4.5 ACTUALLY!

I find it funny when people review a compilation cd and criticize it for either not having their favorite songs or for having edited versions of songs. These songs became hits because they were played on the radio. The versions that were played on the radio were edited! I am probably different than most in that I enjoy having an edited version on a compilation, since most of the songs I already have the album version on the album. What does bother me is when obvoius hits are left off in leu of other material or worse just left off leaving 15 or 20 minutes of space on a cd that could have been filled! Look at The Police, Synchronicity II, Secret Journey and So Lonely were all singles and left off of most compilations of theirs. My ownly complaint about this particular compilation is that of another reviewer in that it did not go up to 1980 and include songs from Scary Monsters.

Skip it....

An 80s child, and the daughter of a massive Bowie fan, I'm a massive Bowie fan myself. I have played 'The Best of David Bowie: 1969 - 1974', 'The Singles Collection', 'Hours', 'Reality' and even 'Best of Bowie' (DVD) a thousand times each, and don't become bored of them. I listed to 'The Best of David Bowie: 1974 - 1979' once, and felt like throwing it straight out the window. I've not listened to it since.

Don't buy it. I can see why it was only $10.

David, darl, you have many late 70s songs far better than these ones. What were you thinking when you complied this one?

These were truly his golden years!

This great compilation reflects my favourite Bowie period, the middle to late seventies. Drawn from the albums Young Americans, Station To Station, Heroes and Lodger, it covers his "plastic soul" excursion, the Thin White Duke period and the three albums of synth experimentation. The sequence of tracks is odd - I think a chronogical one would have made more sense. My favorite tracks from Low are here: the sublime Sound & Vision and the ominous Breaking Glass, of which the latter inspired Nick Lowe's brilliant song I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass from 1978. Station To Station, in my opinion the best ever Bowie album, provides the energetic TVC15, the classic soulful Golden Years and the wistful ballad Wild Is The Wind, but a serious omission has been the magnificent Word On a Wing, one of the greatest and most poetic Bowie tracks of all time with its transcendent spiritual quality, its inspired lyrics and soaring melody. Fame and Young Americans, the "plastic soul" songs, still sound good after all these years, especially next to the disco version of John, I'm Only Dancing. I don't find some of these tracks from Heroes, like Secret Life Of Arabia or Beauty And The Beast, as memorable as some of the other songs here, but I love his cover of Knock On Wood and of course the title track of Heroes remains a landmark composition, one of the most psychologically trenchant songs of all time. Artists as diverse as Blondie and Nico have covered it and I still listen to the German and the French versions on vinyl. To me, Lodger was the least satisfying of the trilogy of Eno albums, but Boys Keep Swinging still swings after all these years and I remember its dramatic video clip from 1979. I consider this his most creative period based on the sheer quality of songs such as Sound & Vision, Breaking Glass, Heroes, Golden Years, Fame, Young Americans and Wild Is The Wind. That's why, although I regret the omission of the breathtaking Word On A Wing, I have awarded this album five stars