Artist:Peter SchillingSong:Major Tom (Coming Home)
Album:The Best Of '80s Pop: Let's Dance!
German singer Peter Schilling had his only big hit with Major Tom in 1983. It's a retelling of the David Bowie classic Space Oddity. For the most part, Schilling has recorded in German for years. This was a brief foray into the English language market. He was born Jan. 28, 1956 in Stuttgart, Germany. He played soccer growing up and had to decide on either soccer or music as a career. He recorded a few singles in the 70s and then signed with WEA International. His 1982 debut album Fehler im System reached number one in Germany and so did the single Major Tom. Schilling is a big science fiction fan and a lot of his songs are based on that. I guess that goes well with the synthesizers. WEA thought an English version of the album could do well so they hired Michael Lodge to write English lyrics. Lodge seems to be an expert on Egyptian music. The album was released as Error In The System in 1983 on Elektra. The songs are simply the German songs with English lyrics. Major Tom reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 but it was a big worldwide hit and also a hit on the dance charts. The album and single topped the Canadian charts. Schilling recorded two more albums in English and like the first album, they were just English versions of his German albums. That was the end of Schilling's English music career but he continues to record in German. You can get Major Tom on this Rhino Flashback various artists budget comp. Peter Schilling's most recent CD was released in 2010 and he also does voiceover work. He occasionally charts in Germany but here he is a one hit wonder. Here's the video for Major Tom (Coming Home) by Peter Schilling.
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