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Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th June 2020, 09:17 AM

Well, forcing everyone to just pick 5 has resulted in a bunch of Bowie classics getting nowt at all, not a single point, with half a dozen or so hoovering up a lot of love across the board. The other notable result is a bunch of tracks I don't know and am going to have to research For the results, there are quite a few down the lower end on the same points, so to split them, more voters get priority over one voter, and failing that I'm giving priority to older tracks over more recent tracks on the assumption that Time has had an opportunity to judge them better than more recent stuff - trust me, stuff that you loved 50 years ago doesn't always match what you love from that time 50 years later, so it kind of reduces nostalgia as an over-riding influential factor. Plus I get annoyed with charts which have tracks on equal placings. I tried it in my own charts for a while so I could cheat and have two number ones in the same week back in 1976, and am retrospectively splitting them up as I get to them. I feel SO dirty cheating that way! Split them up!


So thanks to everyone for voting, and apologies if these placings slip your loved ones down a place or two! There are only 27 tracks on the rundown, so a quick reminder of a Popchartfreak chart-topper from 1975 that won't be turning up:



First off, among those Bowie classics not making an appearance:

No Changes, no The Man Who Sold The World, which Bowie improved on himself when he gifted it to Lulu and revived her career, No Oh You Pretty Things which Peter Noone covered successfully, no All The Young Dudes, one of the best records of the 1970's for Mott The Hoople, unbelievably there's no The Jean Genie, nor a couple of 1973 singles I still love - Drive-In Saturday and his cover of Sorrow. Young Americans is absent, not even Luther Vandross helping it in, and moving into the 80's, Scary Monsters and Up The Hill Backwards deserved a mention, Loving The Alien ditto, This Is Not America was fabulous, and I'm surprised his last classic track of that era, Absolute Beginners, is MIA. Unloved by most, but personal tidbits like Never Let You Down missing is not a surprise, and there's not much beyond that period either, no Buddha Of Suburbia, Jump They Say and much of the 90's and 00's releases.

So, what IS there? Coming up shortly!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th June 2020, 09:39 AM

27. 'Tis A Pity She Was A Whore (2014) 1 point



Released as a single in November 2014, this rocking avante-garde gem was eventually re-recorded in a more jazzy style in keeping with the mood of Bowie's final critically-acclaimed album Blackstar in 2016. During the first recording he was already battling cancer, and during the second he was struggling and using his music to take him in dark-but-creative, sometimes difficult to listen to, musical areas. I really liked this track, the single version is the one I opted for (so apologies Jade if it was the album version you meant!) and it hit 25 in my charts, some way higher then the UK peak of 107 on the official charts. Portugal liked it best - it hit 57 on their charts. Good for them!

Posted by: King Rollo 13th June 2020, 10:05 AM

Absolute Beginners and This Is Not America were two of the songs that just missed my top 5.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th June 2020, 10:12 AM

26. Magic Dance (1986) 1 point



Taken from the Soundtrack album to Labyrinth, and a 12" single in some territories like the USA (but not the UK), this one remained unknown to me until recently. I've never seen the film, though I have been aware of Bowie's much-referenced turn as The Goblin King in the Jim-Henson movie - if that sounds incredible, I was pushing 30 at the time and have just never caught it on TV since I mean, I love The Muppets, so there's no reason I wouldn't like it as much as kids retaining a nostalgic affection for it. Dexton rated this one, and one of the things I'm enjoying about the rundown is it allows personal faves a look-in that might otherwise never make any rundown. To my ears, this sounds very 80's in production, but for Bowie quite upbeat and squarely aimed more at kids than the NME. I like it.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th June 2020, 10:27 AM

25. Blue Jean (1984) 1 point



There's a great video (Grammy-award-winning) to this lead track off Tonight, the critically-slated follow-up to the massive commercial success of Let's Dance. I'm not showing it though cos it's at the wrong speed to my ears. This is a problem with US-to-UK formats on films and used to drive me mad. It's why, when I eventually saw TV show Star Trek on video transferred from the US masters at the right speed Captain Kirk sounded so wrong - we'd only ever watched the speeded-up version on UK TV and films were especially affected by this when they had music featured. Anyway, I digress, Blue Jean arrived with a massive bang, and then generally fizzed-out despite being a rock'n'roll-style commercial thumper. I always liked it more than the critics did, and it did pretty well across the world anyway, peaking at 6 in the UK, 1 in Spain, and 8 in the USA, even if I preferred Loving The Alien a bit more in retrospect, a later single off the album. Bigwif also likes it more than the critics did!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th June 2020, 10:45 AM

24. Cat People (Putting Out Fire) (1982) 1 point



A single from the soundtrack to Cat People (which I've never seen) , this full-on Giorgio Moroder-rock-mode production was a fab forgotten gem until it got used in more recent movies like Atomic Blonde and Inglourious Basterds. Annoyingly I still don't have the original superior version as it's never cropped-up on any Bowie compilations and I never got hold of a copy in the bargain bins over the years. Instead I have to make-do with the lesser, if thumping, Nile Rodgers remake on Let's Dance. Under-rated-much in the UK and US (peaking at 26 and 67) it appears to at least have been loved in Finland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden where it topped the charts. Appreciated by Callum on here. Quite right too!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th June 2020, 06:42 PM

23. Peace On Earth - Little Drummer Boy (with Bing Crosby) (1977) 1 point



In 1977 Bowie was cursed - he appeared on Marc Bolan's TV show with him, and weeks later Bolan was killed in a car crash, then he appeared on Bing Crosby's Xmas special - and within weeks Crosby was also dead. If that wasn't weird enough, the notion that Bowie would appear with veteran Bing singing Chistmas carols, and in a duet was highly unlikely! And yet there you go (thanks to Bowie's mum liking Bing Crosby)....the result was rather lovely, an unexpected live recording mash-up (or sung Counterpoint as they use to say) of two great songs with the original Crooner which was belatedly released for Xmas 1982, a huge hit, and a subsequent Xmas standard in the UK. Bizarrely it only was created because Bowie hated Little Drummer Boy and didn't want to sing it, so the songwriters wrote Peace On Earth for Bowie, he learned it in an hour and boom off they went to record it. Unlike most over-played Xmas perennials, this one still warms the cockles of the heart, unlike, say, Crosby's White Christmas which I just want to scream over whenever it crops up after 50-odd years of listening to the bloody thing. I mean, it was dull to begin with, and I don't like any version of the song, but that's just torture! Steve is also a fan of this one, hooray! The record peaked at 3 in the UK, and again it did the same in 2008.

