Written by Bowie, Carlos Alomar and John Lennon, it was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City in January 1975.

[8] With the release of his 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Bowie achieved stardom.

It meant not only his stardom, but also impending lawsuits that were the result of the ending of Bowie's relationship with his manager Tony Defries.

[11] Bowie would later describe "Fame" as "nasty, angry", and fully admitted that it was written "with a degree of malice" aimed at MainMan.

Sources differ on how "Fame" came to be in the studio, but both Doggett and Nicholas Pegg write that it was the product of "happy" accidents.

[14][15] By late 1974, Bowie was staying in New York City, where he met John Lennon during his "lost weekend" period of estrangement.

Shortly after Lennon reunited with his wife Yoko Ono,[16] the pair jammed together, leading to a one-day session at Electric Lady Studios in January 1975.

"[14][15] After the group solidified the riff, they emerged with something that was in the hand of "black American music" at the start of 1975: a "cousin" of "Hollywood Swinging" by Kool & the Gang, "The Payback" by James Brown, and "Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)" by B. T.

Doggett found it "striking" that the falsetto expanded three octaves, from "Yoko Ono soprano" to "Johnny Cash basso profundo".

[23] In the song, Bowie sings "What you need, you have to borrow" with, according to Spitz, the same "venom" that Jimi Hendrix sang, "Businessmen they drink my wine," on his cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower".

[24] "Fame" was released on 7 March 1975 as the final track on Bowie's ninth studio album Young Americans.

[1][27][28] "Fame" became Bowie's first song to top the Billboard Hot 100, displacing "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Campbell during the week of 20 September 1975.

Cash Box said that "with a scintillating rhythm track and chicken-guitar courtesy of Mr. Lennon, David's versatile voice blends with John's to produce an ethereal dancer with some r&b psychedelia thrown in.

"[30] Dave Thompson of AllMusic calls the track "a hard-funking dance storm whose lyrics – a hostile riposte on the personal cost of success – utterly belie the upbeat tempo and feel of the song.

[34] "Fame" was used as the soundtrack of an animated music video of the same title, directed by Richard Jefferies and Mark Kirkland while students at California Institute of the Arts.

[69] Regarding the remix, Spitz states: "The best thing you can say about "Fame '90" is that it's much better than the Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86" but far inferior to George Michael's "Freedom!

[68] Ultimate Classic Rock called it a "now happily forgotten" remix and placed it at number 104 (out of 119) in a list ranking every Bowie single from worst to best.