David Bowie’s landmark 1976 compilation Changesonebowie reaches its 50th anniversary, marking the release that helped cement Bowie’s transformation from cult innovator to mainstream global star during one of the most prolific periods of his career.
by Paul Cashmere
Released through RCA Records in 1976, Changesonebowie arrived at a pivotal moment in David Bowie’s career, compiling material recorded between 1969 and 1976 and documenting the rapid evolution of one of modern music’s most influential artists. The album collected key songs from Bowie’s breakthrough years, including ‘Space Oddity’, ‘Changes’, ‘Ziggy Stardust’, ‘Rebel Rebel’ and ‘Fame’, creating what would become one of the defining retrospective releases of the decade.
At the time of its release, Bowie was moving from glam rock icon into a broader international mainstream presence. Changesonebowie provided a concise entry point for newer listeners who had followed Bowie through the commercial success of Young Americans and Station To Station. It also served as a document of an artist who had reshaped his identity repeatedly in less than a decade.
The compilation reached No. 2 in the UK, No. 10 in the United States and No. 8 in Australia on the Kent Music Report chart. In later years it achieved Platinum certification in the US and double Platinum status in Canada, confirming its enduring commercial impact across multiple generations of listeners.
One of the album’s most discussed inclusions was ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’. Early UK pressings featured a previously unreleased saxophone-driven version recorded during the Aladdin Sane sessions in 1973. Those first 1,000 copies were identifiable by the absence of the RCA logo on the sleeve’s upper-right corner. Subsequent UK editions reverted to the original 1972 single version, which was also used on all US pressings.
The track selection also highlighted songs that had not initially been released as singles. ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and ‘Suffragette City’, both from The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, were included despite neither having been major standalone hits at the time. ‘Suffragette City’ would later be issued as a single in 1976 to support the compilation’s release.
The album assembled an extraordinary cast of musicians from Bowie’s various recording eras. Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey represented the Spiders From Mars years, while collaborators including Carlos Alomar, Earl Slick, Mike Garson and David Sanborn reflected Bowie’s move into soul, funk and art rock territory. John Lennon also appeared on ‘Fame’, contributing guitar and backing vocals to Bowie’s first US No. 1 single.
Across its 44-minute running time, Changesonebowie traced Bowie’s stylistic shifts from the folk-inspired melancholy of ‘Space Oddity’ through glam rock theatre, dystopian rock and the plastic soul experimentation of the mid-1970s. The sequencing effectively turned the compilation into a compressed history of Bowie’s creative reinvention.
The release also occupies an important place in the broader history of catalogue compilations. During the 1970s, greatest hits albums increasingly became essential commercial tools for major labels, particularly for artists whose work crossed multiple genres and audiences. In Bowie’s case, the compilation introduced casual listeners to songs that had initially emerged from concept albums rather than traditional hit-driven releases.
Critical reassessment over the decades further strengthened the album’s reputation. In 1987, Rolling Stone included it at No. 96 in its “Top 100 Albums Of The Last Twenty Years” list. In 2003, the magazine ranked it at No. 425 on its list of the “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time”.
The album’s history became complicated during the CD era. RCA briefly reissued Changesonebowie on compact disc in 1984 before withdrawing it alongside the rest of Bowie’s RCA catalogue amid tensions between Bowie and the label. When Bowie’s catalogue moved to Rykodisc in 1990, the compilation was superseded by the expanded Changesbowie, which added later-era tracks including ‘Ashes To Ashes’, ‘Fashion’, ‘Let’s Dance’, ‘China Girl’ and ‘Blue Jean’.
Interest in the original compilation resurfaced in 2016 when a remastered edition was released to mark its 40th anniversary. Two years later, the album became available on digital and streaming platforms alongside a remastered edition of its companion release, Changestwobowie.
The cover artwork for Changesonebowie also left a lasting visual legacy. Morrissey later referenced the design for the 2009 expanded edition of Southpaw Grammar, demonstrating the compilation’s influence beyond Bowie’s own catalogue.
Fifty years after its original release, Changesonebowie remains one of the clearest introductions to David Bowie’s formative RCA years. For listeners discovering Bowie for the first time, the compilation still functions as a concise map of the period that transformed him from ambitious songwriter into one of popular music’s defining artists.
Tracklisting
Side One
‘Space Oddity’
‘John, I’m Only Dancing’
‘Changes’
‘Ziggy Stardust’
‘Suffragette City’
‘The Jean Genie’
Side Two
‘Diamond Dogs’
‘Rebel Rebel’
‘Young Americans’
‘Fame’
‘Golden Years’
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