On this day in history (December 17, 1971), David Bowie released his fourth studio album Hunky Dory featuring the singles Changes and Life On Mars. This was his first release on the RCA record label.
David Bowie considered this to be one of the most important albums of his career. In 1999, he said this about the album:
Hunky Dory gave me a fabulous groundswell. I guess it provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience – I mean, people actually coming up to me and saying, ‘Good album, good songs.’ That hadn’t happened to me before. It was like, ‘Ah, I’m getting it, I’m finding my feet. I’m starting to communicate what I want to do. Now: what is it I want to do?’ There was always a double whammy there
Videos
Changes (Live, 1973)
Life On Mars?
Charts
- Peaked at #3 on the UK albums chart
- Peaked at #57 on the US Billboard 200 chart
- Time magazine called it one of the 100 Best Albums Of All Time in 2010
- Q Magazine readers voted this the 43rd greatest album of all time in 1998
- Q Magazine listed this as the #16 greatest British album ever in 2000
- Rolling Stone magazine listed this as the #108 great albums of all time in 2020
Track Listing
- Changes
- Oh! You Pretty Things
- Eight Line Poem
- Life On Mars?
- Kooks
- Quicksand
- Fill Your Heart
- Andy Warhol
- Song For Bob Dylan
- Queen Bitch
- The Bewlay Brothers
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