How many of David Bowie’s albums got to number one?
He might be one of the world’s most iconic musicians, a chameleonic shapeshifter who continued to move ahead of the times, but David Bowie is a strange one in that he was never really a world-beating chart force. Folk hero, yes, and pioneering subversive he was, but it’s safe to say that the profoundly artistic nature of much of his work just didn’t appeal to the masses, who would much have preferred the sounds of Abba, Wham or Oasis, depending on the era.
Bowie’s creative tale is a fascinating one. For years, during the mid-late 1960s, he was just another artist desperate to hit the heights of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and his beloved Pink Floyd. Still, he was failing miserably despite the different projects he hopelessly threw against the proverbial wall. None of it stuck, and by the end of the decade, it looked as if he was to turn his back on music for good until he and Tony Visconti tapped into the era’s obsession with space exploration with 1969’s ‘Space Oddity’.
That was the start of Bowie’s rise, and over the formative years of the 1970s, he would get himself up to speed with what was required to boost his status, eventually striking gold with 1972’s glam rock masterpiece, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Backed by the brilliant Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey, Bowie began his evolution into an icon. It didn’t hit the top of the charts despite being hailed as his most culturally important record. Its dark, drug-fuelled follow-up, 1973’s Aladdin Sane, would become the first of several David Bowie albums that reached number one in the UK.
That would kick off a short run of albums that went to number one in the UK for the artist, with 1973’s covers album Pin Ups and the following year’s Diamond Dogs – which produced a series of classic David Bowie songs, including ‘Rebel Rebel’ – also reaching the summit. However, after that moment, as he grappled with newfangled drug addiction, greater fame and experimented with blue-eyed soul on 1975’s Young Americans – featuring John Lennon – Bowie then got genuinely experimental.
During this late 1970s period, his music became refined and cerebral, and he moved towards an even more lauded status, innovating beyond anything fans could have imagined on Station to Station and the ensuing Berlin Trilogy. Understandably, as Bowie was moving fast ahead of the times, it took a while for the masses to catch up, meaning that although every release was mightily successful by anyone’s standards, his next UK number one wouldn’t come until 1980s Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) when the strange, electronic-leaning dystopia captured the spirit of the early technological era.
Then, he instituted a funky stylistic shift with the Nile Rodgers produced Let’s Dance in 1983, which made him a global star, but still didn’t reach number one in the US. That record went to number one in the UK, as did its disappointing follow-up, Tonight. David Bowie wouldn’t hit the top of the American album charts until he released his heartbreaking final body of work, Blackstar. People flocked to buy it, regardless of its immensely artful character.
So, what are David Bowie’s number one albums?
- Aladdin Sane (1973) – UK
- Pin Ups (1973) – UK
- Diamond Dogs (1974) – UK
- Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) – UK
- Let’s Dance (1983) – UK
- Tonight (1984) – UK
- Black Tie White Noise (1993) – UK
- The Next Day (2013)
- Blackstar (2016) – UK and US
