David Bowie's seventh studio album, Pin Ups, is a covers record of 1960s songs, yet it arrived just six months after his glam-rock landmark Aladdin Sane. Released on 19 October 1973, the album was never meant to be a major statement—Bowie conceived it as an interim release to satisfy his label's demands. Recorded in a French castle, it became a number-one hit in Britain while critics savaged it. The story of Pin Ups is about a superstar rushing to please his record company while his band fell apart around him.
The story of Pin Ups is about a superstar rushing to please his record company while his band fell apart around him.
Recording at Château d'Hérouville
The sessions took place at Château d'Hérouville, a studio recommended by Marc Bolan, whose band T. Rex had just recorded Tanx there. Bowie and Ken Scott produced, their last collaboration. The core of the Spiders from Mars—guitarist Mick Ronson and bassist Trevor Bolder—played on the album, but drummer Mick Woodmansey was replaced by Aynsley Dunbar. Bolder agreed to return only after Jack Bruce of Cream declined. Woodmansey had been fired by phone, and the tension was palpable.
Just before the sessions, Bowie had announced the dissolution of the Spiders from Mars on stage, shocking Bolder and Woodmansey, who hadn't known in advance. They were also unhappy that pianist Mike Garson was paid more than them. Ronson worked through the sessions arranging and tuning instruments. Bowie chose the songs by flipping through singles at the Hyde Park Hotel in London before leaving for France. The record includes covers of Pretty Things, The Who, The Yardbirds, and Pink Floyd, among others.
Chart success and critical backlash
The lead single, a version of The Merseys' 'Sorrow', reached number three in the UK and stayed on the chart for 15 weeks. The album itself hit number one in Britain, spending five weeks at the top and 39 weeks on the chart. In the US, it peaked at 23. By Christmas 1973, it was selling 30,000 copies a week. Yet critics were largely unkind. Rolling Stone's Greg Shaw called Bowie's vocals the album's main failure. NME's Ian MacDonald felt the covers added nothing to the originals.
The New York Times said the album suffered from too much style and technique. Record Mirror called it overproduced. Sounds dismissed its use of R&B as a crutch. Robert Christgau thought the idea was good but the execution weak. Only a few, like Billboard and the Los Angeles Times, praised its humor and charm. Retrospective reviews often call the album uneven—a good premise with flawed execution. Some biographers see it as an experiment in nostalgia.
The cover photo, shot in Paris by Justin de Villeneuve, shows Bowie with 1960s supermodel Twiggy. Originally intended for British Vogue, the magazine refused to put a man on the cover, so Bowie used it for the album. Twiggy later called the result 'mysterious and strange' and one of her favorite photos. On the back, Bowie designed the layout himself, using red text on a blue background as a nod to 1960s psychedelia.
Pin Ups was the first of two planned nostalgia albums. The second, which would have covered Bowie's favorite American artists, was never recorded. The album has been reissued many times, and in 2015 it was remastered for the Five Years box set. It remains a divisive entry in Bowie's catalog—a rush job that topped the charts and captured a band in its final days.