The Best of Bowie

Locale Selector - Click for default
|

ttStore Home
Show Featured Items

Artist(s):

David Bowie

Label: EMI
Publisher(s):

EMI

Studio: EMI
Manufacturer: EMI
Binding: Audio CD
List Price: £10.99
Our Price: £5.98
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours

Track Listing

Number of discs: 2
1.

Space oddity

Man who sold the world

Oh you pretty things

Changes

Life on Mars

Starman

Ziggy Stardust

Suffragette city

John I'm only dancing

10.

Jean genie

11.

Drive in Saturday

12.

Sorrow

13.

Diamond dogs

14.

Rebel rebel

15.

Young Americans (single version)

16.

Fame

17.

Golden years (single version)

18.

TVC15

19.

Wild is the wind

20.

Sound and vision

21.

Heroes (single version)

22.

Boys keep swinging

23.

Under pressure

24.

Ashes to ashes (single version)

25.

Fashion (single version)

26.

Scary monsters (and super creeps) (single version)

27.

Let's dance (single version)

28.

China girl (single version)

29.

Modern love (single version)

30.

Blue jean

31.

This is not America

32.

Loving the alien (single version)

33.

Dancing in the street

34.

Absolute beginners (single version)

35.

Jump they say (radio edit)

36.

Hallo spaceboy (Pet Shop Boys remix)

37.

Little wonder (edit)

38.

I'm afraid of Americans (Trent Reznor mix)

39.

Slow burn (radio edit)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Pretty self-explanatory stuff, this, since Best of Bowie collects most of Bowie's hits and a few of his more fetishised songs onto two CDs, rendering previous compilations--notably 1990's ChangesBowie--redundant. Of course, it's fantastic. For this is Bowie's pop genius shrink-wrapped: music notable for both its pretension and its accessibility, brimming with unignorable power and bespangled absurdity. Racing through these 39 songs from "Space Oddity" to "Slow Burn" (from 2002's relative return-to-form Heathen), the surprise is how coherent they sound next to each other. For someone so often portrayed as an artistic shape-shifter, it's the consistency of Bowie's vision that's most apparent, how he stamps his identity on every trend he comes across.

Like the Rolling Stones' similarly enjoyable 40 Licks, things do get a bit sticky towards the end of Disc Two, though there's mercifully nothing from the two Tin Machine albums. Obsessives should note, too, that the tracklisting of Best of Bowie varies from country to country: the albums have been compiled according to the most popular songs in each territory. Wonder which lucky place got "The Laughing Gnome" included on their version? --John Mulvey

Customer Reviews

What is going on?

Hasn't anyone noticed that these are remixes? Perhaps you are too young to remember how he used to sound on vinyl and even early CD.

Am I going mad?

Don't let it end like this.

A pop music icon

In my books, David Bowie is one of best pop musical icon to emerge from Britain. He burst into the music scene in the 1969 and continued to blossom as an artist throughout the 70's, 80's to present. The album reviewed (The Best of Bowie) combines all his hits in a two disc set. These include mega 69 classic such as Space Oddity to 70's Life on Mars, Ziggy Stardust to memorable 80's ballads such as Under pressure, China Girl and a no 1 Lets dance.

David Bowie music genre can be defined as a combination of punk, rock and pop. He is exceptionally gifted and great artist, with a wonderful voice, good charisma and a great image to back it up. In the music scene in 1970's, image became paramount such as hairstyle and style of clothes in which David Bowie distinctly had his own style and something you can strongly associate with the artist.

The Best of Bowie will certainly satisfy your musical taste if you are passionate about 70'a and 80's music. Britain boost some of the finest musical icons ever to embrace their names in the music scene and David Bowie joins this elite list, alongside Sir Elton John, George Michael, and Phil Collins who are few prime examples. This album is collection of Bowie's hits and a true reflection of his musical achievements.

One of the best compilation albums ever.

I am ashamed to say that up until now I wasn't really a David Bowie fan. I was a bit young for the Ziggy Stardust era and apart from Lets Dance and Modern Love I wasn't aware of his past accomplishments. However I am a fan now.

This man is brilliant, I recognised the majority of the songs on this album, but what surprised me is that I never knew they were written and sung by David Bowie.

The diversity of his music is sublime. From bluesy Jean Genie to the sexy but sleazy John I'm only dancing, to the wonderful Life on Mars. This album has everything for everybody. I have played this album over and over again and still, I am not bored.

