Starman to Blackstar Edition Part 2

Summary

Hit Parade | Starman to Blackstar Edition Part 2

Date: January 30, 2026
Host: Chris Molanphy

---

Overview

This episode of Hit Parade continues Chris Molanphy's deep dive into David Bowie's chart-topping journey, tracing Bowie's evolution from his 1980s pop resurgence through his genre-hopping experiments, artistic struggles, and his stunning late-career farewell. Molanphy examines how Bowie navigated stardom, commercial success, and musical innovation, framing his legacy through the lens of pop chart history. The episode weaves musical snippets, anecdotes, and critical milestones to answer what truly makes a song – and an artist – a smash.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Bowie in Transition—From Glam to New Wave (1980–1983)

• In the early 1980s, Bowie’s UK and US popularity diverged sharply.
  • UK: A megastar with multiple #1 albums (e.g., Scary Monsters - [03:55]), consistent chart success through the quirky Berlin trilogy.
  • US: Preferred Bowie’s funk-influenced work; his presence on the Hot 100 was spottier.
• Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) marked a major UK comeback (hit #1, led by “Ashes to Ashes”), but underwhelmed in the US (#12 album, single missed Hot 100 [05:00]).
  • Quote: “Ashes to Ashes was a cheeky continuation of the story of the doomed astronaut... Promoted with a colorful high concept and very expensive music video...” (Chris Molanphy, [05:00])
• Bowie anticipated the rise of New Wave, aligning himself with the likes of Kate Bush and Gary Numan before the sound broke in America.

2. “Let’s Dance” and the Imperial Phase (1983–1985)

• Bowie’s three-year break yielded collaborations (“Under Pressure” with Queen, 1981) and soundtrack work (“Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” [11:40]).
  • “Under Pressure” celebrated for its “explosive vocals by Freddie Mercury” and “immortal bass line by Queen’s inventive bassist John Deacon...” (Chris Molanphy, [08:21])
• The 1983 LP Let’s Dance, produced by Nile Rodgers, marked Bowie’s most commercial era yet.
  • “Let’s Dance” fused “rocking and funky, glam and new wave, melodic and syncopated...” ([12:22])
  • The album delivered three US top 20 hits:
    • “Let’s Dance” (#1 US/UK) [14:01]
    • “China Girl” (#10 US, #2 UK; famous for its provocative video) [16:15]
    • “Modern Love” (#14 US)
  • Notable Moment: Bowie’s collaboration with Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar for “Let’s Dance.”
  • Critically lampooned follow-ups still charted highly due to Bowie’s pop clout (e.g., Tonight [17:01], “Blue Jean”).
  • Bowie and Mick Jagger’s “Dancing in the Street” (Live Aid charity single) was a chart hit despite its “laugh riot” video and “instantly dated” sound ([17:50]).

3. Artistic Recoil and Alternative Godfather Era (Mid-1980s–1990s)

• Bowie’s success with Let’s Dance led to artistic discomfort.
  • Quote: “I didn’t want whatever it was I’d earned for myself with the success of Let’s Dance.” (David Bowie, archival, [26:16])
• This Is Not America (w/ Pat Metheny Group) was an ambient, unlikely Top 40 hit ([27:22]).
• Bowie attempted a rock pivot with Never Let Me Down (1987), which flopped critically and commercially ([27:22]–[28:50]).
  • Notable Moment: The album’s only “keeper” was “Time Will Crawl.”
• Formed Tin Machine (1989–1992), an alt-rock band meant to revert Bowie to a “frontman in a small combo,” echoing the rise of art punk.
  • “Under the God” (#4 Modern Rock) and “One Shot” (#3 Modern Rock), but low sales marred the project ([32:26]).
• Black Tie White Noise (1993): A brief solo resurgence hampered by poor label support; “Jump They Say” (#5 Modern Rock) ([34:32]).
• Bowie’s 1990s output reflected “dabblings in techno and industrial,” collaborating with Brian Eno (Outside, 1995; “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson” [36:19]) and Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor (“I’m Afraid of Americans” [37:05]).