Posted by: Jester 13th June 2020, 07:30 PM

Argh! I forgot this Christmas classic

Posted by: Steve201 14th June 2020, 12:46 AM

Bowies only venture into the Christmas compilations after he didn't turn up to the Band Aid recording(although he did have a quick part to the Snowman of course)!

Proud I've got this into the chart 😀

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th June 2020, 05:56 PM

22. Where Are We Now? (2013) 2 points




It had been a decade since Bowie had released anything, and I can't speak for anyone else but I was assuming he wouldn't release anything again. Then on his 66th birthday this just turned up, ahead of a new album The Next Day, and suddenly we all remembered again how great he was. Understated, touching, and clearly an ageing Bowie, this was a huge success worldwide, his first UK top 10 in 20 years, and Portugal again loved it most, topping the chart. Now we know what was going on, it's obvious that Bowie was following the well-worn path a lot of creative people take when they get a terminal illness or tragedy - using it as a way to stay busy, remain relevant, get creative, keep going. Steve picked this as his 4th fave Bowie track, making sure Bowie's last creative phase is well represented in the rundown.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th June 2020, 06:14 PM

21. Everyone Says 'Hi' (2002) 2 points



My fave Bowie track of the noughties, this also sounded fab in the Claudia Brucken version, which Bowie took the time to Say 'Hi" to on her Youtube video. Still able to get a UK chart hit (at 20) by 2002 - and nowhere else - this under-appreciated minor gem made my top 10, the final one if his lifetime, and leaving him only one more top to come with new material posthumously in 2016 (Lazarus). Taken from the album Heathen, marking the return of his classic-period-producer Tony Visconti (he of T.Rex's golden period too), who also stuck around for later stuff while Bowie was ill, a welcome development for me as I'd not always gone for some of his more avant-garde phases of the 80's and 90's, notably Tin Machine. On the list thanks to AH Gold, who I know is also a fan of the Claudia Brucken version - cheers AH!

Posted by: Dexton 16th June 2020, 02:54 PM

Magic Dance is so good The movie is an absolute classic too, I fully recommend it to everyone who is either a fan of Bowie or of Jim Henson projects. I'm a fan of both... so it's a movie just for me

Posted by: Steve201 16th June 2020, 05:24 PM

Great to see 'Where Are We Now' making it in, loved that chart appearance as it was so unexpected!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th June 2020, 06:48 PM

20. China Girl (1983) 2 points



Bowie was huge in 1983 following his cash-injected switch from RCA to EMI, and he delivered his new label with a massive selling album in Let's Dance, a Nile Rodgers dance-stormer chock full of big singles, such as this UK number 2, US 10. Originally written by Bowie & Iggy Pop during his Berlin-phase in 1977, and recorded by Iggy Pop, Bowie's cover was a catchy pop delight, loved the synth-bop, the oriental-instrumental touches, loved the anti-stereotype video, and loved that it gave Iggy Pop a nice little nest-egg for the rest of his life with the co-write income, and a bigger profile. Topped my chart as the second of a hat-trick, to boot, in the year that I still regard as the peak of the Music Video as an art form while it was fresh, ground-breaking, and taking British music across the globe, conquering the USA in a way it hadn't done since the early 60's. Here thanks to the good taste of Ready For It...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th June 2020, 07:09 PM

19. Moonage Daydream (1972) 2 points



The album that turned Bowie into a teen-idol space-age glamrock superstar was The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, as he morphed into the character of Ziggy, a bisexual alien, in pure performance art-as-album-and-stage-persona, before wisely killing him off in 1973 and moving on. Moonage Daydream is a track I know, but don't know as well as I should, cos, errr, I've never bought the album! That's a shock I know! Loved Bowie, but I was a singles teenager, I rarely bought artist albums, and being 14 I had little disposable income, and what I had went on DC Comics and singles mostly. I bought Aladdin Sane. I bought the Sound+Vision super-CD box set with many of the Ziggy tracks on it (including this one). I've just never got round to buying the original album. This is good, I mean it's classic-era Bowie, Mick Ronson on guitar, and it's a statement-of-introduction of Ziggy. What's not to like!? Not a lot of people know it was a 1971 single in an earlier recording from Bowie under the name Arnold Corns. Having a laugh, or what! Callum gave this critically-acclaimed track the 2 points. Maybe it needs to be a single at last in 2021 for the 50th anniversary of the original single version....

Posted by: Steve201 17th June 2020, 07:10 PM

'China Girl' was a fantastic track

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th June 2020, 04:27 PM

18. SLOW BURN (2002) 2 points (2 voters)



Leww and dandy both voted for this one, and I have to admit I'd forgotten I knew it, taken from Heathen as the lead single prior Everyone Says 'Hi", except in the UK where it remained an album track, it sneaked into my charts at 68 for 2 weeks, so I must have heard it somewhere. Pete Townsend on guitar (Who?!), and an unreleased video which is now available to view (see it above!), it's a grower though not an obvious single - probably why the best it could muster was 16 in Italy. Good classic Bowie vocals and Tony Visconti give it a horn-based, guitar-driven Ziggy-period feel, so I guess you might say it's the last time we see that side of David. Completely unrelated to this, but talking classic-period Bowie, in 1973 I had the only ever haircut based on a pop star in my life - the hairdresser asked me if I fancied a Bowie-cut, then all-the-rage, a sort of layered feather-cut - and I said OK. Bearing in mind my new school had told me to get a haircut (my old school didn't care too much about shoulder-length hair, this one very much did), that was about as close to "cool" as I got....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th June 2020, 06:38 PM

17. HALLO SPACEBOY (with Pet Shop Boys) (1996) 4 points



The third Major Tom song of Bowie's career, every one of them brilliant, and my first top 5 track on the list. It was inevitable I would rate it - my fave pop stars of the 80's and 90's combining with the 70's icon on a sci-fi-related track bringing back Major Tom for a third unique chart-topper featuring a fictional spaceman. I mean, it had "ME!!!" written all over it in huge neon flashing lights. An industrial Nine Inch Nails-styled track on his 1995 album Outside, Chris and Neil got their mitts on a re-recorded version and gave it the PSB treatment, dance drum n bass and all, with a hugely exciting single which gave Bowie a near-top-10 in the UK and a chart-topper in Israel. The Major Tom bits were all Pet Shop Boys, intentionally creating the third and final instalment of the 1969 classic Space Oddity - Bowie was hesitant when they told him over the phone, but liked it when he heard the result. Quite rightly, it's far and away my fave thing he did in the 90's, topped my charts for weeks, and gave Bowie his first track to do that since 1985, and his 9th and final one with current material - though loads as oldies have topped my chart. Let's not mention the previous one was the Live Aid charity single, it was for a good cause, even if This Is Not America should have been the one to top my chart. Bizarrely the video isn't available on Youtube, but at least there's this 1996 TOTP appearance to compensate....and note the stilettos 25 years before a certain other popstar made a song n dance about wearing them oblivious to Bowie having paved the full-on ambiguous pathway half a century ago.

