"The Width of a Circle" is a song written by English musician David Bowie in 1969 for the album The Man Who Sold the World, recorded in spring 1970 and released later that year in the United States and in April 1971 in the UK. The opening track on the album, it is a hard rock song with heavy metal overtones. Bowie had performed a shorter version of the song in concerts for several months before recording it.