David Bowie

Changesonebowie was David Bowie’s first widely selling compilation greatest hits 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 ChangesOne featured the original version of the single that had been recorded and released in 1972. The US LP contains this original version as well.

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.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 425 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

RCA released Changesonebowie on CD in 1985, but was withdrawn within a year along with the rest of the Bowie RCA catalogue, due to a conflict between Bowie and RCA. Bowie’s catalogue was reissued by Rykodisc beginning in 1990 and the original RCA compilation became Changesbowie on which “Fame” was substituted by the “Fame 90” Gass Mix and “‘Heroes'”, “Ashes to Ashes”, “Fashion”, “Let’s Dance”, “China Girl”, “Modern Love”, and “Blue Jean” were added. Due to their additional potential running time Rykodisc chose to add, in addition to the above, 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.

Side one

1. “Space Oddity” (from Space Oddity, 1969) – 5:14
2. “John, I’m Only Dancing” (from “John, I’m Only Dancing” single, 1972) – 2:43 (Sax Version – 2:41)
3. “Changes” (from Hunky Dory, 1971) – 3:33
4. “Ziggy Stardust” (from Ziggy Stardust, 1972) – 3:13
5. “Suffragette City” (from Ziggy Stardust, 1972) – 3:25
6. “The Jean Genie” (from Aladdin Sane, 1973) – 4:03

Side two

1. “Diamond Dogs” (from Diamond Dogs, 1974) – 5:56
2. “Rebel Rebel” (from Diamond Dogs, 1974) – 4:30
3. “Young Americans” (from Young Americans, 1975) – 5:10
4. “Fame” (Bowie, Carlos Alomar, John Lennon) (from the single RCA 2579, 1975) – 3:30
5. “Golden Years” (from Station to Station, 1976) – 3:59