Posted by tourdemars to Entertainment at April 7, 2004 11:52 AM

In recent decades a few popular artists have penned songs with at least vague space themes: “Major Tom” by David Bowie and Elton John’s “Rocket Man” come to mind. The 1982 Rush album “Signals” included “Countdown”, a song inspired by the band’s visit to Cape Canaveral to watch the first shuttle launch. In addition, in the last several years Elaine Walker, both solo and with her band, Zia, have recorded several albums devoted almost exclusively to space topics (including a CD of “space elevator music”). However, in general spaceflight is a topic generally overlooked in nearly all music genres, from country to rap to pop. (Sorry, but Britney Spears prancing around in a spacesuit for the video of “Oops, I Did It Again” doesn’t really count.) In an effort to fill this void comes “To Touch the Stars” ($15.97), a compilation of 17 songs about space exploration released recently by Prometheus Music.