I love this cookie compilation album it's far out man!

If you want Bowie's hits then this is for you, and it is a good introduction to the rest of David Bowie's music. The second disc is not as good as the first, but that is not the fault of the CD, it's just that Bowie's career didn't have as much success in later years as it did in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Make sure that you do not buy this album assuming it contains all of the best songs Bowie ever released, these are only the ones that were the most commercially successful. Bowie's albums are another topic altogether and you are advised to check out his albums since many of them are classics in their own right. Some of the most creative and experimental music that Bowie recorded is not to be found on this compilation but in the filler between the tracks found on this CD when they are on their original albums.

Overall, this CD is a good introduction to Bowie, but don't be afraid to dig deeper, there's a lot more gold down there.

The hardest task would have been deciding what to leave out

In general terms, this chock-a-block 2CD compilation does exactly what it says on the tin: compiles the vast majority of the best-known works from the back catalogue of one of the world's most prolific and defiantly original songwriters. Inevitably, not everything can fit on here, and there must have been some hearty arguments in the production room about what to put on and what to leave out. Not everything on this compilation was a hit; but then, not all of Bowie's hits were among his best work, and some representation of the "cult" material is clearly necessary.

CD1 equates more or less to "the legendary years" as we're introduced to Major Tom floating in his tin can, Ziggy Stardust playing guitar, and all the most familiar songs. The order is clearly intended to be chronological, but actually isn't ("Starman" is bizarrely out of sequence), although it holds up well, presenting Bowie's own artistic progression from guitar-strumming troubadour through his mastery of glam rock and electronica. His capacity to straddle genres is abundantly clear by about five tracks in, as is his skill as a chronicler of the changing fashions of the age, from glam rock ("You Pretty Things" and "Life on Mars") through the androgynous disco era ("John, I'm Only Dancing") to punk ("Rebel Rebel"). The first half of the CD contains all-time greats as well as some less familiar classics ("Drive-In Saturday" is my personal favourite). Personally, I find everything after "Diamond Dogs" a bit painful to listen to; "Fame" and "Golden Years" may be classics of their kind but they do represent Bowie in the throes of his musical wanderlust, and the quality of the melodies and the poignancy of the lyrics take a back seat. The last few tracks are, frankly, a let-down, and not a patch on "Space Oddity" or "Life on Mars".

CD2 redeems all that, picking up at the tail end of the 70s with the glorious instrumental of "Sound and Vision". "Heroes", following it, is over-familiar now thanks to car adverts and too much Radio 2 airplay, but gives a foretaste of what was to lie in store in the 1980s. There may be fewer all-time greats on CD2 ("Ashes to Ashes", "China Girl" and "Let's Dance" being pre-eminent), but a more melodic Bowie is showcased here: still an auditory experimenter, as shown in the deranged Mockney vocals of "Scary Monsters" and the thumping cacophony of "Little Wonder", but one with a deeply soulful side, best exemplified in the glorious "Absolute Beginners". This is also the collaborative Bowie, appearing here with Queen ("Under Pressure"), Mick Jagger ("Dancing in the Street") and the Pet Shop Boys ("Hallo Spaceboy"), tracks more usually omitted from traditional compilations. The late 80s are ignored altogether, and the selection of more recent tracks seems rather arbitrary, with only "Hallo Spaceboy" really seeming to work to justify its inclusion; consequently, CD2 also seems to end on a weak note. But so much brilliance has gone before that it's hard to complain, really!

It's unlikely that any listener will like *every* track on this CD. Bowie's musical repertoire was so wide-ranging that he will never please all the people all the time. Everyone will have their own ideas about what should have been left off (for me most of the "Fame"-era stuff could have happily been ditched) and what should have been included, but wasn't (I'd have had "Time Will Crawl" and "Never Let Me Down", not to mention "The Laughing Gnome"...). Perhaps that's the strength of this collection. Listen and decide for yourself!

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT SOME OF THE CONTENT THAT WE MAKE AVAILABLE TO YOU THROUGH THIS APPLICATION COMES FROM AMAZON WEB SERVICES. ALL SUCH CONTENT IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS." THIS CONTENT AND YOUR USE OF IT ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND/OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
Powered by PNAmazon © 2003-2007 ttgapers.com