Posted by: Steve201 18th June 2020, 06:49 PM

Pretty cool Bowie appeared on totp in 1996 for this, must have been his first performance since when...1974/5?

I always like 'Dancing In The Street' mainly due to the two performers lol.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th June 2020, 07:07 PM

good question I had to look it up! It was his 10th appearance:

1969 Space Oddity (now lost)
1971 Oh You Pretty Things
1972 Starman
1973 The Jean Genie
1977 'Heroes'
1987 Time Will Crawl - unbelievably never broadcast, just a clip at christmas!
1987 Never Let Me Down
1991 You Belong In Rock 'n' Roll (Tin Machine)
1991 Baby Universal (Tin Machine)
1996 Hallo Spaceboy
1997 Dead Man Walking

everything after that was pre-recorded stuff in the USA and doesn't count anymore than a music video does. Seems when he could do no wrong sales-wise, with the exception of Jean Genie (prob trying to knock Little Jimmy Osmond off the top to grab a number one) and Heroes (when he wasnt guaranteed big hits anymore) he didn't feel the need to do TOTP, and when his sales were struggling he was more willing.

Posted by: Steve201 18th June 2020, 09:28 PM

Cool thanks for the actual list. How gutting is it that the performance of 'Space Oddity' was lost - assume it was recorded in July 69?

Not sure I saw the 1987 performances on the old totp repeats? And why would they only show a clip of one of them? Strange decision as you'd have thought a Bowie performance would have been a huge moment for the show.

'Starman' probably the most iconic performance by him for me.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th June 2020, 07:07 AM

It's not just Space Oddity that was erased (it would have been September or October 1969 after I'd left the country on 1st Sept as I never got to hear the record until 1973 when it was a hit in the USA), it was pretty much the entirety of my childhood and early teen years, and I'm still bitter about losing performances by so many acts that I remember loving, especially the more minor acts who have no other footage existing. I think we only have Starman because of a Glam Rock special video that was put together, along with Virginia Plain and some others, and it's pure luck that The Jean Genie turned up recently from a private collection.

The bloke who chose which episodes to junk was clearly old with no idea of pop culture cos he saved ones which had Bill Haley, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra appearing as older veterans singing old tat in the case of Bing & Frank.

I don't recall either of those Bowie performances from 1987, I may have missed the second one as I was on holiday in California for 2 weeks around that time! I guess the first one was dropped if the record dropped in the charts before screening - they were pretty fixed rules then, only tracks going up or holding in the charts could be on, or new releases.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 22nd June 2020, 06:47 PM

16. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1977) 4 points



By Bowie standards, this single, the second off 'Heroes' was a relative flop, peaking at 39 in the UK charts in early 1978, and hitting nowhere else. That's because it's quite an intentionally difficult track to listen to - Bowie had had flops before (Be My Wife stiffed, which I rather liked and bought), but this one was too schizophrenic for my tastes at the time, possibly something to do with Bowie weaning himself off drugs during his Berlin phase in the same way John Lennon's Cold Turkey isn't a barrel of laughs either. I can hear later tracks like Scary Monsters in it from the vantage of 40-odd years on, but it charted at a relatively modest 25 for me, on a par with TVC25, only beating the annoying Knock On Wood which I never charted, though also improving on the other 1974 tracks I didn't rate either, Diamond Dogs, and errr one coming up later on in the rundown. Plus side, it's got Robert Fripp on guitar, Brian Eno on synths/production, and it's loved by Callum who voted it his 3rd fave Bowie track.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd June 2020, 06:35 PM

15. Fashion (1980) 5 points



David spear-heading a music movement heavily influenced by, errr David Bowie, those New Romantics and synthpop, visually in videos and sonically in the production. with fashion sort of merging earlier funky-Bowie, with synth-Bowie, and a dose of Ziggy-guitar-Bowie, and doing it beautifully. I've heard this one blasting out loud from speakers on the Saturday night Duckies at Vauxhall Tavern sporadically over the last 15 years and it always sounds fab, gets me gyrating manically. Second single off Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) Bowie was back in the big league again as the 80's started up, for me his best period since Aladdin Sane/Ziggy Stardust, much as I loved the inbetween stuff for the most part, there wasn't the singles consistency - and I love singles more than albums, always have. Robert Fripp is back to lend a hand, and the single hit 5 in the UK, and also gave Bowie his first Hot 100 entry in 4 years, albeit a lowly 70, and 4 in my charts. One critic thought it was an attack on the clothes-based New Romantic movement - having Steve Strange in the previous video, and a Legion of Bowie-worshippers in the new club scene, of which he was well-aware, would suggest otherwise, I say. Voted for by AH & Rollo, hooray!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd June 2020, 06:53 PM

14. Rebel Rebel (1974) 5 points



Hands-up, I was hugely disappointed when this came out. A straight-dirty-Rolling-Stones-pastiche (reportedly to wave bye bye Glam and piss off Jagger), it seemed like he'd taken his Pin-Ups phase to heart and gone back to 1968 for the riff-laden rock song, not helped by there being no Bowie on UK TV at all - no Top Of The Pops, no video - if only they'd shown this video I would have been more likely to be convinced. As it was, it was far and away my least fave Bowie single that I'd heard to date, not fit to be compared with The Jean Genie (bizarrely not in the list) or Drive-In Saturday (ditto) or The Man Who Sold The World, the Lulu version riding high in my charts thanks to a fab Bowie helping-hand and cool image. Time has been kind, it's a great rock track despite the lack of fab Mick Ronson, and the critics loved it, and the fans too, hitting UK 5, and Hot 100 at 64. 12 months later the tables would turn as I embraced the Plastic Soul Bowie of Young Americans and Bowie fans everywhere scratched their heads in bemusement. Rebel Rebel went top 10 for me though, eventually - in 2014, on it's 3rd chart appearance, oops! Loved by dandy, Dexton, and Rob S, so the first track to get 3 voters on the list.

Posted by: Steve201 23rd June 2020, 07:03 PM

'Fashion' is a really underrated Bowie track, remember the re-released version from 1989.

Absolutely love 'Rebel Rebel'!

