David Bowie released his debut self-titled album in 1967. The album was issued in the United Kingdom on 1 June 1967 through Deram Records, a subsidiary of Decca.
Recorded in London between November 1966 and March 1967, the album showed Bowie exploring baroque pop, music hall, and theatrical songwriting. Its sound was influenced by performers such as Anthony Newley and by the stylized Edwardian atmosphere of some contemporary British pop and rock.
The record arrived before Bowie became internationally famous for glam rock, and it is quite different from later landmark albums such as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. It followed several unsuccessful singles Bowie had released on Pye Records.
The American edition appeared in August 1967 and omitted two tracks found on the British release: “We Are Hungry Men” and “Maid of Bond Street.” The album is sometimes confused with Bowie's 1969 second self-titled album, which was retitled Space Oddity in the United States.