#21: Blue Jean

(from Tonight)

 

 

Year of release: 1984

UK Peak: #6

Chart Run: {17-6-7-17-27-39-54-75-x-84} (22/09/1984 - 24/11/1984)

 

Scores: 10 (SamJudd, Taylor Jago), 8 (Severin, Colm), 7.5 (dandy*), 7 (popchartfreak), 6 (Joe.)

Average: 8.07

Final score: 80.74

Blue Jean was the first single of the much derided Tonight album and whilst it remained in use on Bowie’s later tours, the singer hasn’t been overly complimentary of the track, describing it as ‘ sexist rock ‘n roll’ and, ‘not very cerebral’.

Taking his inspiration from Eddie Cochran Bowie took it from a handful of ideas he had for song much to Hugh Padgham’s displeasure. Bowie’s latest producer had hoped to work with him for some time, but only got the opportunity when Bowie seemed to have lost his interest in either song writing or new ideas. The resultant album contained only two songs written entirely by Bowie (Loving The Alien is the other). Blue Jean itself was a deliberate attempt at pleasing his new audience, and it duly took him back in to the top ten.

However, critical reaction was negative and whispers even began among long time fans that Bowie had ‘sold out.’ Bowie himself has later commented that the 80’s were his ‘Phil Collins years’ and a creative nadir.

 

By quite some distance the best song on Tonight (although Loving The Alien is also excellent), Blue Jean is, along with Loving The Alien, the reason Tonight is a better album than Never Let Me Down. It was also Bowie's first top 40 single appearing on one of his studio albums not to have a longer album version since Look Back In Anger.

Great top 20, I'd say! I'd have liked to have seen Scary Monsters and Cat People higher though!

#20: China Girl

(from Let's Dance)

 

 

Year of release: 1983

UK Peak: #2

Chart Run: {8-2-3-6-17-27-49-64} {97} (11/06/1983 - 30/07/1983) (21/01/2016)

 

Scores: 10 (Joe., Taylor Jago), 9 (popchartfreak, SamJudd), 8 (Severin, richie, Fgiboy2511), 7 (dandy*), 6 (AH Gold, Colm)

Average: 8.1

Final score: 81

 

China Girl was originally recorded by Iggy Pop for his 1977, Bowie produced, album The Idiot. Co-written with Bowie, the track was typical of the Krautrock inspired work both of them were doing at that time. The song was inspired by a Vietnamese girl that Pop was involved with, but with whom he had great difficulty communicating, because of the language barrier between them.

Bowie recorded China Girl for two main reasons. First of all, he felt it was a great song that had gotten lost in the studio version. Secondly, Pop was broke and his career had stalled in the early 80’s, and Bowie wanted to help re-launch it. Bowie would record several more versions of Iggy’s songs over the next few years, partly because he wanted to help his friend but also because the mid 80’s saw Bowie himself struggle creatively or engage with his new audience.

The original version’s vocals build steadily to a paranoid frenzy, whereas Bowie’s version exudes a more assured calmness and its final ‘stumble into town’ section is more a demonstration of power.

The single would peak at a UK #2 held off only by The Police’s, Every Breath You Take.

 

The first song in this countdown which re-entered the UK top 100 following Bowie's death in Januayry to appear, China Girl peaked at #2 in June 1983, held off by the magnificent Every Breath You Take.

Edited April 23, 20169 yr by Taylor Jago

#19: Fame

(from Young Americans)

 

 

Year of release: 1975

UK Peak: #17

Chart Run: {41-33-30-19-21-17-30-39} (02/08/1975 - 20/09/1975)

 

Scores: 10 (SamJudd, Joe.), 9 (popchartfreak, Severin, richie), 8 (AH Gold, Fgiboy2511, Colm), 6 (dandy*), 4 (Taylor Jago)

Average: 8.1

Final score: 81

 

Co-written with John Lennon and featuring the former Beatle on backing vocals, the song was built on a riff created by Bowie’s new guitarist, Carlos Alomar. The single further enhanced Bowie’s stateside profile when it became his first U.S. #1.

Bowie has described the song as ‘nasty, angry’ and that it was aimed at his former management.

In 1990 he described fame itself as unrewarding and that ‘the most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants.’

 

At #19 we have Fame, the rather annoying song which was the only Bowie song to do better in the US than in the UK. Unsurprisingly, due to this American listings of Bowie songs will usually place it near the top while British listings have it around the 20 mark (like here). Still a bit too high for my taste, but it is funky.

