Changesonebowie is a compilation album by English rock musicianDavid Bowie, 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. Later pressings of Changesonebowie featured the original version of the single that had been recorded and released in 1972. All U.S. pressings of the LP contain 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. The album was followed up by a companion compilation, Changestwobowie, in 1981.
Album history
RCA Records reissued Changesonebowie on CD in 1984, but it was withdrawn shortly afterwards, along with the rest of Bowie's RCA catalogue, due to a conflict between Bowie and RCA. The RCA CD contains the original single version of "John, I'm Only Dancing". When the Bowie catalogue was reissued by Rykodisc beginning in 1990, Changesonebowie was replaced by a new compilation, Changesbowie, on which "Fame" was superseded by the "Gass Mix" of "Fame 90" and "'Heroes'", "Ashes to Ashes", "Fashion", "Let's Dance", "China Girl", "Modern Love", and "Blue Jean" were added. In addition to the above, Rykodisc added the songs "Starman", "Life on Mars?", and "Sound and Vision" to the cassette and double-LP editions of the album. A remastered edition of the original Changesonebowie compilation was released on 20 May 2016, on vinyl and CD, to mark its 40th anniversary. On 13 April 2018, Changesonebowie was released in digital/streaming formats, along with a newly remastered edition of its follow-up, Changestwobowie, on vinyl, CD and digital/streaming. The cover provided the inspiration for the 2009 expanded edition of the Morrissey album Southpaw Grammar.
Acclaim
In 1987, as part of their 20th anniversary, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 96 on "The Top 100 Albums of the Last Twenty Years." In 2003, the album was ranked number 425 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
