Bowie: The Singles 1969-1993

There have been a multitude of David Bowie collections released after his breakthrough in the early '70s. Arguably, however, not one does a better job than this of illustrating just how powerful that breakthrough was (and the follow-through as well), and how absolutely the odd-eyed boy from Brixton changed the face of British pop. Beginning in the summer of 1972, when "Starman" revived the fortunes of the former one-hit ("Space Oddity") wonder, Bowie released one of the most commanding sequences of 45s in British chart history, a run that not only included some of the finest records in his repertoire ("John, I'm Only Dancing," "The Jean Genie," "Drive-In Saturday," "Rebel Rebel," "Fame"), but also reached back into his pre-fame catalog for the occasional space-filler -- "Life on Mars?" was already two years old when it made the U.K. Top Three in 1973. All are here, with the sequence filled out with some genuinely significant B-sides, none more so than "Ziggy Stardust" and "Suffragette City," both of which would have made great A-sides in their own right. On through the '70s and '80s the collection goes, adopting a more populist approach for Bowie's latter-day career. ~ Dave Thompson