#18: Young Americans

(from Young Americans)

 

 

Year of release: 1975

UK Peak: #18

Chart Run: {29-18-21-19-29-28-41} (01/03/1975 - 12/04/1975)

 

Scores: 10 (richie), 9.5 (dandy*), 9 (Severin, SamJudd), 8 (popchartfreak, Taylor Jago), 7.5 (Joe.), 6 (AH Gold, Colm)

Average: 8.11

Final score: 81.11

 

The title track of his 9th studio was a major milestone for Bowie. It marked the first studio material from his mid 70’s ‘plastic soul’ phas,e and was a major breakthrough hit in the US. The song itself focuses on the problems and issues confronting a young couple in 1970s America and features a lyric that is often highly critical of American culture and recent history.

According to producer Tony Visconti, Bowie’s vocals were recorded in a single take and have almost no re-takes or overdubs. The backing vocals were arranged by Luther Vandross who also performs on the album.

The single version was edited from the album’s 5:10 running time down by almost 2 minutes and is generally considered far inferior because of it.

 

The song which first broke Bowie in America, it was the first song from his "plastic soul" phase. It didn't do that well in the UK sadly, but it remains a great tune. It is also the highest placed song from the Young Americans album.

#17: Golden Years

(from Station To Station)

 

 

Year of release: 1975

UK Peak: #8

Chart Run: {39-24-15-8-9-9-8-12-19-40} (29/11/1975 - 31/01/1976)

 

Scores: 10 (popchartfreak), 9 (Severin, SamJudd, Joe.), 8.5 (dandy*), 8 (AH Gold), 7.5 (Taylor Jago), 7 (richie), 5 (Colm)

Average: 8.11

Final score: 81.11

 

Golden Years was the first single from the Station To Station album and was apparently offered to Elvis Presley to record, although ‘The King’ declined the offer.

The single marks the official debut of a character Bowie had been developing over the previous year – The Thin White Duke – a crooner whose impassioned vocals masked a cold heart. Inspired partly by his character in the film The Man Who Fell To Earth, Bowie described him initially as ‘ice masquerading as fire’ before referring to him as ‘nasty’ and ‘an ogre’.

The Thin White Duke character made a number of pro-fascist statements and disinterested interviews, the controversy reached a peak when Bowie was accused of making a Nazi salute to fans during a visit to London. The singer always claimed he was photographed mid wave and later felt obliged to state clearly that he (Bowie) was NOT a fascist.

 

Winning the tie based on having more 7 and 7.5s, Golden Years is the song whose name makes it look like it's from Young Americans when it's from Station To Station, with the fact it was the first single from the latter album (and first single after the former album) adding to the confusion. And the sound of the song is a crossover from the former to the latter, which doesn't help matters either. Mess.

#16: Rebel Rebel

(from Diamond Dogs)

 

 

Year of release: 1974

UK Peak: #5

Chart Run: {6-5-5-13-16-36-47} {65} (23/02/1974 - 06/04/1974) (21/01/2016)

 

Scores: 10 (SamJudd, Joe., dandy*, AH Gold), 9.5 (Taylor Jago), 8 (Severin, richie), 7 (popchartfreak, Colm), 2 (Fgiboy2511)

Average: 8.15

Final score: 81.5

 

Rebel Rebel is Bowie’s first single since he parted company with the Spiders From Mars and is often seen as his goodbye to the Glam Rock genre which had given him so much success. The song has a driving Rolling Stones style guitar riff and lyrics inspired by both the UK Glam Rock scene and the US band the New York Dolls who also shared Bowie’s flamboyant dress sense.

The singer Jayne County (formerly Wayne County) has claimed her song Queenage Baby was a direct influence on the guitar riff.

The U.S. single featured a heavily reworked version of the song and the song was re-recorded in yet another new arrangement in 2003. It would also be combined with Never Get Old from his album Reality to become Rebel Never Get Old. David’s last single until his surprise return with Where Are We Now?

 

Rebel Rebel was the first single off the concept album Diamond Dogs, a musical adaptation of George Orwell's 1984. It is one of Bowie's most enduring hits, and re-entered the UK top 100 upon his death in January.

#15: John, I'm Only Dancing

 

 

Year of release: 1972

UK Peak: #12

Chart Run: {43-30-23-20-12-13-13-16-28-39} (16/09/1972 - 18/11/1972)

 

Scores: 9 (popchartfreak, Severin, SamJudd, richie, Joe., Taylor Jago), 8 (dandy*), 7 (AH Gold), 5 (Colm)

Average: 8.22

Final score: 82.22

 

John, I’m Only Dancing is often mistakenly noted for marking the first time Bowie managed to follow a hit single with another hit single. However, this does ignore the single release of Hang On To Yourself, put out under the name Arnold Corns a month earlier.

