#changesonebowie

CHANGESONEBOWIE

BEST ALBUMS OF ALL-TIME

100. CHANGESONEBOWIE

David Bowie

1976

Changesonebowie is a compilation album by English musician David Bowie, issued through RCA Records in 1976. It collected songs from the 1969–1976 period, including the first LP appearance of "John, I'm Only Dancing".

Rewind: David Bowie: ChangesOneBowie (1976) and ChangesTwoBowie (1981)

In retrospect, ChangesTwoBowie holds up better than ChangesOneBowie, if only because One’s songs - including “Ziggy Stardust,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Suffragette City,” the title track and others - have mostly been played to death.

That said, the argument could be made One is the superior best-of collection, though both versions of “John, I’m Only Dancing” - one on One and another on Two - are head-scratchers.

Be that as it is, 1976’s ChangesOne and 1981’s ChangesTwo remain highly effective introductions to Bowie’s first decade-plus and what are inarguably some of his most-important recordings.

These compilation albums served that getting-to-know-you purpose for young Sound Bites and upon revisiting them and hearing these songs in this order - from “Space Oddity” to “Young Americans” to “Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?)” to “1984” to “Sound and Vision” to “DJ” - the blog was transported back more than four decades in time and technology where he spun fresh vinyl on a turntable funded by paper-route money.

For the modern Sound Bites, these collections are more about nostalgia than essential listening as the blog long ago familiarized himself with the albums - David Bowie through Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) - that funneled songs to them. But for young folks looking up introduce themselves to the eclectic Bowie, there are no better places to begin.

Grade card: David Bowie: ChangesOneBowie and ChangesTwoBowie - A/A-