David Bowie Discography

David Bowie Discography

The discography of the British rock musician David Bowie consists of 25 studio albums, 9 live albums, 46 compilation albums, 5 extended plays (EPs), 108 singles and 3 soundtracks. Bowie has also released 13 video albums and 47 music videos. Born David Jones, Bowie's debut release was the 1964 single "Liza Jane" by Davie Jones & the King Bees. He released two more singles in 1965 under the names of The Manish Boys and Davy Jones & the Lower Third. His first release using the name David Bowie was the 1966 single "Can't Help Thinking About Me", which was released with The Lower Third. Bowie's next single, "Do Anything You Say", also released in 1966, was the first release by simply David Bowie. Bowie released four more singles and his debut album, David Bowie (1967), in the late 1960s before he first had success in the United Kingdom with the 1969 single "Space Oddity". The single reached number five on the UK Singles Chart after it was released five days before the Apollo 11 moon mission.

Bowie released three more albums – Space Oddity (1969), The Man Who Sold the World (1970) and Hunky Dory (1971) – before he eventually made it on to the UK Albums Chart with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), which peaked at number five. Following the success of Ziggy Stardust, sales of Hunky Dory improved and it eventually peaked at number three in the UK. RCA re-released Space Oddity and The Man Who Sold the World, which reached numbers 17 and 26 in the UK respectively. Bowie released nine more studio albums with RCA, all of which reached the top five of the UK Albums Chart, of which Aladdin Sane (1973), Pin Ups (1973), Diamond Dogs (1974) and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) reached the number one position. He then released three solo studio albums with EMI – Let's Dance (1983), whose title track became his first single to reach number one in both the United Kingdom and the United States, Tonight (1984) and Never Let Me Down (1987). Let's Dance and Tonight reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, while Never Let Me Down reached number six.

In 1989 Bowie created the rock group Tin Machine, who released a self-titled album with EMI. Although Tin Machine reached number three on the UK Albums Chart, it did not sell well and Bowie and EMI did not renew their contract. Tin Machine II followed in 1991 on London Records and, only reaching number 23 in the UK, was Bowie's worst-charting album since the 1973 re-release of The Man Who Sold the World. Continuing as a solo artist, Bowie's next album, Black Tie White Noise (1993), reached the number one position on the UK Albums Chart. Since then, Bowie has released five studio albums, all of which have reached the top ten in the UK. The most recent, Reality (2003), reached number three in the UK. All 20 of Bowie's solo studio albums from Hunky Dory have reached the top ten of the UK Albums Chart.