music.wikisort.org - Composition

"Major Tom (Coming Home)" (German: Major Tom [völlig losgelöst], 'Major Tom [completely detached]') is a song by singer Peter Schilling from his album Error in the System. With a character unofficially related to "Major Tom", the protagonist of David Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity", the song is about the character breaking off contact with ground control and traveling off into space.[1]

"Major Tom (Coming Home)"
Single by Peter Schilling
from the album Error in the System
Released	24 March 1983
Recorded	1983[discuss]
Genre	Neue Deutsche Welle, new wave, synthpop, space rock
Length	4:33 (German edit) 5:00 (English version) 8:02 (extended version)
Label	Elektra WEA Records
Songwriter(s)	Peter Schilling
Producer(s)	Armin Sabol Peter Schilling
Peter Schilling singles chronology
"Fehler Im System" (1982) "Major Tom (Coming Home)" (1983) "Terra Titanic" (1984)

The song was originally recorded in German and released in West Germany on 3 January 1983. It reached No. 1 in West Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The English version was first released in the United States on 24 September 1983. It reached No. 1 in Canada, No. 4 in South Africa and peaked at No. 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart the week of 24 December 1983.[2] The English-language version of the song also reached No. 2 on the dance chart in the US. In 1994, Schilling made and released a remixed version along with Boom-Bastic, titled "Major Tom 94". Other remixes were released in 2000, titled "Major Tom 2000", and in 2003, titled "Major Tom 2003".

Charts

Chart (1983–1984)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[3]	57
Austrian Singles Chart	1
Canadian Singles Chart[4]	1
Dutch Singles Chart[5]	2
French Singles Chart	2
German Singles Chart	1
Irish Singles Chart	22
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[6]	13
South African Chart	4
Swiss Singles Chart	1
UK Singles Chart[7]	42
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	14
US "Billboard" Dance/Disco Top 80[8]	2
U.S. Cash Box Top 100[9]	10

Year-end chart (1984)	Rank
US Top Pop Singles (Billboard)[10]	96

American Top 40 Top 100 songs of 1984

97

Certifications

Certifications for "Major Tom"

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Germany (BVMI)[11]	2× Platinum	1,000,000
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Cover versions

• Plastic Bertrand released a French language cover of the song in 1983 from the album Chat va?...Et toi?.[12]
• English singer-songwriter Jonathan King released a mashup of "Major Tom (Coming Home)" together with David Bowie's "Space Oddity" titled "Space Oddity / Major Tom (Coming Home)". This release reached No. 77 on the UK Singles Chart in May 1984.[13]
• A cover version by Shiny Toy Guns, was released in 2009; an advertising commercial for the Lincoln MKZ, featured this cover.[14]
• Actor William Shatner released a cover in 2011 on the space-themed album Seeking Major Tom.
• Apoptygma Berzerk released an EP in 2013 titled Major Tom that contains a cover and several remixes. [15]
• In 2016, Jay Del Alma released a Spanish-language remake titled "Vuela (Major Tom)" with Schilling on vocals.[16]
• The outsider artist The Space Lady also covered the song on the 2013 release "Major Tom/Radar Love".[17]
• Another remix was published in 2020 by Spinnin' Records alongside Austrian DJ LUM!X and German DJ duo Hyperclap.

In popular media

• The song was used as the theme song for the TV show series Deutschland 83. It was also used in AMC's Breaking Bad, in a scene where Hank Schrader and Walter White watch a video of the drug chemist Gale Boetticher singing the song at a karaoke bar on a vacation to Thailand.[18]
• In season 2, episode 5 of the Netflix original series The Umbrella Academy, the song was used when Pogo, the chimpanzee character on the show, was traveling into outer space and back to earth.[19]
• The song was used in the Car Escape scene in Atomic Blonde (2017) when Lorraine Broughton, played by Charlize Theron, fights off would be assailants inside an Audi V8 D1 Typ 4C after arriving in Berlin.[20]
• It was also used in the 4th season of the show The Americans.
• An instrumental version of the song was used during the 1980s as the introduction music of the San Diego Sockers (1978-1996).

References

На других языках

---

[de] Major Tom (völlig losgelöst)

Major Tom ist ein Lied des deutschen Sängers Peter Schilling. Es wurde im November 1982[1] in Europa als Major Tom (völlig losgelöst) und im September 1983[2] in englischer Sprache unter dem Namen Major Tom (Coming Home) auch in den USA veröffentlicht. Mit diesem Lied gilt Peter Schilling als einer der erfolgreichsten Interpreten der Neuen Deutschen Welle. Als Mitproduzent und Gitarrist fungierte Armin Sabol, des Weiteren hat Frank Hieber an der Produktion mitgewirkt.[3]

---

- [en] Major Tom (Coming Home)

---

[es] Major Tom (Coming Home)

«Major Tom (Coming Home)» (en alemán: Major Tom (völlig losgelöst)) es una canción y sencillo del cantante alemán Peter Schilling publicado en 1983 y perteneciente a su disco de estudio Error in the System. Con un carácter no oficial, el personaje del "Major Tom" de la canción hace referencia al también protagonista homónimo de la canción de David Bowie Space Oddity, en la que se narra un accidente espacial en el que el protagonista está atrapado.

---

---