Changes

When David Bowie sat down to compose "Changes", he was coming off a promotional tour of the United States in early 1971. Back at his home in Haddon Hall, London, he began to write. Many of those ideas ended up on Hunky Dory, his fourth album, and on the one that followed, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The song "Changes", in fact, he demoed in June 1971, with himself singing and playing the piano. That version, with different lyrics from the one we know, was not released until 2022, as part of a compilation box set. The recording of "Changes" took place on July 30, 1971, at Trident Studios in London.

Bowie and Ken Scott produced it together. It featured Rick Wakeman on piano, who would soon join Yes, and the musicians who would become known as the Spiders from Mars: Mick Ronson on guitar, Trevor Bolder on bass, and Mick Woodmansey on drums. Wakeman recalled in 1995 that Bowie had shown him the demos of "Changes" and "Life on Mars?" in late June 1971, describing the selection of songs as the best he had ever heard. In the final version, Bowie included a saxophone solo, something he himself described as an experimentation with melodies for that instrument. He himself commented that the song, in its early stages, was a kind of parody of a disco track, something almost disposable, but that the audience's reaction at concerts surprised him.

Although the single did not have a major initial impact, its popularity grew over time, even becoming the B-side of the 1975 reissue of "Space Oddity", which became Bowie's first number one in the UK. Musically, it is classified as art pop and is distinguished by a very particular piano riff.