52 years after his first appearance, the infamous David Bowie character Ziggy Stardust is set to make a return in 2024. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars is the title of Bowie’s legendary 1972 album, featuring the smash hit “Starman”. In honour of Record Store Day 2024, a brand new Ziggy Stardust era LP is set to be released. The album, titled Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth), will feature the majority of songs on the 1972 record as well as four additional songs from Bowie’s 1971 Trident Studios recordings, one of which being a cover of a song by rock and roll legend Chuck Berry.

WAITING IN THE SKY VINYL LP FOR RSD 2024

“He’d like to come and meet us…”

To mark what would have been David Bowie’s 77th birthday, Parlophone Records are proud to announce the release of a very special David Bowie limited vinyl LP, WAITING IN THE SKY (BEFORE THE STARMAN CAME… pic.twitter.com/j9Oh0pQWSv

— David Bowie Official (@DavidBowieReal) January 8, 2024

The LP is set to be released on April 20th 2024, in line with Record Store Day, which falls on the same day.

Record Store Day is an annual event beginning in 2007 to “celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store”. Held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November, the day brings together fans, artists, and thousands of independent record stores around the world. A number of records are pressed specifically for Record Store Day, with a list of releases for each country, and are only distributed to shops participating in the event.

A press release for the upcoming album states that “The tracklisting for WAITING IN THE SKY (BEFORE THE STARMAN CAME TO EARTH) runs differently from the ZIGGY STARDUST album and features four songs that didn’t make the final album.

On Side 1, in the place of ‘STARMAN’, one of the last three tracks recorded for the album in February 1972, is ‘ROUND AND ROUND’, a Chuck Berry cover. The track was finally released on a single as the B-side to ‘DRIVE-IN SATURDAY’ on 6th April, 1973. Initially, closing Side 1 of the album was Bowie’s version of Jacques Brel’s ‘AMSTERDAM’, which would later appear as the B-side of ‘SORROW’ on 12th October, 1973.

Side 2 of the 15th December, 1971 tracklisting features two long-time non-LP fan favourites, ‘HOLY HOLY’ and ‘VELVET GOLDMINE’. The former is a re-recording with The Spiders of David’s 1971 single. Again, this version of the track had to wait several years before surfacing as the B-side of ‘DIAMOND DOGS’ on 14th June, 1974.”

Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) tracklist:

Side 1
“Five Years”
“Soul Love”
“Moonage Daydream”
“Round And Round”
“Amsterdam”

Side 2
“Hang On To Yourself”
“Ziggy Stardust”
“Velvet Goldmine”
“Holy Holy”
“Star”
“Lady Stardust”