John, I’m Only Dancing did however, cement the notion of Bowie’s bi-sexuality. It is most frequently believed that the song’s narrator is reassuring his boyfriend no to be concerned as he is ‘only dancing’. Although some have speculated he could equally be speaking to the girl’s boyfriend.

A third theory suggests it could be a response to comments John Lennon made about Bowie’s cross-dressing.

There were actually 2 different versions of the song, released a few months apart but with the same catalogue number. The 2nd version known as ‘the sax version’ was recorded during sessions for the Aladdin Sane album and is often considered to be the superior version.

It was re-recorded again in 1974 during sessions for the Young Americans album as John, I’m Only Dancing (Again).A single release in its own right in 1979.

 

Despite both peaking at #12, the original (and far superior) John, I'm Only Dancing trumps the second (which finished dead last) and rightly so. Unfortunately this didn't appear on a studio album, and missed the cut of even the 3-CD version of Nothing Has Changed.

#14: Absolute Beginners

 

 

Year of release: 1986

UK Peak: #2

Chart Run: {8-2-3-8-13-21-34-44-65} (15/03/1986 - 10/05/1986)

 

Scores: 11 (Taylor Jago), 10 (Severin, SamJudd, richie), 9.5 (dandy*), 9 (popchartfreak), 7.5 (Joe.), 4 (AH Gold), 3 (Colm)

Average: 8.22

Final score: 82.22

 

Absolute Beginners was recorded in the summer of 1985 but held back while work on the film (from which it was taken) was completed. It was recorded during the same sessions as Dancing In The Street and Bowie urged his musicians to bring their own ideas to the song. The musicians were sent invites to record with a ‘Mr X’ and were unaware of exactly whose record they would be featuring on.

The song is a straightforward love story told from the perspective of an older couple finding new love, and Bowie’s vocal deliberately alternates between a cautious, world weary tone and a soaring, hopeful yearning. Bowie has said in the past that he thinks this to be his best ever vocal performance.

The song reached UK #2 and was held off the top spot by Cliff Richard & The Young Ones’ Living Doll, and Diana Ross’ Chain Reaction. The single can be considered to mark the end of Bowie’s era of mega-stardom (it flopped in the USA), but it seems to have found its placed as the Bowie song that fans remember fondly but everyone else has forgotten.

 

My third favourite Bowie song, and his final top 5 hit finishes in fourteenth place. Appearing on the soundtrack of that turd of a film with the same name, it featured on Now That's What I Call Movies! (coming just after Pure Shores). That section after the final chorus is just glorious.

#13: Boys Keep Swinging

(from Lodger)

 

 

Year of release: 1979

UK Peak: #7

Chart Run: {31-15-19-9-7-9-15-26-48-67} (05/05/1979 - 07/07/1979)

 

Scores: 10 (popchartfreak, AH Gold), 9 (Severin, SamJudd, Joe.), 8 (richie), 7 (Taylor Jago, Colm), 6.5 (dandy*)

Average: 8.39

Final score: 83.89

 

The Lodger album is considered the final part of the Berlin trilogy but it would be more accurate to refer to the set as the Eno trilogy, as only ‘Heroes’ was made in Berlin but all three albums were worked on with Brian Eno. Of the three Lodger is the most conventional, although it remains quite experimental. Lodger tends to be considered Bowie’s most underrated album.

For Boys Keep Swinging, as with most of Lodger, Bowie wanted to create a Garage Rock Band type of feel and so decide that all the musicians should play an instrument that was not the speciality – with the exception of guitarist Adrian Belew who was given almost no prior knowledge of the song.

Boys Keep Swinging shares the same chord structure with the album track Fantastic Voyage, which also appeared on the B-side. The song is largely seen as a critique on gender stereotypes and features a memorable cross-dressing video. The single gave Bowie is first UK Top 10 hit single since Sound And Vision. In the US the songs subject matter was considered too risqué and so Look Back In Anger became the lead single.

 

The first single off Lodger, Boys Keep Swinging returned Bowie to the UK top 20 after a two year absence, and its post card cover concept was reused for the album cover, before being thrown out the video for the rest of the era (such a waste). In America, Bowie performed it on Saturday Night Live, where the censors failed to notice the puppet's bouncing phallus at the end of the performance. Which proves that censors can be absolutely useless. Surprisingly, it was only ever performed in one tour (the Outside Tour in 1996).

