"Oh, You Pretty Things" was off his first successful album "Hunky Dory" in 1971. (successful in the US, his "Man Who Sold The World" did well in the UK but never quite caught on across the pond)
Another single from the same album was so popular that it convinced Bowie's producers to salvage castoff "Hunky Dory" tracks and release the even more successful "Changes" the next month.
The next year, Bowie went into his Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders thing.
With "Hunky Dory", "Changes", and "Ziggy Stardust" under his belt; Bowie re-released a half Zen - half Science Fiction single he recorded in 1969 : "Space Oddity" (Major Tom)
Joni who?