4. Survivor: 2000s Return and Health Crisis

• Early 2000s: Reunited with Tony Visconti for Heathen (2002, “his strongest album since Scary Monsters,” [38:11]) and Reality (2003).
  • Both received warm reviews and charted respectably ([39:18]).
• A heart attack in 2004 forced near seclusion and six-year hiatus, but Bowie remained a model for boundary-pushing 21st-century pop (influencing Daft Punk, Lady Gaga, Janelle Monáe, etc.) ([40:47]).

5. Blackstar: The Final Transformation

• Bowie stunned fans by resurfacing on his 66th birthday (Jan 8, 2013) with The Next Day, after a decade’s silence ([45:29]).
  • Secrecy and surprise fueled anticipation; album debuted at #2 US (his highest ever at the time) ([47:18]).
  • Quote: “Bowie was so intent on maintaining the secrecy... he scoped out studios based on confidentiality and had all of his session musicians sign non disclosure agreements.” (Chris Molanphy, [45:29])
  • Cheeky, self-referential cover art riffed on the famous Heroes design.
• Blackstar (2016):
  • Crafted as Bowie’s health declined with liver cancer; album’s experimental jazz and haunting lyrics were not meant as a last statement until his diagnosis was terminal ([52:28]).
  • Quote: “As it was, the album was suffused with lyrics about death and some of the most ghostly vocals Bowie had ever recorded.” (Chris Molanphy, [52:28])
  • Released on his 69th birthday; Bowie died two days later ([53:41]).
  • The public and critical reaction was immense—Blackstar became his first US #1 album ([53:41]).
  • “Lazarus,” the album’s hit single, entered the Hot 100 at #40, with 21 Bowie songs flooding the rock charts the week of his death ([57:05]).
• Heroes (the 1977 single) enjoyed a digital-age renaissance, re-entering the charts due to pop culture placements like Netflix’s Stranger Things ([59:10]).

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Bowie’s cross-cultural chart split:
  “In the US, Bowie was a star. In the UK, he was a megastar.”
  — Chris Molanphy, [01:14]

• On “Under Pressure”:
  “...the most insanely powerful piece of music Queen ever touched and a reminder that for all his alien transformations, David Bowie could also be wonderfully, powerfully human.”
  — Quoting Jack Hamilton, via Chris Molanphy, [08:21]

• On Bowie’s 80s success/struggles:
  “In 1984 and 85, Bowie released lackluster, critically panned material that did well on the charts anyway.”
  — Chris Molanphy, [17:01]

• Bowie’s mid-80s discomfort:
  “I didn’t want whatever it was I’d earned for myself with the success of Let’s Dance.”
  — David Bowie (archival), via Chris Molanphy, [26:16]

• On Blackstar’s posthumous triumph:
  “As the world mourned, the album was praised, purchased and pored over... Critics ranked it among his best LPs and as a seminal meditation on death. Not incidentally, all of this attention and consumption made Bowie's final album... one of his biggest hits.”
  — Chris Molanphy, [53:41]

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• [01:14] — Episode begins: Recap of Part 1, setting up Bowie’s 80s transformation.
• [03:55] — Scary Monsters: UK comeback, “Ashes to Ashes.”
• [08:21] — “Under Pressure” and “Cat People.”
• [12:22] — Nile Rodgers collaboration, Let’s Dance era.
• [17:01] — “Blue Jean,” Tonight, and “Dancing in the Street.”
• [26:16] — Imperial phase aftermath and Bowie’s artistic ambivalence.
• [27:22] — This Is Not America and the Never Let Me Down misstep.
• [32:26] — Tin Machine: Bowie as alt-rocker.
• [34:32] — “Jump They Say” and 90s struggles.
• [37:05] — Bowie goes electronic, collaborates with Trent Reznor.
• [38:11] — 2000s comeback: Heathen and Reality.
• [45:29] — Surprise return with The Next Day.
• [52:28] — Final project: crafting Blackstar as mortality loomed.
• [53:41] — Bowie's death and Blackstar’s chart-topping aftermath.
• [59:10] — Heroes’ digital renaissance and the enduring influence of Bowie.
• [61:30] — Closing: We can all be heroes, just for one day.