#12: Sound And Vision

(from Low)

 

 

Year of release: 1977

UK Peak: #3

Chart Run: {46-20-15-6-5-3-5-4-9-11-26} (19/02/1977 - 30/04/1977)

 

Scores: 10 (popchartfreak, Severin, richie, Joe., dandy*), 7 (AH Gold, Colm), 6.5 (Taylor Jago), 6 (SamJudd)

Average: 8.5

Final score: 85

 

The Sound And Vision single was the 1st release from what would later become known as the ‘Berlin trilogy’. In reality the ‘Heroes’ album was the only one recorded in Berlin. Low was recorded in France and mixed in Berlin. Lodger was recorded in Switzerland and New York.

The lyrics of Sound And Vision detail Bowie’s drug experiences. Specifically cocaine. The singer describes his home and how he would take the drug and lose all sense of self, until eventually his senses returned – ‘I will sit right down, waiting for the gift of sound and vision’.

Musically the long intro (Bowie doesn’t appear until the song is halfway through) with its synth washes and Mary Hopkin’s vocal is designed both to evoke a blissful feeling and dupe the listener into thinking it’s yet another instrumental on the album.

For a song about going cold turkey it’s surprisingly pleasant sounding.

 

Giving its name to the documentary aired by the BBC following Bowie's death, Sound And Vision managed to reach #3 in the UK charts despite being arguably the most experimental song from the entire trilogy and possibly even Bowie's most experimental song ever. How did it do this? It was used by the BBC extensively for trailers. Promotion really is make or break for chart success it seems.

Sound and Vision is one of my all time favourites. In hindsight I should have given it an 11.

#11: Changes

(from Hunky Dory)

 

 

Year of release: 1971

UK Peak: #49

Chart Run: {49-73} (21/01/2016 - 28/01/2016)

 

Scores: 10 (Severin, SamJudd), 9.5 (dandy*), 9 (popchartfreak, richie), 8.5 (Joe.), 8 (AH Gold, Fgiboy2511), 7 (Colm), 6.5 (Taylor Jago)

Average: 8.55

Final score: 85.5

 

After the success of the Space Oddity single Bowie had struggled to repeat the success with any subsequent single to date and although his albums were getting good reviews people weren’t buying them in enough numbers. It came as no surprise when he was dropped yet again by his label – Mercury Records this time.

However RCA heard the early demos for Hunky Dory and signed him up. When Bowie then gave Peter Noone permission to record and release Oh! You Pretty Things, Changes was selected as the opening single. However, once again it failed to give him a hit single.

The song has since gone on the become one of Bowie’s most enduring tracks and something of a signature tune, due in large part to Bowie’s constant changing of image and style chiming perfectly with the song’s themes of art and society needing constant reinvention to stay relevant. The song is a call to never accept the status quo.

 

Just missing the top 10 is Changes, the first single from Hunky Dory which didn't chart until three months ago, and then still didn't get half the success it deserved. An inferior version with additional vocals from Butterfly Boucher was used in Shrek 2.

#10: Modern Love

(from Let's Dance)

 

 

Year of release: 1983

UK Peak: #2

Chart Run: {8-3-2-4-8-16-28-43} (24/09/1983 - 12/11/1983)

 

Scores: 10 (SamJudd, Joe., dandy*, Taylor Jago, Fgiboy2511), 8 (popchartfreak, Severin, AH Gold, Colm), 6 (richie)

Average: 8.8

Final score: 88

 

Modern Love is particularly notable for its ‘call and response’ vocal style, which according to Bowie was directly inspired by his love of Little Richard. Something he and producer Nile Rodgers shared and used to give the song its vibrancy and verve. Lyrically however, the song has more in common with Bowie’s more downbeat tendencies. From its opening lines with a paperboy delivering news that tells us nothing at all to its rejection of religion and ultimately modern love.

Modern love was released after Bowie’s massively popular Serious Moonlight tour had kicked off. The video therefore featured a live performance from the tour where the track had been played regularly as a well received encore. The tour’s success had taken Bowie by surprise and despite the initial euphoria he has since said on numerous occasions that he began to feel a disconnect with his audience. That he no longer knew who they were or what they wanted from him.

 

The third and final hit single from Let's Dance, perhaps surprisingly, finishes in the top 10. Like its predecessor China Girl, it peaked at #2, this time held off by Culture Club's Karma Chameleon.