Posted by: King Rollo 23rd June 2020, 07:52 PM

I've found both of those TOTP performances on youtube. Never Let Me Down was part of TOTP USA which explains why we have never seen it. Time Will Crawl is introduced by Gary Davies with David starting the song on the stage and finishing it amongst the audience,even dancing with one of them. They must have been thrilled.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 24th June 2020, 07:03 AM

Thanks for the clips Rollo, I'm very fond of that period Bowie as I was in the USA West Coast for a touring holiday around then, and I also saw Bowie at Wembley stadium on his Glass Spider Tour. The knives were out critically, though, as I recall (cos I tend to remember maulings when I dont agree with them )

Posted by: Steve201 24th June 2020, 12:17 PM

Class thanks for postin Rollo. I mean why on earth did they not show that on the BBC 4 shows? Must have been round the time when McCartney and the Bee Gees performed new material.

Also, what was a 'power track'?

Posted by: King Rollo 24th June 2020, 02:12 PM

Yes,BBC4 could easily have shown an extended version of that show to include David Bowie.

I think 'power track' might have been added to the original caption by another broadcaster. I noticed there is a logo in the top left hand corner which looks like MCP. My guess is that the full episode was shown on TV somewhere else in Europe and someone recorded it onto a VHS tape. The person who put it on youtube comes from Greece so maybe it was shown there in 1987.

Posted by: Steve201 24th June 2020, 06:55 PM

Yeh true that may be it.

Crazy they didn't show it still.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 26th June 2020, 06:49 PM

13. Blackstar (2015) 6 points



Well this one is a surprise rating at 13, recorded while he was basically dying of liver cancer with a New York Jazz band, and almost ten minutes long. The first 4 and a half minutes is avante-garde drum 'n' bass jazz, at which point it morphs into a melodic middle short segment, before the "I'm a Blackstar" more-traditional pop-structured hook and a tempo-slowing gradual fade to jazz again. It's about mortality, legacy, as I see it though the abstract video shot 4 months before Bowie died (2 days after his 59th birthday in January 2016, and 2 days after the Blackstar album had been released) just confuses me further, it's all very dark and sombre. I tend to suspect the title similarity to Elvis Presley's Black Star is a clue to the point of the song "“When a man sees his black star, he knows his time … has come.” Peaking at UK 61 and US 78 is fairly good for the download era and a very non-commercial creation, and though it's not my favourite Bowie track (I have never got on with freeform jazz-styled music, I like structured variation and melody, which is why the second-half is much better than the first-half to my ears) it still did better in my charts than actual charts at 40. Leww and Jade, on the other hand, presumably rated it a number one, so 40 is still quite modest!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 27th June 2020, 01:15 PM

12. Boys Keep Swinging (1979) 7 points



Bowie at his most fun and playful on this single, and the gender-bending (as it was then known) video is fab - he'd always had a penchant for being provocative right back to the album cover for The Man Who Sold The World in full-on drag. needless to say that didn't play in the USA, and neither did this UK single and video which remained an album track. In the UK though, it hit 7 in the charts and 6 in mine, and it kick-starts the Party section of the Bowie results. Taken from the Lodger album, still with Brian Eno in Berlin, his regular band swapped instruments to get a garage-rock vibe to it, so if it comes over all Velvet Underground or Stooges that'll be intentional. I love the fuzzy, squealing guitar, the frantic rhythm-section and the chanting chorus. Such a great single, returning him to the top 10 for the first time in 2 years, and Bowie's intent with the lyrics? "I do not feel that there is anything remotely glorious about being either male or female. I was merely playing on the idea of the colonization of gender." Me, I liked the line "other boys check you out" - less so the next line, "you get a girl". Doh! Just about clothes then AH Gold's second-fave Bowie track gets it to 12 in the rundown.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 27th June 2020, 01:33 PM

11. Sound & Vision (1977) 7 points



Two years before Boys Keep Swinging, Bowie returned with another upbeat catchy single, this one with the long almost Easy-listening instrumental intro - were it not for the chorus of synthchords and funky rhythm that is. The first Bowie single you could dance to since Golden Years and Fame, and it's far too short! Turn it up loud in a club and wig-out! Loved this one and I genuinely loved that it sounded like nothing before, either in structure or sound, it sounded like something from the near-future - at least until the genuine sound of the future turned up a couple of months later in Donna Summer's I Feel Love. Off 1977's Low, it peaked at 3 in the UK charts, top 10 across Europe despite the lack of a video or TV appearance, and a mere 69 in the USA, too off-the-wall for US radio I guess. Oh, and Mary Hopkin is on backing vocals. Yes, Those Were The Days, Eurovision, Apple Records Mary Hopkin. She was then-married to Tony Visconti, Bowie's long-time co-producer/producer and had put her career more or less on ice from hereon. Anyway, just short of the top ten and on the list as Chris' 2nd-fave Bowie track. The next-three tracks are all up-tempo and two of them are pure party tracks....

Posted by: dandy* 28th June 2020, 01:02 PM

Some amazing tracks featuring here - I'm fond of pretty much everything that's appeared so far, cutting the vote down to 5 was such a task and I'm not sure I'd have picked the same 5 on another day. Love me some Sound and Vision, such a unique sounding track for the time

Posted by: Steve201 28th June 2020, 09:45 PM

Not surprising 'Blackstar' appears quite high as younger BJers will remember it. Always was gutted it did give him a final original release hurrah in the top 40! People went for his classics when he sadly passed away.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 29th June 2020, 07:13 PM

10. John I'm Only Dancing (1972) 10 points



OK, this is at 10 as my fave Bowie track (at least on the day I voted, it changes according to mood) - it was a Ziggy Stardust-era single that wasn't on the album, and it rocked! You can dance to it, though it's not a dance record, it's clearly Ziggy, though it's not on the album, and the video is fab. Yes, an actual video in the sense of a promo designed to avoid having to appear doing trashy Top Of The Pops Orchestra versions, or re-records. Contrary to popular opinion, Queen didn't invent the promo in 1975, The Beatles were doing them in the 60's, and many acts even further way back. Bowie, clearly, had control over how he was presented, and I remember loving a promo on Top Of The Pops (but not this banned androgynous promo) - I was a big fan of promo videos from day one as I still can't stand cheesy re-recorded versions, and I'm not too fussed about recorded live performances either, they aren't the same as being there, and they also aren't as good as what I consider a completed work of art. One doesn't keep painting over the top of a finished painting, or adding bits to a book, especially asking someone else to faff about with it. I want it to sound like it did when it was released, and a video allows that. What was more surprising was that Bowie tried it...did it again with Jean Genie, and then gave up till Boys Keep Swinging was a proper effort 7 years later. Hey ho, I was 14, my name is John, and I love dancing to music - what's not to love about this!? Great vocal, great cracking sounds after "turns me on". It's also the only Bowie song to chart in 3 different versions, the original in 1972, and a double A in 1979 with an alternate (but similar) 1972 version as the flip to the radio-promoted plastic-soul-era 1975 re-record which was nothing like the original, a dull, plodding affair that must have seemed like a good idea at the time - "ooh disco is big let's make a literal dancing track and cut out the potentially risque gay-lyrics". Just no. Peaked at 12 in the UK (not issued in the USA, too controversial) in 1972, and errr, 12 again late 1979. Consistent!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 30th June 2020, 06:34 PM

