"A Spaceman Came Travelling" is a song by

Chris de Burgh Christopher John Davison (born 15 October 1948), known professionally as Chris de Burgh ( ), is a British-Irish singer-songwriter and musician. He started out as an art rock performer but subsequently started writing more pop-oriented material ...

. It first appeared on his second studio album, ''

Spanish Train and Other Stories ''Spanish Train and Other Stories'' is the second album by Chris de Burgh, released by A&M Records in 1975. Releases in some markets, like in North America, used different cover art from those in Europe. Rather than the simple white-on-black te ...

'', which was released in 1975. It has been released numerous times as a single, becoming a popular

Christmas song Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...

, and has appeared on many festive compilation albums.

Single release

After its first release in 1975, the song saw minimal success in the UK. It eventually reached the top position of the Irish single charts, staying 15 total weeks and climbed to number 22 in the Canadian AC charts in 1978.

Composition

De Burgh, who had just signed his first recording contract with

A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...

, was broke and "staying at a friend's flat" when he read '' Chariots of the Gods?'' by Erich von Däniken. The book made him think "what if the

star of Bethlehem The Star of Bethlehem, or Christmas Star, appears in the nativity of Jesus, nativity story of the Gospel of Matthew Matthew 2, chapter 2 where "wise men from the East" (biblical Magi, Magi) are inspired by the star to travel to Jerusalem. There, ...

was a space craft and what if there is a benevolent being or entity in the universe keeping an eye on the world and our foolish things that we do to each other?" A fan of Irish poet

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th century in literature, 20th-century literature. He was ...

, whose work " The Second Coming" avers that every 2,000 years or so there would be a major cataclysmic event happening, de Burgh saw the

birth of Christ The Nativity or birth of Jesus Christ is found in the biblical gospels of Matthew and Luke. The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Palestine, in Roman-controlled Judea, that his mother, Mary, was engaged to a man named J ...

as "such an event and then 2,000 years later there would be a similar" one. He imagined "the

nativity scene In the Christian tradition, a nativity scene (also known as a manger scene, crib, crèche ( or ), or in Italian ''presepio'' or ''presepe'', or Bethlehem) is the special exhibition, particularly during the Christmastide, Christmas season, of ar ...

, the thing hovering over and I could see the shepherds in the fields and this weird, ethereal music was drifting into the air and they were 'what the heck is that'?" But he "had no ideas about trying to write a hit record." The song failed to chart when it was first released as a single, but de Burgh says it's been "much better to have a regular recurring song than a hit for three weeks",The stories of the Christmas hits
by Liam Allen, BBC News, 25 December 2010. referring to the song's regular airplay on UK radio during the festive season. The space angle is reflected in the use of a

string synthesizer A string synthesizer or string machine is a synthesizer designed to make sounds similar to those of a string section. Dedicated string synthesizers occupied a specific musical instrument niche between electronic organs and general-purpose synthes ...

on the track.

Reissue and later chart success

In 1986, following de Burgh's huge hit " The Lady in Red", "Spaceman" was reworked with a re-recorded vocal and reissued, as a double A-side with the song " The Ballroom of Romance". The new version charted for the first time in the UK, reaching number 40 and staying on the British charts for five weeks.David Roberts. ''

British Hit Singles & Albums ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' (originally known as ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles'' and ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums'') was a music reference work, reference book originally published in the United Kingdom by the p ...

''. Guinness World Records Limited It also reached #15 on the Irish charts. The reworked version appeared on the

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

compilation album '' Spark to a Flame: The Very Best of Chris de Burgh'', although some later compilations reverted back the 1975 version. The newer version was later credited as ''A Spaceman Came Travelling - 89'' to differentiate between the two.

Certifications

Cover versions

* Austrian Rock Band EELA CRAIG covered the song in 1978. *

John Gibbons John Michael Gibbons (born June 8, 1962) is an American professional baseball coach, manager and former player. Gibbons played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a catcher with the New York Mets in 1984 and 1986. Gibbons became a coach for the ...

covered the song in 2018. The song charted at #58 on the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are ...

. *

Kate Rusby Kate Anna Rusby (born 4 December 1973) is an English folk singer-songwriter from Penistone, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Sometimes called the "Barnsley Nightingale", she has headlined various British folk festivals, and is one of the be ...

included a version on her 2023 album ''Light Years.'' * Hong Kong singer Samuel Tai covered the song on his 1993 album ''Find a Word to Replace''. Official Samuel Tai channel. (2020) ''A SPACEMAN CAME TRAvELLING''. YouTube. nlineAvailable at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM3aMHT7glw (Accessed: February 25th 2025).

References