#9: Fashion

(from Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

 

 

Year of release: 1980

UK Peak: #5

Chart Run: {20-8-6-5-5-12-24-42-56-56-56-75} (01/11/1980 - 15/01/1981)

 

Scores: 11 (Joe.), 10 (Taylor Jago, AH Gold), 9 (Severin, SamJudd, richie), 8 (popchartfreak, Fgiboy2511), 7 (dandy*, Colm)

Average: 8.8

Final score: 88

 

The 2nd single from the Scary Monsters album saw Bowie once again hit the higher reaches of the UK singles chart. Fashion, like most of the album was a mixture of Art Rock, Funk, New Wave and Post Punk influences. The song’s meaning has been much debated with theories ranging from it gently poking fun at the New Romantic scene to being a comment on the National Front. Bowie himself has commented that it was his take on the idea of the banality of trying to keep up with fashion trends and of how tiresome that could be.

The song was among the last to be completed for the album. The album itself has come to be regarded as Bowie’s best of the 80’s and its influence can be felt on genres as diverse as New Romantic, Brit Pop, Post Punk and Goth.

The single came with another video that was highly regarded as among the best of the era.

 

One of the most underrated Bowie songs, Fashion didn't even make the iTunes top 100 in the four days following Bowie's death. Despite this, Bowie fans know that it is one of his very best.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say Ashes To Ashes will win with 'Heroes' 2nd and Life On Mars? 3rd.

 

But 'Heroes' should win

I'm going to stick my neck out and say Ashes To Ashes will win with 'Heroes' 2nd and Life On Mars? 3rd.

 

 

#8: Heroes

(from "Heroes")

 

 

Year of release: 1977

UK Peak: #12

Chart Run: {27-26-25-24-25-25-34-39} {12-30-97} (15/10/1977 - 03/12/1977) (21/01/2016 - 04/02/2016)

 

Scores: 11 (Severin, dandy*, AH Gold), 10 (popchartfreak, SamJudd, richie, Taylor Jago), 7 (Joe.), 5 (Colm), 4 (Fgiboy2511)

Average: 8.9

Final score: 89

 

‘Heroes’ is often cited by many as Bowie’s greatest song. However, it wasn’t until 1985 when its performance was among the highlights of Live Aid that the public at large came to realise what Bowie’s fans had known since 1977. It was once memorable again in 1992 at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert, and since then the song has grown in the public’s conscience to become arguably the song with which he is most associated. The 1987 Reichstag performance of the song in Berlin was even cited by the German Foreign Office as a catalyst in the fall of the Berlin wall.

But in 1977 Bowie’s career was approaching a crossroads. Not only had his last single, Be My Wife – a thinly veiled plea to his then wife Angie not to leave him –become his first not to chart since Changes but Angie had refused to join him in his move to Berlin and the marriage would end in divorce in 1980. Working with Brian Eno had inspired Bowie to try new sounds ad ideas but his commercial appeal was waning both in the UK and the US. The ‘Heroes’ single did little to change that. The single version cut the song in half, robbing the song of much of its grandeur, and limped to a mid 20s chart placing. Reviews at the time were not very positive.

The lyrics to ‘Heroes’ were allegedly written in just over 5 minutes in a toilet at the studio the same day it was recorded. The doomed lovers referenced in the song were inspired by producer Tony Visconti and backing vocalist Antonia Maass, when Bowie saw them through a window at the studio. Visconti was married to Mary Hopkin (who appeared on Sound And Vision) at the time and so the couple for years remained anonymous. The quotation marks for the title were added to emphasise the song’s ironic lyrics. The distinctive guitar work was supplied by King Crimson’s Robert Fripp.

Bowie’s vocals were recorded on 3 separate microphones each at different distances to the singer, with only the nearest mic used for the quieter vocals. As Bowie’s vocals become more impassioned the mic in use moves further away from him, leading to the feeling that the singer is lost in a wall of noise and ambience and highlighting the tragic nature of the couple’s romance.

The song would finally reach UK#12 following Bowie’s death in 2016.

 

If this was entirely down to me, this would be fourth. Unfortunately, I don't control the results, and so Heroes finishes in eighth place. Although it peaked at #24 on original release, and failed to chart in the US, it has become Bowie's signature song, and was the highest Bowie song on the week he died. It also closed Now That's What I Call Music! 93.

