one of my favorite songs from the early 80s.  I don’t remem­ber ever hear­ing this song dur­ing the day­time; I always seemed to lis­ten to it in the glow of my stereo at night.  I was a big sci­ence fic­tion fan as a kid, so the astro­naut theme appealed to me.  The local radio sta­tions would alter­nate between play­ing the Eng­lish and Ger­man ver­sions of the song.  Because MTV wasn’t avail­able in our area until 1987, I didn’t see this video until years later.  Nei­ther Peter Schilling nor the video looked any­thing like I imag­ined them.

What are your mem­o­ries of “Major Tom (Com­ing Home)” and Peter Schilling?