Bowies first hit song, Space Oddity in July 1969, reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. After a three-year period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single Starman and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Bowies impact at that time, as described by biographer David Buckley, challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day and created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture. The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona proved to be one facet of a career marked by reinvention, musical innovation and visual presentation. (source : wikipedia)