9. Modern Love (1983) 11 points



Third of the Nile Rodgers trilogy of Let's Dance singles, hitting UK 2, 14 US and topping my charts, for a hat-trick of fab pop songs of Bowie at his most-commercial and orthodox. Nile Rodgers was hot as a producer by 1983 as his Chic-career was fizzing out, and his protoges like Sister Sledge and Sheila & B. Devotion had given way to one-off's like Carly Simon's fab Why single, so Bowie totally knew what he was doing for his new record-deal and the Serious Moonlight tour complete with smart suit and blonde permed hair. Sales were big worldwide...and then Bowie dissed that period as not really representing his artistic ambitions. I can see why he would think that, but errr, Nile Rodgers wanted to help Bowie make an avante-garde album, and it was Bowie's own instruction to make it commercial, and he did that beautifully. I'd suggest that there's nothing wrong with the songs at all, and Modern Love is a great song with a chunky delicious rhythm - as you'd expect from Rodgers. It would be a while before Bowie was this consistently good on an album, even ignoring the mess that was Tin Machine, though Absolute Beginners and other one-offs like This Is Not America were classic enough. On the list thanks Bigwiglaf and Callum rating it highly.

Posted by: Steve201 30th June 2020, 08:43 PM

It always confuses me why big single with huge chorus are looked at as commercial and uncool, is that not what we love about pop?

Great song Modern Love!

Posted by: dandy* 1st July 2020, 10:21 AM

Modern Love is great but the Let's Dance era is pretty awful outside of the singles so I can see why he would not be totally happy with the project as a whole.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 1st July 2020, 04:12 PM

Cat People and Shake It? The other tracks are filler, I grant...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 1st July 2020, 07:02 PM

8. Fame (1975) 11 points



Well, Bowie got a US chart-topper with this funky study on the pressure of being famous - and if anyone should know about paying the ultimate price of fame it's my hero John Lennon, who co-wrote this with Bowie & his longtime guitarist Carlos Alomar, and he snag on it too not too long after he'd had his first solo US chart-topper too with help from Elton John. It's a great track but struggled in the UK, peaking at 17 - though doing better than John Lennon singles of that period which were being criminally-ignored in the changing UK music scene as it moved from Glam to Disco. In my own charts, Young Americans went top 5, Golden Years topped my chart, and the one in between, inspired by the lack of UK success peaked at a mere under-appreciated 11. Not even the 1990 remixed version got it into my top 10 (peak 17), mainly cos it wasn't as good. For a funk track it's still got those Bowie touches of oddness, like the sliding scale of chipmunk "fame"s down to slowed-bass-"fame"s. I still prefer Golden years though, sigh. So what kept it out of my top 10? A snatch of classic pop records, some oldies revived, Mike Batt's TV theme Summertime City, Jasper Carrot's Funky Moped, and a sniff of cover versions of old songs. Hmmm, yes, things would be very different if I re-did those charts in 2025 for a 50th re-appraisal! Here thanks to Chris & Ready...

Posted by: Steve201 1st July 2020, 07:39 PM

That guitar riff on 'Fame', wonderful stuff!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 2nd July 2020, 07:02 PM

7. Space Oddity (1969) 12 points



The one that got the ball rolling, and allowed Bowie to claim chart hits in 5 decades, and took the milestone Man On The Moon event in July 1969, used the ground-breaking 2001: A Space Odyssey as inspiration and put a twist to it, setting up his early sci-fi related subject matter - which was right up my street. A minor US hit (124) at the end of 1969, the single went top 5 in the UK just after we'd left the country for Singapore, so I had no idea it existed, who Bowie was, never saw his lost Top Of The Pops performance, nor that he'd become a semi-novelty act as a one-hit-wonder with an admittedly stunning and memorable single, all sweeping strings, melancholy, and an epic ballad treatment. Let's just say it was a massive leap up from The Laughing Gnome! By the time I got back to the UK, Changes was the new Bowie track - and that got no airplay or sales action, but there was a buzz building. By the end of 1972 this was out again in the USA as the world went full-on Ziggy and this time it took hold and hit 15 on Billboard in 1973, which was about the time I first got to hear it, 4 years late, and it seemed alright but not quite modern-sounding. Roll into 1975, and RCA started demonstrating how much they were prepared to mine the Bowie back catalogue during official new single release gaps when they re-issued Space Oddity as the main track on what was essentially an EP (Changes was the other great single) - and this time 6 years of demand had built-up enough to take it all the way to top the charts, and to give Bowie a quick chart double-topper for me in late 1975 along with Golden Years. At this point we had no idea Major Tom was going to keep popping up on great singles, but I've never really stopped loving the track ever since, probably more from fondness I rated it inside my top 5 rather than some of his other personal chart-toppers, cos this was his first one for me. Oh, yes, forgot to add the fab Rick Wakeman (of yes and solo progrock success) is on piano, the fab Herbie Flowers is on bass (he of Blue Mink pop hitsters, T.Rex late-career, and Sky classical instrumentalists, the man who played the classic Walk On The Wild Side bassline, and err who wrote Clive Dunn's Grandad chart-topper) and it was voted for by moi, Chez and Dexton.

Posted by: Dexton 4th July 2020, 03:27 AM

I adore Space Oddity! We sung it in our year 5/6/7 “choir”

Posted by: Popchartfreak 4th July 2020, 04:02 PM

I would have loved to have sung it at school, all we had were dreary hymns and obscure stuff I've never heard since

Posted by: Popchartfreak 4th July 2020, 04:28 PM

6. Under Pressure (1981) with Queen 16 points



A UK chart-topper that came out nowhere in late '81, Bowie & Queen together, no video, no promo-work, just sold on the basis of being a great record made by 2 giants of the 70's who were both hot again in 1980, giving Queen a 2nd Uk Number One, and Bowie a 3rd, though it peaked at a more modest 29 in the US, oddly since Queen had just had a batch of chart-toppers. Perhaps a bit too rhythmically off the wall for US radio, or at least 9 years ahead of it's time - cue Vanilla Ice Ice Ice Baby and another UK chart-topper, and the US and everywhere else! Cheekily Ice didn't credit Bowie & Queen until he was forced to in a lawsuit - he didnt just nick the bassline and drums, he sampled them. That bassline? John Deacon, modified by Bowie. The song? Freddie Mercury for the most part, though lyrically it's more Bowie than anyone. Not bad considering it was an impromptu session set up after Bowie didn't like his own vocals he was lending to a Queen album track. It's sobering to reflect we've now lost both Freddie and David. It topped my chart for a quick single week on top in between an avalanche of my two fave 70's bands on top (it knocked off ELO) before being knocked off by Human League's timeless Don't You Want Me, which itself was knocked for 6 after 1 week by the other 70's giants Abba. I understand ELO, Queen, Abba and David Bowie are still a bit popular. Up to this point the songs were closely packed in points, now we leap 5 points clear of the 7th position as we get into the top end, and voters were Bigwig, Dexton's top-rated track, and Rob S. The points get big as we go into the top 5 as we get down to the ones lots of folk voted for....

