Released 21 May 1976 Length 44:14 Label RCA Victor | Recorded 1969–1976 Release date May 1976 | |
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Changesonebowie(1976) The Best of Bowie(1980) Similar David Bowie albums, Rock music albums | ||
Changesonebowie was David Bowie's first widely selling compilation album, issued by RCA Records in 1976. It collected songs from the 1969–1976 period, including the first LP appearance of "John, I'm Only Dancing". A 'sax version' of this song, cut during the Aladdin Sane sessions in 1973, appeared on the first 1000 copies of the UK pressing (these can be identified by the lack of the RCA logo in the upper-right corner of the cover). Later pressings of Changesonebowie featured the original version of the single that had been recorded and released in 1972. The U.S. LP contains this original version as well.
Contents
Two of the tracks, "Ziggy Stardust" and "Suffragette City", had never been released as singles when Changesonebowie was issued, though the former had been the B-side of "The Jean Genie" in November 1972 and the latter would be released as an A-side in July 1976 to help promote the compilation.
The cover shot was taken by Tom Kelley, who took the famous nude calendar photographs of Marilyn Monroe on red velvet in 1949.
Album history
RCA released Changesonebowie on CD in 1985, but it was withdrawn within a year along with the rest of the Bowie RCA catalogue, due to a conflict between Bowie and RCA. The RCA CD contains the original single version of "John, I’m Only Dancing".
When Bowie's catalogue was reissued by Rykodisc beginning in 1990, Changesonebowie was replaced by a new compilation, Changesbowie, on which "Fame" was superseded by the "Fame 90" Gass Mix, and "'Heroes'", "Ashes to Ashes", "Fashion", "Let's Dance", "China Girl", "Modern Love", and "Blue Jean" were added. In addition to the above, Rykodisc added the songs "Starman" (following "Space Oddity"), "Life on Mars?" (following "The Jean Genie"), and "Sound and Vision" (following "Golden Years") to the cassette and double-LP editions of the album.
A remastered edition of Changesonebowie was released on 20 May 2016, on vinyl and CD, to mark its 40th anniversary.
The cover provided the inspiration for a re-issue of the Morrissey album, Southpaw Grammar.
Acclaim
In 1987, as part of their 20th anniversary, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 96 on "The Top 100 Albums of the Last Twenty Years." In 2003, the album was ranked number 425 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Track listing
All songs written by David Bowie.
Personnel
Charts
Album
Songs
1Space Oddity5:15
2John - I'm Only Dancing2:47
3Changes3:35