1:53 and features Bowie alone on vocals and piano. Lyrically, it only contains the first verse and chorus, and featured several lyrical variations from the finished track, including "It's a simple but small affair", "Her mother is yelling no, and her father has asked her to go" and "It's a time for the lawman beating up the wrong guy". The demo remains unreleased. According to biographer Marc Spitz, Bowie had recorded demos of "Life on Mars?" and other Hunky Dory tracks "Oh! You Pretty Things" and "Andy Warhol" around this time, which inspired Bowie's new manager, Tony Defries, to look into securing a new record contract for Bowie, eventually signing him with RCA Records. Studio version Work on Hunky Dory officially began at Trident Studios in London on 8 June 1971. "Life on Mars?" was recorded on the final day of the sessions, 6 August. According to O'Leary, Bowie and co-producer Ken Scott considered the track to be "the Big One" and saved it for the end. Earlier in July, Defries sent a letter to jazz pianist Dudley Moore asking him to play piano during a session. There is no known evidence that Moore replied and although the specific song Defries was asking him to play on is unknown, biographer Kevin Cann deduces that it was most likely "Life on Mars?". In the end, piano was played by keyboardist Rick Wakeman, noted session musician and member of the Strawbs, who previously played Mellotron on Bowie's 1969 self-titled album. In 1995 he recalled that he met with Bowie in late June 1971 at Haddon Hall, where he heard demos of "Changes" and "Life on Mars?" in "their raw brilliance ... the finest selection of songs I have ever heard in one sitting in my entire life ... I couldn't wait to get into the studio and record them." The piano Wakeman played was the same 1898 Bechstein used by the Beatles for "Hey Jude" and later by Queen for "Bohemian Rhapsody". Along with Wakeman on piano, the backing band consisted of guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansey. Ronson also composed the song's string arrangement which, according to Woodmansey, was the first he had ever undertaken: "He was very nervous about it. We had a whole string section at Trident with the proper BBC session players who, if one note was not written properly, would turn their noses