Partially written before Bowie began shooting for the film The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), the song was mostly compiled in the studio and was the first track completed for the album.

Co-produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin, recording took place at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles during September 1975.

David Bowie started writing "Golden Years" in May 1975 before shooting commenced for the film The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976).

Bowie's biographers state the track was supposedly written for American singer Elvis Presley, who turned it down.

[4] David Bowie's 1975 single "Fame", a collaboration with former Beatle John Lennon,[5][6] was a massive commercial success, topping the US Billboard Hot 100.

Personnel-wise, Bowie brought back the same team used for "Fame": co-producer Harry Maslin, guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick, drummer Dennis Davis and Bowie's old friend Geoff MacCormick (credited as Warren Peace), while bassist George Murray was recruited.

That meant I had to sing the series of impossibly high notes before the chorus, which were difficult enough for David but were absolute murder for me.

[10][17] Like its companion album track "Stay", "Golden Years" is built upon the styles of Young Americans but with a harsher, grinding edge.

[1][2] Although the song overall pursues the style of "Fame", O'Leary states that it blends elements of krautrock in the main guitar riff.

[12][19][20][21][22][23] "Golden Years" is in the key of B major and begins with a "simple two-chord" riff (F♯–E),[12] which David Buckley believes hooks the listener instantly.

[2] Author Peter Doggett calls the riff "reminiscent"–albeit "in very different circumstances"–to the title track of Bowie's Aladdin Sane (1973).

He writes that "the magical ingredients were percussive: the rattling of sticks against the hi-hat cymbal from the start, the startling clack of woodblocks, the sudden drum fills" and that these combined elements "channel" the spirit of Presley in the verses, with a "haughtier, more strident tone" in the chorus.

O'Leary finds Bowie almost rapping in the third verse during the lines up to "all the WAY" (sung in F♯), which is followed by the "run for the shadows" phrases before another chorus.

[18] NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray find that the lyric carry "an air of regret for missed opportunities and past pleasures".

[1] On 4 November 1975, Bowie appeared on the American television show Soul Train, miming "Fame" and the then-unreleased "Golden Years".

Bowie later felt ashamed for his behaviour, recalling in 1999 that he had failed to learn "Golden Years" and was scolded afterwards by the show's DJ.

[41] Rolling Stone writer Teri Moris considered the track "Bowie's most seductive self-indulgence since Pin Ups [1973]".

[42] A reviewer for Billboard felt Bowie had "found his musical niche" with songs like "Fame" and "Golden Years".

[44] In his book Starman, biographer Paul Trynka calls "Golden Years" "magnificent [and] sensitive", stating that the track "reflects Bowie's ability to surface from a cocaine jag and dispense insightful career advice or relate a hilariously deadpan joke".

[45] In a 2016 list ranking every Bowie single from worst to best, Ultimate Classic Rock placed "Golden Years" at number 11, calling it "a taste of [the album's] brilliance".

[65] In February 1976, English comedians Peter Glaze and Jan Hunt covered "Golden Years" for the BBC children's television series Crackerjack!.

The song appeared in a new remix by Bowie's longtime collaborator Tony Visconti, where it gradually replaces the medieval soundtrack as, in Pegg's words, "a courtly farandole develops into a disco freak-out".

[3] Cultural critic Anthony Lane praised the film's use of "Golden Years," calling it "the best and most honest use of anachronism that I know of".