Best of 1974-1979 [Import]

David Bowie | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 5, 2009)
• Original Release Date: April 20, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Emd Int'l
• ASIN: B000009RNP
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,348 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Sound And Vision

2. Golden Years

3. Fame

4. Young Americans

5. John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)

6. Can You Hear Me

7. Wild Is The Wind

8. Knock On Wood

9. TVC 15

10. 1984

11. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City

12. Look Back In Anger

13. The Secret Life Of Arabia

14. DJ

15. Beauty And The Beast

16. Breaking Glass

17. Boys Keep Swinging

18. Heroes

Editorial Reviews

UK version of superb 'Best Of' collection which was only available in the states for a limited time. 20 tracks including the classics you'd expect like 'Golden Years', 'Young Americans', 'Fame', 'Sound And Vision', 'Look Back In Anger'with relative obscurities like 'It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City' and 'John I'm Only Dancing (Again)'. An impressive, reasonably thorough overview of Bowie's glam years. 1998 release. Standard jewel case.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars AVOID THIS PIECE OF DESECRATION, March 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Best of 1974-1979 (Audio CD)

From CD jacket, this looks like a great deal - 18 of David Bowie's good songs including a couple of rarities. But wait, how did they fit 18 Bowie songs on a single CD? Most of his tunes, the good ones in particular are over six minutes long, right? Easy, butcher them. You know, cut out the long saxaphone rifts in the middle of Young Americans (I thought my CD player was skipping the first time), the end of Heroes. As long as people here the bits where he is singing they'll be happy right?

And record companies wonder why people want to be able to freely copy their own songs and make their OWN "best of" collections? Well guys, keep churning out stuff like this and see how long people are willing to pay for it...

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A frustrating let-down, January 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: BEST OF DAVID BOWIE 1974-79 (Audio CD)

I always hated Rykodisc's "The Singles" double CD because of the presence of severely edited tracks. Why would they go to all the trouble of gathering so much good music, but then chop the songs up? When I heard these new "Best of..." CDs were out and saw the track listings, I felt better about the whole mess, and I bought this one. Well, Virgin is apparently taking a cue from Rykodisc and including pared-down "radio edits" which omit essential elements of Bowie's great songs (such as the distorted guitar solo of Young Americans). I hate to break it to these out-of-touch fools, but this is NOT the version the radio stations play! When I saw that the disk contained extra CD-ROM material, I hoped that there would be some pictures/videos/interviews to calm my blood pressure, but it was only an advertisement for his website. Curse all of them. Don't get suckered into buying this.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 ACTUALLY!, September 21, 2003

By 

THE NORB "THE NORB" (Akron, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of 1974-1979 (Audio CD)

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.