macnorton

mine too.

Suprmallet does have the list to use though...nice work.

Supermallet

Blasphemy! How can you dislike such great tracks as "Win," "Can You Hear Me" and "Right"?? Not to mention the classic title song.

The EMI ones sound better than the Rykodiscs, and all the bonus tracks from the Rykodisc albums were amended to the new Sound+Vision box set or the double disc EMI editions, which I think to date they've only done for Ziggy, Aladdin, and Diamond Dogs.

nothingfails

I think your tolerance for 70's soul depends on if you'll like YA or not. I personally love the likes of Al Green and Bobby Womack, which was what Bowie was striving for with.

I didn't like it much at first, but as I've gotten older and opened my musical horizons, I think the album ranks with the classics

slashdot87

I guess part of my problem is that I know Bowie mostly for the classic rock singles that you hear on most Classic Rock stations. I understand that many artists are best heard by listening to an entire album. So, I am looking forward to checking out some of the 70s Bowie -in its entirety.

Supermallet

Definitely. Let us know what you think.

dick_grayson

classic rock stations almost ruined Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones for me.

nothingfails

I dunno about the stations you listen to, but the Classic Rock stations here suck when it comes to Bowie. I've only heard Changes and Fame (well, Under Pressure too, but Queen generally gets more airplay than Bowie) on the stations here. No Jean Genie, No Rebel Rebel, No Heroes, No Golden Years, No Space Oddity, No Starman, etc...

Jack Straw

This is so difficult to respond to as Bowie's career has been so eclectic and he constantly keeps reinventing himself. Do yourself a favor and just pickup a decent sized greatest hits release.

Dr Mabuse

Heathen

Hunky Dory

The Man Who Sold The World

Station To Station

Hours

I LOVE the OOP 2 CD set 'The Singles: 1969-1993'. Man I'm glad I have a copy of that.

The Bus

Is it just singles? If so, what's special about it? Or does it have rare remixes, etc?

The Antipodean

Singles 1969-1993 is definitely the best Bowie collection ever assembled. nice hits from all his eras.

My top 25 Bowie songs (poached from a blog post I did a few years back):

1. Space Oddity (Space Oddity, 1969) - Spaced-out and lost, the song that inspired everyone from Yo La Tengo to Wilco.
2. Quicksand (Hunky Dory, 1971) - The best of Bowie's early "ambiguously gay crooner" phase, where his reach often exceeded his grasp. This song is pretentious, but there's a real pathos lurking beneath the wordplay.
3. Ziggy Stardust (The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust, 1972) - Thirty-plus years on, there hasn't been a better song about being in a rock 'n' roll band.
4. Lady Stardust (The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust, 1972) - Gorgeously lonely cabaret.
5. Waiting For The Man (Bowie at the Beeb, 2000) - Recorded in 1972 for the BBC, this sleazy, grooved-out cover of the Velvet Underground tune actually bests the original in my humble view.
6. Diamond Dogs (Diamond Dogs, 1974) – Raunchy and spastic, the last sputter of Bowie's "Ziggy" era of decadent glam rock; but what a farewell!
7. Young Americans (Young Americans, 1975) - Bowie's plastic soul phase, and an ironic anthem that still feels kind of fresh and electric.
8. Station To Station (Station To Station, 1976) - Ten minutes of soaring rise and fall, apocalypse and redemption, Bowie's single most epic track.
9. Sound And Vision (Low, 1977) - A sweetly sinister ode to the power of music.
10. Warszawa (Low, 1977) – The best encapsulation of the still-futuristic instrumentals Bowie and Brian Eno created; an instrumental glimpse into a fragmented, eerie parallel world.
11. "Heroes" ("Heroes," 1977) – The finest of Bowie's "dreamer" songs, about love that just won't last, and a well-deserved classic.
12. Look Back In Anger (Lodger, 1979) — Gloom-ridden, hook-filled doomsday rock, about the approach of death or something stranger still?
13. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (Scary Monsters, 1980) - If I had to pick a single Bowie album as my favorite, 1980's album of this title would likely be it, covered in jittery angst and with a melancholy danceable heart.
14. Teenage Wildlife (Scary Monsters, 1980) – A yearning, murky yet urgent anthem.
15. Ashes To Ashes (Scary Monsters, 1980) – Goodbye to the past, but what lies ahead?
16. Let's Dance (Let's Dance, 1983) – "Sell out" or utterly perfect pop escapism? I favor the latter.
17. China Girl (Let's Dance, 1983) —Evocative of the foreign shores where I'd one day end up living. Its slightly patronizing colonialism still hints at the mysteries of the wider world.
18. As The World Falls Down ("Labyrinth" soundtrack, 1987) - Ultra-cheeseball choice, but I've a soft spot for the Bowie/Jim Henson fantasy collaboration, and this one fairy-tale romance song by Bowie as the Goblin King always stuck with me, even when I saw "Labyrinth" in the theater three times at age 15.
19. Run (Tin Machine, 1990) – Everyone maligns Bowie's Tin Machine phase, but I still thought there were some fine hard-rock tracks in amongst the filler. This tune always puts me in mind of the summer of 1990.
20. Miracle Goodnight (Black Tie White Noise, 1993) – "Black Tie" is a little too fluffy an album for me, but the boppy bliss of this Bowie-as-lothario tune always gets me to smile.
21. The Buddha of Suburbia (Buddha of Suburbia soundtrack, 1993) – Lost through much of the late 1980s and 1990s, it took a BBC soundtrack for Bowie to start finding his muse again; this ode to a life long gone is one of his most heartfelt ballads.
22. Hallo Spaceboy (Outside, 1995) - Bowie goes industrial in this chaotic dance tune, backed by a killer drumbeat. From the muddled yet fierce concept album "Outside," which boasted some of Bowie's strongest music in years.
23. The Heart's Filthy Lesson (Outside, 1995) - Another killer "Outside" tune, slinky and sinuous; the disturbing video makes Bowie seem truly dangerous for the first time in years.
24. The Last Thing You Should Do (Earthling, 1997) - Bowie's drum & bass experiments continue, with this seething, staticky explosion of a song, like a distant cousin to the angst of "Scary Monsters."
25. Bring Me The Disco King (Reality, 2003) - Bittersweet and nostalgic, a nervous cousin to "Station To Station," looking back at the years and as naked emotionally as anything Bowie's ever done.