---

Conclusion: Bowie’s Legacy, Chart Afterlife, and the Hit Parade Perspective

Chris Molanphy closes by reflecting on how Bowie’s music and persona remain woven into the fabric of pop culture, illustrating how an artist’s lasting impact is measured not just by initial chart performance, but by enduring influence and renewed public embrace. Bowie, rock’s “original Stranger Thing,” proves that an evolving artist can be both elusive and immortal on the charts—“We really all can be heroes, just for one day.” ([61:30])

---

This summary covers the episode’s essential points, narrative arc, and major chart milestones, providing a vivid guide for Bowie fans, pop history buffs, and newcomers alike.

Transcript

[Child]

Mom, I saw Dylan's dad make dinner like actually cook and it was straight fire. He said it was Blue Apron assemble and bake. All the ingredients showed up pre chopped and he just laid it out on a baking sheet and no cap. Dinner was on the table in like 25 minutes. Apparently it's chef design and it has like over 40 grams of protein. That's a lot right? So maybe we try it. Just saying. You can be the next Dylan's dad. Blue Apron get 50% off your first two orders plus free shipping with code. Listen, 50 terms and conditions apply. Visit blue apron.com terms for more.

[LifeLock Advertiser]

The New year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Your info is in endless places that could expose you to identity theft leading to lost funds. Lifelock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Resolve to make identity, health and wealth part of your New Year's goals. With Lifelock, save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com Specialoffer terms apply.

[Child or Listener]

Foreign.

[Chris Melanfi]

Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfi, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One Series. On our last episode, we chronicled how David Jones became David Bowie, rock's ultimate shapeshifter. Even as he went through all of his 70s changes. From the space oddity to Ziggy Stardust, a young American soul man, to the thin white Duke, Bowie also took on and took off pop stardom like a cloak. Whether he was galvanizing glam rock, topping the charts with funk, or escaping to Berlin to become a cold hero, we're now entering the 1980s and David Bowie is about to make a colorful pop comeback that will turn his previous chart topping forays into ashes. Bowie Phase 5 the original new Waiver during his first decade of hit making, David Bowie's stardom in his British homeland differed considerably from his chart performance in America. In the us, Bowie was a star. In the uk, he was a megastar. Several of his peak glam era LPs topped the British album chart. None hit number one in America. And though he hadn't had a UK number one LP since the era of Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs, even Bowie's quirkier LPs from the Berlin period consistently made the UK top five, Whereas all of the Berlin LPs fell short of the top 10. In America, the US generally liked Bowie's funk and soul excursions better. Fame was a number one hit on our Hot 100, only a number 17 hit in the UK, and the funk infused Station to Station album charted a bit better in the US as well.

[Child or Listener]

That would be crazy tonight say that's what I meant to say or do something but I never say but the.

[Chris Melanfi]

David Bowie album with perhaps the starkest difference in reception between the UK and the US was 1980's scary monsters, arguably Bowie's most British pop album. In America it was greeted with a bit of a shrug, peaking at number 12. Very respectable, but no better than the low LP, whereas in the United Kingdom the album, whose full title was the droll Scary Monsters, Parentheses and Super Creeps hit number one and was greeted by the British public as a major pop comeback. May that was because on its lead single Bowie was reviving his most beloved character, Major Tom.

[Child or Listener]

Do you remember regardless being it's such a lovely song.

