Pin Ups (also referred to as Pinups and Pin-Ups)[a] is the seventh studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 19 October 1973 through RCA Records.

[4] Although he had intended his next project to be an adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), he devised a record of cover versions as a "stopgap" album.

[5] To record the covers album, Bowie brought back Garson, Ronson and the Aladdin Sane players Ken Fordham and Geoffrey MacCormack.

[4] The final tracklist includes the Pretty Things' "Rosalyn" and "Don't Bring Me Down", Them's "Here Comes the Night", Pink Floyd's "See Emily Play", the Mojos' "Everything's Alright", the Yardbirds' "Shapes of Things" and their rendition of Billy Boy Arnold's "I Wish You Would", the Easybeats' "Friday on My Mind", the Merseys' "Sorrow", the Who's "I Can't Explain" and "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere", and the Kinks' "Where Have All the Good Times Gone".

Richardson recalled Ronson overworking himself: "He did everything in the studio, he tuned everybody's instruments, he worked on all the arrangements ... [he had] a tremendous burden on him;"[4] he also grew wary of his future after the collapse of the Spiders.

Scott was facing personal issues on top of pressure from his management company to leave over MainMan not paying him royalties, while Bowie had, in O'Leary's words, an "increasingly remote and truculent attitude in the studio".

[4] A version of the Velvet Underground's "White Light/White Heat" was recorded during the sessions but went unreleased; Bowie donated the backing track to Ronson for his 1975 solo album Play Don't Worry.

Rumoured tracks to have appeared for the project include the Stooges' "No Fun", the Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" and Roxy Music's "Ladytron".

[17] The cover photo for Pin Ups reflected the theme of swinging London by featuring the 1960s supermodel Twiggy, who had previously been name-checked on Aladdin Sane's "Drive-In Saturday" as "Twig the Wonder Kid".

[5][8][18] The original LP's rear sleeve featured two photos by the photographer Mick Rock, one of a concert shot from the Ziggy tour and another of Bowie wearing a double-breasted suit cradling a saxophone.

Bowie wrote in the book Moonage Daydream: "I chose the performance photos for the back cover as they were favourite Rock shots of mine.

[19] RCA issued the lead single "Sorrow", featuring a cover of Jacques Brel's "Amsterdam" as the B-side,[8][20] on 12 October 1973;[21] it had been delayed from its original release date of 28 September.

[2] Pin Ups followed suit a week later on 19 October,[8][22] issued with the catalogue number RS 1003,[5] only six months after his previous album Aladdin Sane.

According to Sandford, he allegedly went to his label Island Records to request they file an injunction to prevent Pin Ups from being released before These Foolish Things.

[19] Instead, O'Leary writes that Bowie phoned Ferry to inform him of Pin Ups and requested permission to record a Roxy Music song.

[24] O'Leary writes that Pin Ups was essentially a "new Bowie album" in America since only three of the original tracks that were released as singles had reached the top 40.

It topped the Sverigetopplistan chart in Sweden,[25] and reached number three in Spain,[26] four in Australia and Finland,[27][28] six in Brazil and the Netherlands,[29][30] seven in Italy,[31] and eight in Norway and Yugoslavia.

[5] Pin Ups received primarily negative reviews from music critics on release, with many criticising the songs as generally inferior to their original counterparts.

"[35] In the NME, Ian MacDonald felt that by not differentiating the songs from the originals, the renditions lack value, ultimately stating the record failed to live up to expectations and predicted that "unless he puts a banger under his own behind, I can foresee nothing but artistic frustration for Bowie in the next few years.

[22] He continued, "Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane had established Bowie as perhaps the most fiercely original of all England's glam rockers, so an album of covers didn't make any sense and was especially confusing for American fans," further criticising the song choices as unknown.

[19] Doggett calls Pin Ups "an exercise in Pop Art", meaning it was "a reproduction and interpretation of work by [another artist], intended for a mass audience".

[7] James E. Perone, on the other hand, argues that Pin Ups predated the release of covers album by other English artists, such as John Lennon with Rock 'n' Roll (1975) and Elvis Costello with Almost Blue (1981) and Kojak Variety (1995).

[50] Perone also recognises the album's musical influence, stating that Bowie's version of "Here Comes the Night" was a forerunner in the post-punk and new wave sound of the late 1970s and early 1980s, presaging songs such as Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon" (1983).

[50] Being a collection of cover versions, it will never have the compelling allure of [Bowie's] other 1970s work, but [Pin Ups] remains a superb, energetic and greatly underrated throwaway, showcasing a band of musicians operating at the height of their powers.

[7] Pegg writes that "it remains perhaps glam rock's most cogent expression of its own inherent nostalgia, an affectionate reminder of the process that had led to the charts of 1973.

[2] In the Spin Alternative Record Guide, the critic Rob Sheffield agreed, characterising the album's "Swinging London oldies" as "atrophied nostalgia".

[10] Following Bowie's death in 2016, Bryan Wawzenek of Ultimate Classic Rock ranked all of his 26 studio albums from worst to best, placing Pin Ups at number 21.

[57] In 1990, it was reissued by Rykodisc with two bonus tracks: a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Growin' Up" (recorded during the sessions for Diamond Dogs and featuring Ronnie Wood on guitar[58]) and "Amsterdam", the B-side to "Sorrow".