#7: Lazarus

(from Blackstar)

 

 

Year of release: 2016

UK Peak: #45

Chart Run: {45-90} (21/01/2016 - 28/01/2016)

 

Scores: 10 (Severin, Taylor Jago, AH Gold), 9 (popchartfreak, richie, Joe., dandy*), 8 (SamJudd, Fgiboy2511, Colm)

Average: 9

Final score: 90

 

Lazarus would be David Bowie’s final single release. It came out as a digital single in December with the video released less than a week before his death. He had been fighting cancer for 18 months

He was diagnosed with liver cancer around July 2014, meaning that by the time of the single releases of Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) and ‘Tis A Pity She Was A Whore, Bowie was already battling the condition.

At some stage Bowie became aware it was terminal and it seems to be around this time that he resolved to complete the Blackstar album - his ‘parting gift to fans.’ Bowie has begun working on ideas for the follow up to The Next Day almost immediately after the former’s release. Song demos had been ongoing and the album was recorded in early 2015, with the musicians unaware of Bowie’s declining health.

The album was released on the 8th of January 2016, Bowie’s 69th birthday, to critical acclaim. Many hailed it as his best work since the 70’s. Some noted the album’s thematic similarities to Low. Both albums have a pain and bleakness that runs throughout the songs but Blackstar has a central theme of death, mortality and resurrection.

Despite the clues, the world woke on the 11th of January to the shock news that David Bowie was dead. He had managed to keep his illness secret until the end effectively written his own obituary with the album.

Lazarus is named after the biblical character that Jesus raised from the dead. The lyrics feature many references to his illness and his personal life, including his time in New York.

The video also features a number of references. He wears the same outfit he wore on the Station To Station album artwork, the dancers mimic the moves from the Fashion video. Meanwhile Bowie spends much of the video as a character that has become known as ‘Button Eyes’ lying on a hospital bed. The last image we ever get of Bowie is him shuffling backwards into a wardrobe like some metaphorical coffin.

Lazarus reached the UK #45 following his death.

 

Bowie's final top 50 single, and his final single to be released while he was alive, finishes in seventh place. I'd expect a future countdown later in time may not place it as high, but it definitely is one of his most beautiful songs.

#6: Let's Dance

(from Let's Dance)

 

 

Year of release: 1983

UK Peak: #1

Chart Run: {5-2-1-1-1-6-9-13-24-37-44-54-61-74-79-82} {23-47} (26/03/1983 - 09/07/1983) (21/01/2016 - 28/01/2016)

 

Scores: 11 (Joe.), 10 (popchartfreak, SamJudd, richie, Taylor Jago), 9 (dandy*, Fgiboy2511), 8 (Severin), 7 (Colm), 6 (AH Gold)

Average: 9

Final score: 90

 

According to Nile Rodgers, in 1982, in a New York club, a drunken Billy Idol inadvertently helped shape the future of David Bowie’s career when he almost threw up over him. Idol and he had been sharing a table when the vomiting occurred and Rodger’s took the opportunity to escape. Spying Bowie at another table, he introduced himself and the two began chatting. By the end of the evening Bowie had invited Rodgers to produce his next record, effectively dumping long time friend and producer Tony Visconti on the spot. Visconti would not work with Bowie again for 20 years.

Bowie had gone for a clean break elsewhere too. All the musicians that made Scary Monsters had departed, even Carlos Alomar (for now at least). When Rodgers learnt that Bowie had enlisted him because he wanted hits, he was initially disappointed, as he’d been hoping to work on an artier project.

When Bowie first played Rodgers Let’s Dance, it was a stripped back acoustic number that has been compared to The Byrds’ Folk Rock era, albeit one that Bowie felt was a single. Rodgers insisted a song with ‘dance’ in the title needed to be something you could dance to. He took the song away and bagan to play around with it. He and Bowie would discuss their shared love of Little Richard, The Isley Brothers and other 50’s and 60’s Soul and Blues artists. Eventually they would fashion Let’s Dance into a modern take on the styles. Guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan was brought in, despite Rodgers’ initial objections, to perform the solo at the end.

Let’s Dance was the first track recorded for the album and was confidently pitched as the first single. Bowie has rarely been this expectant of a single’s success, but he was unprepared for how huge it would become. Coupled with a memorable video, shot in Sydney, it reached the UK and US #1, became a huge hit all over the world and paved the way for Bowie becoming a global megastar.

 

In sixth place we have Bowie's most commercially successful hit, Let's Dance. Released in March 1983, it topped charts in numerous countries. I played this at a party in June of last year, and everyone was on the dancefloor.

Thank god Heroes didn't win. Horrendously overrated.