Posted by: Dexton 4th July 2020, 04:53 PM

Also on the set list were songs like Use Somebody, Without You (U2), Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, Six Months In A Leaky Boat and more

I love Under Pressure, one of my all time favourites. Although saying that, Rebel Rebel (my #3 I believe) is incredible too and is very high on my list. I would argue I prefer Rebel Rebel now, but Space Oddity does have a special place in my heart

Posted by: Steve201 4th July 2020, 08:23 PM

I kinda thought 'Under Pressure' would win due to the two giants on it.

What more is there to say - this is one of the biggest hits of the 80s!

Posted by: King Rollo 4th July 2020, 11:11 PM

I didn't think of Under Pressure when putting my top 5 together,but even if I had,I think I would have stuck to solo Bowie songs.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th July 2020, 06:21 PM

Pretty cool music teacher I'd say! KIngs Of Leon, U2, Green Day and the fab under-rated Split-Enz

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th July 2020, 07:01 PM

5. Starman (1972) 23 points



This is it. This is where it all began proper, after the one-off that was Space Oddity. Spring 1972, and a brand new single excitingly called Starman (one of my fave Legion of Super-Heroes characters was Star Boy, and there was the original Justice Society Of America Starman from 1941 who I also liked, he was still going at that time (and currently starring in the pilot to a new DC series Star Girl) - Bowie was ahead of his time, and I was totally in sync. But not in 'NSync. Contrary to popular opinion, Bowie didn't debut Ziggy on Top Of The Pops (though that was when the ball started rolling), he turned up on late afternoon kids show Lift Off With Ayshea, which featured current hits and new releases from pop stars and a couple of recent songs covered by host Ayshea Brough, who had appeared in the Gerry Anderson fab TV show U.F.O. in 1969/70, and who within in months was dating my other solo male popstar idol of the time, Roy Wood. See, everything links beautifully back to me. Anyway, kids show, David Bowie with his proto-Ziggy image singing Starman a few weeks before it became a hit single. Yes, I loved it. Just to prove that the BBC weren't the only morons in broadcasting, ITV stations also went through a cultural erasure of my musical youth by wiping all but 4 rescued episodes of Lift Off, which ran for around 3 years 1971/1974, so that Ziggy debut is well and truly gone unless the signal has somehow been interrupted by an actual Starman, up to about 48 and a bit light years away, and recorded for posterity. So we've got the live TOTP version, which even the TOTP orchestra don't ruin. Key 70's pop moment.

Anyway, the music! It's fab. Mick Ronson is a key ingredient, on record and image-wise. Bowie wasn't as big as his big mate Marc Bolan (T.Rex were undisputably the biggest pop band in the UK, and spearheaded glam rock with glitter galore and androgyny) but by the end of the year Bowie had taken over his thunder. Lyrically, a Starman sends music to save us all, and my word don;t we need it even more than we did 48 years ago. To be clear it wasn't just me who loved the song, it was a host of future pop stars the same age as me. 14 years-old is the optimum age to see something new and exciting and be inspired, or 2 or 3 years earlier at a pinch, but I didn't become a rock star (and in any case T.Rex beat Bowie to it, for me). Melodically, it owes a bit to Judy Garland's Over The Rainbow - oh yes it does, Bowie changed the words sometimes in concert - and T.Rex's Hot Love extended brilliant La La La outro. Being a musical magpie is a good thing if you do something new with it! Critics loved it, and I can't understate the cultural importance of the growing number of households with expensive new colour televisions had on Bowie and Glam Rock and Top Of The Pops being so popular - we bought our first colour TV for the 1972 Olympics, as did many other working-class households, and we had a new multi-coloured wonderful world to look at having spent our lives watching black and white TV. Wham!

Voted for by me, Chris, Chez, Steve, ready for it, and Jester's top track. That's twice the number of voters of the nearest challenger, so pretty popular across the board!

Posted by: Steve201 6th July 2020, 12:00 PM

Wonderful record, that guitar beginning just sounds amazing to this very day!

Posted by: Jester 6th July 2020, 02:30 PM

Adore Starman - such an iconic song.

Posted by: *Callum 6th July 2020, 05:56 PM

I’m glad Beauty and the Beast made into the rank. Such an underrated gem

Posted by: Popchartfreak 6th July 2020, 07:00 PM

4. Ashes To Ashes (1980) 42 points



Bowie's second-coming commerically, and the second outing for Major Tom outdoing the first and the third on this countdown, and with a whopping increase in points, almost double that of Starman. What does this mean to me? It means the start of the video age, quite literally for our family. dad bought a Philips 2000 video-player following much urging from me, so I could record my fave popstars and Star Trek episodes for posterity. Up to the moment this topped the UK charts the notion that you could ever see something on TV again was unthinkable, it was just something rich people could afford to do. It was still expensive, and the tapes were £20 a shot for 2 hours, the equivalent of about £50-£75 in todays money I'd guess, so you had to REALLY love something to save it. The first video I loved enough to make the grade was Ashes To Ashes. Total magic, and the end video of that first TOTP I could record from. Bliss!

Bowie had produced another original-slightly-warped-sounding pop song, quirky and catchy in various vocal keys and double-tracking, resurrected a key cult song character, now a junkie, the lyrics at odds with the upbeat sound. The video sold the record immensely, revisiting The Man Who Fell To Earth, another alien, and coming over all dark Harlequin and New Romantic, walking with Steve Strange in front of a digger on a beach, special effects giving it dayglo appeal. I thought it was a major advance in promo videos, and I was a huge fan of them from day one already. It ought to be, mind you, the most expensive shoot to date. Loved it. Loved the record, it topped the UK charts, topped my charts for 4 weeks, and err 101 on Billboard, the US totally oblivious to the coming avalanche of Britpop synth-based pop videos which would soon saturate the new MTV video channel and US Hot 100. Bowie, as per, had moved on from the 70's and was there at the start of a new movement for the 80's.

