Van Halen, ‘Outta Space’ vs. David Bowie, ‘Space Oddity': Rock Star Wars
We're off to deep space as Van Halen and David Bowie move forward in our Rock Star Wars tournament.
To try and fill our days between now and the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie, we’ve tracked down 32 space-themed classic rock songs and paired them off against each other in a series of intergalactic battles. The field will be halved every week based on your votes, until only the spaciest song in rock history is left.
Van Halen's "Outta Space," one of our favorite cuts from their 2012 David Lee Roth reunion record, arrives at the next round after claiming the slimmest of victories over "Surfing With the Alien" by Joe Satriani. "Outta Space" claimed 50.67 percent of the vote, just edging Satch's 49.33.
Meanwhile, "Space Oddity" – a Top 5 U.K. hit for Bowie upon its release in 1969 – had the easier time, besting Foreigner's "Starrider" by a vote of 56.83 to 43.17 percent. Bowie's song also holds the distinction having been performed in space by an actual astronaut.
So which of these songs will emerge victorious from this round? It’s your choice. You can listen to both tracks below, and vote once per hour in each of the this round's Rock Star Wars battles until polls close Nov. 30 at 11:59PM ET. Your choice for our Rock Star Wars champion will be revealed on Dec. 22, 2015.
Van Halen Albums Ranked Worst to Best