[Chris Melanfi]

Ashes to Ashes was a cheeky continuation of the story of the doomed astronaut, picturing him knocking aimlessly through the far reaches of space while strung out on a kind of galactic heroine. Ashes to Ashes Funk to funky we know Major Tom's a junkie, Bowie sings. Promoted with a colorful high concept and very expensive music video that premiered on the BBC's top of the Pops and was reported to have cost a quarter million pounds, Ashes to Ashes became David Bowie's fastest selling UK single ever, rising to number one in just two weeks. In the us, Ashes to Ashes was a total flop, bubbling under the Hot 100 at number 101. In retrospect, this was inevitable. Sonically, Bowie's hit was more in step with the arch sounds of pre MTV British New Wave, which hadn't crossed over in America yet. The likes of early Kate Bush. And Gary Newman, who was only a one hit wonder in America. Bowie was new wave before New wave was a thing and now he was aligning himself with cutting edge British pop. Ashes to Ashes was a true UK phenomenon, the kind that invited in jokes such as this throwaway gag a couple of years later on the satirical British punk comedy show the Young Ones. Right now. Ashes to Ashes Funk to funky.

[Narrator/Analyst]

We know Major.

[Chris Melanfi]

The only Scary Monsters track that did any business for Bowie in America was its second single, Fashion. It did crack the Hot 100 by 1981, peaking at a meager number 70 in the UK, Fashion reached the top five. Nonetheless, the infectious single was a better indicator of where Bowie's sound was going in the 80s. It was synth driven danceable and infused with R B energy.

[Child or Listener]

We are the good squad and we're coming to town.

[Chris Melanfi]

It would be another three years before Bowie returned with a new studio album, the longest gap in his career to date. He was unhappy with his label, RCA Records, angling to get out of the contract and determined to try new things in the interim. A couple of stopgap singles recorded for other artists projects pointed toward a more rhythmic pop driven 80s sound for Bowie. We've talked about Under Pressure, David Bowie's anthemic 1981 duet with the band Queen in several prior hit parade episodes as a chart phenomenon, Under Pressure was a considerable hit. It reached number one in the UK and in America. It got Bowie back into the top 40 for the first time in six years. In early 82 it peaked on the Hot 100 at number 28. As a song, Under Pressure is widely considered a masterpiece for both Queen and especially David Bowie. With explosive vocals by Freddie Mercury, an immortal bass line by Queen's inventive bassist John Deacon, one that rapper Vanilla Ice would later steal for Ice Ice Baby and lyrics primarily written by Bowie, Under Pressure was a song of protest, fellowship and love. In an appreciation written after Bowie's death, my Slate colleague Jack Hamilton called Under Pressure quote, the most insanely powerful piece of music Queen ever touched and a reminder that for all his alien transformations, David Bowie could also be wonderfully, powerfully human. Bowie's other major single in this period was a soundtrack hit that would transition him into his next album. The title song to the 1982 Paul Schrader erotic horror film Cat People. Its full title was Cat People Parentheses Putting Out Fire and it teamed Bowie with electrodisco producer Giorgio Moroder.

[Child or Listener]

See these Eyes so Green I Can.

[Chris Melanfi]

Maroder, the Mastermind of Donna Summers 70s albums who pivoted to movie music in the 80s from American Gigolo to Flashdance, had the backing track for Cat People largely pre written and just needed David Bowie to write the lyrics and sing on it. Critics called the finished product one of Bowie's best vocal performances and I've been putting on fire.

[Child or Listener]

With castle deep.

[Chris Melanfi]

Cat People was a fairly successful single, making the top 10 on Billboard's new Rock Tracks chart in the spring of 82 and the top 30 on the UK pop chart. However, David Bowie was unhappy with Moroder's production and he asked the producer of his next album, Nile Rogers, to re record Cat People with a new, crunchier backing track. That 1980 album produced by Rogers and Bowie's first in a new contract with the EMI label, was his bid to be a global pop star again. He did that by re embracing an R B based rock sound and making it even glossier. Bowie named the LP after its lead single, a track that fused everything he had done in his career to date. It was rocking and funky, glam and new wave, melodic and syncopated, debonair and danceable indeed. He called the song and the album let's Dance.

[Child or Listener]

Put on your red shoes and dance the blues. To the song we're playing on the radio.