This would have been in my top 5 had I voted on a different day of the week, but I just switched to Space Oddity on the day, but happily beloved of AH Gold's 10 points, 1 point from Chris, Rollo's 7 points, Leww's 7 points, Chez's 1 point, Callum's 10 points, Jester's 2 points, for a new widespread voter-base of 7 - and it still only came 4th!

Posted by: Steve201 6th July 2020, 07:58 PM

I learned to adore this one when I watched Ashes to Ashes in 2008 when the show was named after it and the clown from the video was reproduced in the first series and also when the old totp episodes helped me see it entering the uk charts at the time, different to anything at that time.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 8th July 2020, 06:56 PM

3. Let's Dance (1983) 44 points



Chic-tastic debut brilliance from Bowie on his brand-new label EMI, going straight for the pop jugular, and doing it in cool style. It became the 4th David Bowie UK chart-topper, and his 2nd US number one, and topping or nearly-topping most pop charts in the world. Cos it's fab. By early 1983 MTV was spear-heading British acts and music, as the New Romantics visual appeal and creative video directors like Godley & Creme were-well-placed to join the emerging video-domination of Michael Jackson and a handful of American acts in a sea of non-video-friendly MOR rock. The track kicks it, funk-rock with horn, and the video set in sunny, exotic Australia made social comments with the inclusion of young attractive Australian indigenous people seen working low-paid jobs or hauling machinery, and ending with an atomic explosion - as always with Bowie, the jolly has undertones of something darker, albeit this time visually.

I was working in a factory in a dying ex-coal-mine community at the time, and my life was not what you'd call sunny and exotic - what do people working in dull low-paid jobs want to do? Party! Best I could do was vicariously through the brilliant music video pop scene in 1983, and Bowie was a jewel in the music biz in 1983. For Bowie, the new pop fans who knew little of his 1970's career seemed to leave him at odds at who to cater for in the 80's (correct answer, cater for no-one but yourself, even if it's not popular), but it kinda got a 21st century stamp of approval when Craig David's Hot Stuff used Let's Dance as the backbone of it and it duly topped my chart again having become Bowie's 5th to date first-time round. And I got to see David sing it live on the 1987 Glass Spider tour, hooray! Voted full marks here from Chris, and lesser spots from Rollo, Leww, Bigwig, Jade, Jester, Dexton, ...ready, and Rob, or 9 voters and an across-the-board popular track. Just 2 left now...

Posted by: Steve201 8th July 2020, 09:18 PM

Expected 'Let's Dance' to be high up here due to the Chic genius which appeals a lot nowadays too, what's the top 2 then?

Posted by: Jester 9th July 2020, 07:49 AM

Heroes and Life on Mars?

Posted by: Steve201 9th July 2020, 12:43 PM

Your probably right, I actually forgot about 'Heroes' tbh, always seems this is his legacy song!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 10th July 2020, 06:54 PM

2. 'Heroes' (1977) 53 points



OK, hands up who thought this would be on top? Me, too. In 1977, Bowie was full-on Brian Eno/Berlin/emotional-but-cold synth experimentation, and he appeared on old mate Marc Bolan's new kids-aimed TV show. Marc was reinventing himself as the Godfather of punk, featuring young new bands on his show for the most part - plus Bowie doing this (see the above link). Bolan and Bowie were Heroes to me, and within a couple of weeks, Bolan was dead, killed in a car crash in Putney - yes I've been past the tree that girlfriend Gloria Jones had driven into for still-unknown reasons. Elvis had died a month earlier, Bolan hit me much much harder, and just as I was about to go to Lincoln Uni for the first time, and I still recall Bowie at the funeral on the news.



I don't know what impact all this had on me with regard to this major classic, but the original recording - see above - only reached 19 in my charts while the angry new Stranglers record No More Heroes went top 10, which caught the mood of 1977 and the punk sensibilities more than Bowie's influential but small hit did (it didn't even go top 20 for the first time until after Bowie's death in 2016) and which didn't even make the US Hot 100. In retrospect it's the sound of the future, and inspired future sounds and musicians galore. When Bowie died, it's the song that topped my chart - and about time too. At least I got there in the end, the UK only got it on top in an X-Factor finalists version in 2010. Hey ho, no apostrophe's I expect. 'Heroes'. So what's it about? Two lovers from either side of the Berlin Wall in the former East and West Germany meet at the wall. The triumph of love over adversity. You can clearly hear the sound of Velvet Underground in the grunge-y synths and guitars, courtesy Brian Eno and Robert Fripp - that'll be, for those who weren't around then, Roxy Music and King Crimson ex-members. I went to see Fripp's missus last year, Bowie-fan Toyah (they live locally, more or less). This is the fave Bowie track of Chez, Bigwiglaf, and Rob S, and also rated by Rollo, Steve, Jade, dandy, Jester, 8 voters - less than Let's Dance but those that loved it REALLY loved it, so it gets more points.

OK, you know what's top but I'll keep you in "suspense" as I'm off to London in an hour, stuff to do. It was, however, a very clear winner, wasn't even close....

Posted by: Steve201 11th July 2020, 01:37 AM

I love the personal background info on this - makes sense that 1977 was more punk than future synths so it took a while to grow. I love songs like that though.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th July 2020, 05:43 PM

Thanks Steve I also love growers - and there's loads of classics that took a while to register with me in a big way - Anarchy In The UK, Heroes, Smells Like Teen Spirit amongst them.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th July 2020, 06:35 PM

1. Life On Mars? (1971) 85 points



For me, like for most people in the 70's, this song became known in the summer of '73, after Ziggy and Aladdin had been laid to rest, and before the cover-versions Pin-Ups trod-water ahead of the next Bowie metamorphosis. Back in 1971 Bowie was still known as that bloke with the fab novelty space-moonlanding song, and he couldn't get arrested with his new material - that would be Hunky Dory - not even with the brilliant Changes a flop single, the fab hit song Oh! You Pretty Things (for Herman's Hermits' Peter Noone, who I saw give a lunchtime outdoor hits concert at Disney Epcot in the late 90's), and the showstopping album track Life On Mars? (with Rick Wakeman on piano again). By mid-'73 everything had changed, Bowie had more weeks on the UK singles and albums charts than any other act in 1973, and it made sense to piush Hunky Dory into the big sales league at last. Cue Life On Mars? as a single during the summer school holidays, with an Aladdin Sane-era promo video - which never got shown anywhere that I recall! Pretty sure I would have remembered it (cos it's fab) on Top Of The Pops or Old Grey Whistle Test if it had cropped up, and there were no other outlets then for music videos on TV. Of course, I could have been sulking if we'd been at my grandparents houses in Liverpool or Mansfield (we lived at RAF Swinderby in Lincolnshire) and not been allowed to watch TOTP, but I just have vague memories of fade-out plays or BBC-made promos usually featuring lovers walking along a beach or some other nonsense.

