David Bowie's single "Golden Years" was released on 21 November 1975, ahead of the album Station to Station, at a moment when it was unclear whether Bowie himself would even perform it. Elvis Presley had been considered as a potential vocalist, since both artists were signed to RCA Records and Presley had heard Bowie's demos, but he ultimately never recorded the song and Bowie's own version became a hit, reaching number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track's fiftieth anniversary highlights a pivotal period in Bowie's career, marking a creative bridge between his "plastic soul" sound and the more experimental work that followed in the Berlin Trilogy.

According to David Buckley's biography of Bowie, Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker encouraged Bowie to write for Presley, whom Bowie reportedly "adored", but the two artists' offices never finalised a recording despite being in contact. Musically, "Golden Years" carries audible Elvis-inspired vocal phrasing, while its lyrics of isolation and lost direction are thought to reflect Bowie's own turbulent state in 1975, when he was living in Los Angeles amid heavy drug use and paranoia. The song built on the funk sound of "Fame" but adopted a cooler, more understated tone, foreshadowing the sonic shift Bowie would take in the years that followed.