In 1972, English rock band Mott the Hoople were struggling, and their breakup seemed inevitable. The band had formed in 1969 and released four albums, but none had made much of an impression beyond their loyal fanbase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were a great live band back then, but couldn\u2019t get any chart success,\u201d keyboardist Verden Allen said in a 2016 interview with Wales Online<\/em><\/a>. \u201cBands like Free had done it, so had Traffic \u2013 but we couldn\u2019t get a hit and we started to sense our record label Island was getting a bit impatient with us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then David Bowie presented them with a song that changed everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bowie’s own career was taking off in the early ’70s. He’d already had a hit with “Space Oddity” in 1969, and he was putting together a backing band and on the verge of introducing his persona of Ziggy Stardust to the world. With Mott the Hoople practically finished, bassist Pete Overend Watts called Bowie to ask for a job<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, Bowie\u2014a fan of theirs\u2014said he had a song for the band and presented them with a demo of “Suffragette City,” which they rejected because they felt it didn’t suit them. Bowie later included the song on The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars<\/em>, released later that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“All the Young Dudes”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n