When I was 14 and 15, before I'd saved up enough pocket-money to buy my own black-and-white portable TV (from babysitting for RAF kids so the young parents could have a night out) the only way I could impress on my dad (mum was usually happy to go along with me) just how important it was to me to watch Top Of The Pops was to fall into a huge sulk. I made an artform out of sulking. If I was going to have my life ruined by missing the only chance in history (quite LITERALLY true) to watch my fave popstars do my fave songs on TOTP, I made sure everyone else knew how aggrieved I was!

LIfe On Mars? was the highest-charting Bowie song to date on my personal charts (at 2), it was pretty damn epic, and also charted at 3 on the UK charts, and was a damn sight more street cred than the next old Bowie single to chart (The Laughing Gnome, Bowie was overjoyed to find out, had been re-released by Deram and he got an unwanted reminder of his Anthony Newley impressionist novelty-song days). Like 'Heroes' it also has become more popular with time - not that it wasn't always well-remembered, cos it was always regarded as a bit of a showstopper - not least helped by the 2006 BBC TV series Life On Mars, at which point it became a minor UK hit again, and finally topped my charts - at that time Bowie's 9th chart-topper. In latter years it has consistently been voted Bowie's best-ever record, so I guess it's not really a surprise to see it on top and 32 points clear of 'Heroes' - yes it was that emphatic a win thanks to top marks from Rollo, Leww, Steve, Jade, dandy, ...ready for it, a second place from moi, Chez, Jester, a 3rd place from AH Gold, or 10 voters and no dribs and drabs minor points at all.

Thanks all for the votes, sorry it's a bit spread-out results-wise, my life is nothing if not short on time to faff about doing stuff like this I enjoy!

Posted by: Steve201 12th July 2020, 11:46 PM

Yes the 'Life On Mars' series which I recently watched again this year and is fab btw is when I must have came to know this amazing track. I love the piano and how it builds And the lyrics 'Lenin's on sale again' genius.

You aren't the only one to sulk over parents interrupting totp I remember a huge fight with my mum when she interrupted Emma Buntons no1 performance of 'It Took You So Long' 20 years ago 😅

Posted by: Dexton 13th July 2020, 08:37 AM

Not me not voting for either 1st or 2nd

Posted by: dandy* 13th July 2020, 02:35 PM

The right song won! I love lots of Bowie tracks but Life On Mars? is THE classic song for me. It just sounds like a classic, it's got such a timeless feel to it and the lyrics are really unique and quite powerful too which helps no end. I absolutely love the "It's on America's tortured brow that Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow" lyric and of course the "Take a look at the lawman beating up the wrong guy" lyric still very much resonates today. I'd heard it a few times before I knew who Bowie was and I'd always assumed it was a classic Beatles track as it has that sort of feel and status to it.

Posted by: Jester 13th July 2020, 03:14 PM

I’m quite impressed my top 5 were your top 5!

Posted by: King Rollo 13th July 2020, 03:49 PM

It had to be Life On Mars.

Four of the five songs I picked ended up as the top 4 so I'm happy with these results.

Posted by: Chez Wombat 13th July 2020, 04:32 PM

Correct top 2 for sure, both classics

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th July 2020, 07:16 AM

These things are important to kids! That we remember them decades later shows how important! I got assigned the family record player to my own room after a blazing row between me and dad as I turned 15, mum had to lay down the law. I was playing T.Rex Solid Gold Easy Action loud in the front room and it was more than he could stand. ironically his dad had the same reaction to his buying The Goons Ying Tong Song in the 50's, which grandad smashed into pieces - and which was about to chart all over again in 1973, just to rub it in.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th July 2020, 07:23 AM

Spot on, dandy, and you know what? - I'd never spotted that very Beatles/Lennon feel to it. it's blatantly obvious now you say it!

Posted by: bigwiglaf 14th July 2020, 04:16 PM

In Let's Dance, the guitar solos were done by late blues guitarist/singer Stevie Ray Vaughan....dunno if anyone else knew or mentioned it previously...

Posted by: Steve201 14th July 2020, 08:33 PM

I had a time when my dads old record player stereo system from the 70s was put in my room and I loved it (it was one of them ones from the 70s with microphones and all)!

Anyway thanks for doing this 'quick' rate Pop, excellent look back on his discography!

Posted by: Dexton 14th August 2020, 09:42 AM

Is there any more of these style rates coming soon? I think Elton John, Queen, and The Beatles would be excellent options. Also throwing in Fleetwood Mac and Hall & Oates

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th August 2020, 01:13 PM

I think the next one planned was for Madonna, but I'm happy to go with the flow - I think Elton would be a good one, loads of hits and I dont think he's ever popped up before on anything ratewise. Queen & The Beatles have featured in other rates fairly recently so might be worth doing further down the line. Mac, likewise, never been done, and Hall & Oates would probably be a fairly short one, easy to do, prob about 10 or 20 tracks and not much else except among those few of us that are fans - of which I am one

Pet Shop Boys are also long overdue a Quickie rate - unless dandy wants to finish off that other format rate from a couple of years ago?

Happy to take suggestions though, volunteers welcome, or as I like most big names I'm sure I can knock off an appreciation of the results order if any preferences for acts emerge...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th August 2020, 01:14 PM

I think I knew it at the time, and then forgot it! There's some fab guitar work (and rhythms too) on the tracks...

Posted by: King Rollo 14th August 2020, 03:51 PM

Elton John and Fleetwood Mac would be good ones to do. Madonna has her own forum so I don't think there's any need for a Madonna quickie rate here.

I would be happy to host an ELO quickie rate if there is a demand for one.

Posted by: Dexton 14th August 2020, 05:30 PM

I’m a big fan of Elton, Fleetwood Mac, and H&O so any of those would be perfect! I know only a small handful of ELO songs although I’m sure if I listened to more I would recognise a fair few

I think Elton John is one of those artists where EVERYONE has a favourite song of his and 9 times out of 10 it’s different to the person next to you, could make for very interesting results and with him being generally a popular artist I imagine it’d invite possibly more people than Bowie did to the forum

Posted by: Jester 15th August 2020, 08:40 AM

Elton would be great for a quickie rate (Madonna as well!)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th August 2020, 09:53 PM

Well I'd be mad keen on an ELO quickie rate, I love 'em! The number one is a dead cert but the rest could be in any order, I've no idea what would happen, so feel free from my point of view

Well, Elton seems popular, so I'll get that running next week. I genuinely have no idea what the results would be, there's about 4 or 5 I suspect will be popular but it may not turn out that way.....

Posted by: King Rollo 16th August 2020, 11:40 AM

Alright then,I'll start ELO this week and hope that a few people take part.