Supermallet

It's all A-sides, but he released some single-only songs that are somewhat hard to find, although again at this point most are on the new Sound+Vision box set. Aside from that, it's just a good selection of songs from his various albums, the man knew which tracks to release as singles. The biggest problem is that it has the butchered single version of "Heroes." Personally, I think the EMI collections (1969-1974, 1975-1979, 1980-1989) are a very good overview when taken together.

RagingBull80

There are actually many tracks from the Ryko versions that aren't on the new Sound+Vision box. The only stuff that was really added was post 1980 stuff. I only have the first version of S+V because I really don't care for much after '80.

Supermallet

Yes, but again, a lot of those tracks have shown up on the double disc versions of Ziggy, Aladdin, and Diamond Dogs. I could have sworn they were going to do these for all of his 70's albums, but I guess they stopped for the time being.

GreenVulture

I'm with RagingBull80 re: Rykodisc vs. EMI; if you can find them, go with the Ryko series, as I find the sound to be much better. If it makes any sense (and it probably doesn't), the EMI CDs sound very...sterile, whereas the Ryko CDs sound warmer to my ears. Perhaps I'm biased though, because when Elvis Costello's catalog was reissued a second time by Rhino a few years back, I still preferred the sound of the earlier Rykodisc CDs to them. Plus, some of those bonus tracks are outstanding.

And for the love of God, please do not get the Sound+Vision boxset, at least not until you've gone through all his 1970 - 1980 albums. It's heavy on rarities, outtakes and album tracks, with the occasional hit song thrown in. And truth be told, aside from a handful of cuts, it's not even that great of a listen (the 2003 reissue, which adds a fourth disc covering '87 - '97, makes even less worth your money, since it's heavy on easily available material).

Supermallet

The new Sound+Vision box set is the only place to get a remastered version of the original Cat People (Putting Out Fire), as well as It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City, which makes the Springsteen version sound like it was done by an amateur. Those two cuts alone make it worth a purchase at some point. I'm sure you can find a good deal on a used copy.

dick_grayson

I'm afraid to hear it then.

CRM114

IMO, nothing comes close to Hunky Dory and Ziggy.

Scary Monsters is good too. Robert Fripp

dick_grayson

the reason I like Low so much is the song "Be My Wife" which is, perhaps, my favorite Bowie song. "Moonage Daydream" off of Ziggy Stardust.... is also up there. Check out "Rock n Roll Suicide" too.

GreenVulture

Bowie's cover of "It's So Hard to Be a Saint in the City" is fantastic, which is odd seeing as how the obligatory cover on each Bowie album is generally the low point of the record (his versions of "Across the Universe" and "Let's Spend the Night Together" in particular are atrocious).

Yet I really like his all-covers album Pin-Ups...go figure.

Drop

Station to Station is my favorite album, but I really dig Reality of his latest albums. Don't care for Heathen too much. And Letter to Hermione off Space Oddity is one of the most beautiful songs ever.

Dr Mabuse

It was already said, but that set has all those popular songs together in one set so it's great for the cross country road trips I sometimes do.

Beyond just having all those great songs, there is a really cool flow to those CD's. Someone put some thought into the order of the tracks.

auto

Great place to bulk up your DB collection.

Supermallet

Um...The Singles Collection is in chronological order of the release date of the singles.

Dr Mabuse

Then I guess it was BOWIE that put some thought into it then didn't he?