went on to release Anderson's album Big Science in 1982; the album included "O Superman" and Warner also reissued the single. A live version of the song also appears in Anderson's four-disc box set United States Live (1984). The song was ranked among the top ten "Tracks of the Year" for 1981 by NME. It climbed to number two on the UK Singles Chart. "O Superman" did not appeal to all listeners. According to the 1982 book The Rock Lists Album, compiled by John Tobler and Allan Jones, polls conducted by several unidentified British newspapers saw "O Superman" voted readers' least favourite hit single of 1981 (even though the song had been championed by John Peel). Although Anderson had dropped the song from her performance repertoire almost two decades earlier, she revived the piece in 2001 during a concert tour that included a retrospective look at some of her older pieces, an idea conceived by her companion, Lou Reed. A live performance of "O Superman" was recorded in New York City the week following the September 11 attacks. In this context, certain lyrics appeared to many to take on a more topical significance: "This is the hand, the hand that takes / Here come the planes / They're American planes. Made in America / Smoking or non-smoking?" The 2001 live performance appears on Anderson's 2002 album Live in New York. The B-side of the original single was a spoken word piece titled "Walk the Dog", which would also be performed in a live version on the United States Live album. The studio version of the track was included on the Warner Bros. compilation Attack of the Killer B's (1983), but was never issued on any Laurie Anderson album until 2007 on the 25th Anniversary re-release of Big Science, where it was included as a bonus track in MP3 and WAV formats. Recording details Words and music written by Laurie Anderson. Laurie Anderson: vocals, vocoder Roma Baran: Farfisa organ, Casio Perry Hoberman: flute, saxophone Produced by Laurie Anderson and Roma Baran. Assistant producer: Perry Hoberman Engineer: Roma Baran Lacquer Cut (Mastering engineer): Bill Kipper at Masterdisk Recorded and mixed at The Lobby (Laurie Anderson's home recording studio, New York City 1981.) Charts References Listening Laurie Anderson Record Release Party for “O Superman” 7" 1980-04-28 at The Kitchen (NYC) Laurie Anderson interview (Speaking of Music 1984-12-06) External links "O Superman" article at