[Chris Melanfi]

David Bowie had met Nile Rogers, former mastermind of disco band Chic, at a New York Club in 1982 and he invited Nile to write and record with him in Montreux, Switzerland. Bowie was looking for a shakeup in his sound after leaving RCA and he told Rogers he wanted hits to write and record the biggest hits of his career. Rogers took a simple tune Bowie had written on an acoustic guitar, added syncopation and turned it into a banger. This was not quirky British new wave like Ashes to Ashes. Let's Dance was glossy new romantic new waves for the era of Duran Duran and Culture Club. It hit number one in countries around the world, including both the UK and the US in the summer of 1983. Let's Dance became Bowie's first number one hit on the Hot 100 in nearly eight years since 1975's Fame. Casey Kasem counted it down.

[Casey Kasem]

Now we're up to the number one song and the latest hit by the man who won't stop climbing the ladder of success. Two and a half years ago he played the title role in the Elephant man and he broke the Broadway record for a non musical by selling out 125 performances. Who is this man for all seasons? Why, he's the very talented and amazingly versatile David Bowie. This year he has two films coming out and he's got a top 10 album whose title song has just hit the top of the pop chart. The new number one song in the USA is Let's Dance by David Bowie.

[Chris Melanfi]

Let's Dance kicked off the biggest pop star moment of David Bowie's career. It even helped launch the career of a killer guitarist who took the song's searing solo, a young Stevie Ray Vaughn. The let's Dance album made the most of Nile Rogers skills as a producer and arranger. For the track that became the album's second single, Bowie brought him a song he'd co written for Iggy Pop's 1977 LP the Idiot. The aforementioned China Girl. Legend has it Bowie wanted to do his friend Iggy Pop a favor by covering the song. Iggy's finances in the early 80s were shaky, and Bowie knew the royalties from a China Girl cover would be a windfall. Bowie and Nile Rogers transformed the song from top to bottom, layering in an interpolation of the stereotypical oriental riff and turning China Girl from proto punk into pop. China Girl was indeed a hit hit, coming right after let's Dance and fueled by a risque music video that satirized Asian stereotypes and closed with Bowie recreating the crashing waves embrace from the 50s film From Here to Eternity, with actress Ge Ling Ng both fully nude in the surf. The controversy worked. China Girl peaked at number two in the UK and number 10 on the Hot 100, making let's Date Dance, Bowie's first album to generate two US top 10 hits. And no Bowie album had ever generated three hits, period. But then. Let's Dance overcame that barrier too, when Modern Love, produced by Nile Rogers as debonair Jet setting Dance rock, reached number 14 on the Hot 100. The video captured Bowie live on stage on his just launched Serious moonlight tour. Natalie dressed in a yellow suit, his blonde hair teased into a Little Richard style, pompadour tricked out like a sleek, yuppified pop idol. The let's Dance album peaked at number four on the Billboard album chart, Bowie's highest charting LP since 1976's Station to Station, and it was his first first to go platinum in America. It was not only the most commercial, most danceable music he had ever released, it kicked off a new mid-80s imperial phase for Bowie. How could you tell? He was imperially bulletproof. In 1984 and 85, Bowie released lackluster, critically panned material that did well on the charts. And anyway, Blue Jean was the lead single of tonight. David Bowie's 1984 album, benefiting from the coattails of let's Dance Tonight shot to number one in the UK, the top 10 in the US and became his second ever platinum LP in America. But critics were nearly universal in their scorn for the album, as was Bowie himself, who all but apologized for its quality in later interviews. Nonetheless, Blue Jean, a pastiche of Bowie's 80s sound in the form of a bopping love song, became another top 10 hit for Bowie on both sides of the Atlantic. It was helped by a 20 minute short film slash music video directed by British auteur Julian Temple. A shortened version of the video ran on mtv. Then, about six months after Blue Jean peaked on the charts, Bowie released his most unwittingly hilarious single, okay Tokyo, South America, France, Germany. To benefit Live aid, the 1985 Global Famine Relief effort organized by Bob Geldof. Old friends Mick Jagger and David Bowie teamed up to record a cover of Martha and the Vandella's classic Motown hit Dancing in the street, with all proceeds earmarked for the Ethiopian relief charity. Though their intentions were good and the single did indeed raise a lot of money, the Bowie Jagger street was instantly dated and probably cost Bowie some cool points. The music video in particular, shot on a movie set's backlot in a rush on a single night, was a laugh riot as Bowie and Jagger shouted the lyrics at each other, did some hokey dad dancing that reminded you both men were entering middle age and appeared to be maybe flirting with each other. Regardless, Dancing in the street was a chart smash. By the fall of 85, it reached number one in the UK, still the only number one of Mick Jagger's career away from the Rolling Stones, by the way, and number seven on the Hot 100. After all, that's what an imperial phase means. Bowie was spending down his public capital on some rather naff projects. At least it was for a good cause. We'll be back momentarily. A New Year Colder Days this is the moment your winter wardrobe really has to deliver. If you're craving a winter reset, start with pieces truly made to last season after season. Quince has everything you need. Men's Mongolian cashmere sweaters, wool coats, leather and suede outerwear that actually hold up to daily wear and still look good. I can't stop raving about my Quince jeans. Not only were they very affordable and high quality, I now wear them more often than other jeans I previously purchased at two to three times the price. Refresh your winter wardrobe with quince. Go to quince.com hitparade for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N c-e.com hitparade free shipping and 365 day returns quince.com hitparade.

