Bowie’s 12 Favorite Songs Reframe the Hits

A new iSELECT: BOWIE tracklist—picked by David Bowie himself—arrives with the quiet power of an artist looking back. It favors deep cuts, surprising live placements, and personal working methods rather than radio certainty.

On the tracklist, there’s a temptation to rush straight to the obvious: “Life on Mars?” is there, and so is “’Heroes’”—at least in the culture’s imagination of Bowie’s canon.

But the shock comes when you scroll past the hits and realize how little this collection wants to flatter the listener. iSELECT: BOWIE. released in 2008 to readers of the U.K.’s Mail on Sunday and later issued as an official CD and digital edition. isn’t built like a greatest-hits consolation prize. Bowie picked the tracklist himself. and the ordering feels less like a marketing plan and more like a private filing cabinet finally opened.

The list is twelve songs long: “Life On Mars?” (from the album Hunky Dory); “Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing” (from the album Diamond Dogs); “The Bewlay Broth­ers” (from the album Hunky Dory); “Lady Grinning Soul” (from the album Aladdin Sane); “Win” (from the album Young Americans); “Some Are” (currently exclusive to this compilation); “Teenage Wildlife” (from the album Scary Monsters); “Repetition” (from the album Lodger); “Fantastic Voyage” (from the album Lodger); “Loving The Alien” (from the album Tonight); “Time Will Crawl (MM Remix)” (new remix by David Bowie); and “Hang On To Your­self [live]” (from the album Live Santa Monica ’72).

The longer you sit with it, the more the selections start to feel like a record of memory—how Bowie heard his own catalog, and what he chose to hold onto.

Completists may grouch, the post notes, but Bowie’s deep-cut instincts still leave familiar names in the conversation. Whether ardent or casual fans. people connect with Bowie through milestones in both his career and their own lives—and that truth has been exploited before. In 2008. Mike Schiller at PopMatters bemoaned the fact that almost 20 Bowie compilation albums had been released. a few of which “don’t really seem to court any greater purpose whatever.”.

That context is part of why iSELECT: BOWIE lands differently. “Oh, good Lord. Another David Bowie collection?” Schiller’s initial groan—framed as apposite here—feels like it could have belonged to anyone staring at yet another shelf of Bowie retrospectives. But the post insists this one is actually something special. precisely because Bowie’s tracklist doesn’t behave like a compilation built around consensus.

Look at what’s missing. There are no songs from Low and ’Heroes’. unless “Some Are” is counted as a bonus track included on the Low 1991 re-release. Only one selection comes from Ziggy Stardust—and it isn’t “Ziggy Stardust.” The list includes two tracks from Lodger. the third and least accessible of Bowie’s vaunted Berlin trilogy. And beyond “Life on Mars?” plus the far less-collected “Loving the Alien” and “Time Will Crawl. ” none of the twelve selections were released as singles.

If anyone else handed you this list of favorites, you’d probably second-guess it. Who puts “Hang On To Yourself” (Live Santa Monica ’72) above studio tracks on the 1972 breakout album?. The post answers bluntly: David Bowie does. And it’s not presented as a single, fixed revelation. The piece adds that if you had asked him the day before or after. he might have picked twelve different songs.

The point, though, isn’t just that it’s surprising. It’s how personal the choices appear, down to the small admissions that turn track selection into songwriting process.

In the newspaper release. Bowie “casually [pen] his inspirations for the songs and the recording processes behind them. ” the post says. citing Allmusic’s Jason Lyman-grover. On “Teenage Wildlife. ” Bowie is quoted: “So it’s late morning and I’m thinking. ‘New song and a fresh approach. I know. I’m going to do a Ronnie Spector. Oh yes I am. Ersatz just for one day.’ And I did and here it is. Bless. I’m still very enamoured of this song and would give you two ‘Modern Loves’ for it any time…”.

That quote sits inside the tracklist like a key: it suggests Bowie treating “favorite songs” not as trophies, but as working memories—moments where he reached for an approach, tried something new, and kept the result.

Even the ordering reads like a kind of self-portrait. The post imagines how many lists would gravitate toward “Life on Mars?” and then asks what other picks would survive the test of taste: the eight-and-a-half minute “Sweet Thing”/“Candidate”/“Sweet Thing (Reprise)” from Diamond Dogs. “Win” from Young Americans. or “The Bewlay Brothers” from Hunky Dory.

What you’re left with is a collection that doesn’t just compile music—it reveals how Bowie heard himself. The final line insists on that feeling plainly: iSELECT: BOWIE “gets behind the greatest hits collections for a glimpse at the way he heard and remembered his catalogue.”

Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on the site in 2019.

Relat­ed Content listed includes: “David Bowie’s 100 Must Read Books. ” “The Art Collection of David Bowie: An Introduction. ” “How David Bowie Used William S. Bur­roughs’ Cut-Up Method to Write His Unforgettable Lyrics. ” “David Bowie Sings Impressions of Bruce Springsteen. Lou Reed. Iggy Pop. Tom Waits & More In Studio Out­takes (1985).”.

David Bowie iSELECT: BOWIE Life On Mars? Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing Teenage Wildlife Time Will Crawl (MM Remix) Hang On To Yourself live music compilations Hunky Dory Diamond Dogs Scary Monsters Lodger cultural identity