[Verizon Advertiser]

Think Verizon is expensive? Think again. Anyone can bring their AT and T or T mobile bill to a Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal. So bring us your bill. Walk in, run in, Hogo Sticking, Teleport if you can ride on the back of a rollerblading yak or flying on the wings of a majestic falcon. Any way you can bring your AT and T or T Mobile bill to a Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal on the best network based on RootMetric's best overall mobile network performance. US 2nd half 2025 all rights preserved must provide a very recent postpaid consumer mobile bill in the name of the person redeeming the deal. Additional terms, conditions and restrictions apply.

[LifeLock Advertiser]

The New Year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Your info is in endless places that could expose you to identity theft leading to lost funds. LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Resolve to make identity, health and wealth part of your New year's goals with LifeLock, save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com SpecialOffer Terms apply.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Bowie Phase six Alternative Godfather as much as David Bowie enjoyed the spoils of his mid-80s imperial phase, he felt ambivalent about what it had done to his artistry. In the new British documentary Bowie the Final act, in an archive clip from around that time, Bowie is shown saying, I didn't want whatever it was I'd earned for myself with the success of let's Dance Dance, unquote. So through the late 80s and early 90s, Bowie would seek to dismantle his pop Persona and reclaim his status as an art pop avatar. He was, after all, the original alternative rocker before that had a name.

[Child or Listener]

Miracle.

[Narrator/Analyst]

One of the earliest signs of his pivot came in 1985 when Bowie released this Is Not America, an ambient sophista pop single recorded with jazz fusion combo the Pat Metheny Group, for the SoundTrack to the 1985 Sean Penny Spy thriller the Falcon and the Snowman. Benefiting from the tail end of Bowie's imperial phase, the unlikely hit cracked the top 40, peaking at number 32. But Bowie also wanted to rock harder, and on his next studio album, 1987's Never Let Me down, he turned up the guitars and especially the syndromes, making his beats louder if not necessarily edgier. The LP's first single, Day In Day out, built up a noisy head of steam. Day In Day out reached number 21 on the Hot 100 in the spring of 87 and a more impressive number three on Billboard's album rock chart. But when the album arrived, neither critics nor fans came away impressed with Bowie's airless digital rock top, and it topped out on the Billboard album chart at number 34, Bowie's lowest charter since the experimental Heroes a decade earlier. The album did generate one more hit in the jazzy title track, which reached number 27 on the pop chart. But critics and Bowie himself generally agreed. The album's only keeper was the art rocking Time Will crawl, a number seven AOR hit that missed the hot 100 entirely. The whole Never Let Me down experience left a bad taste in David Bowie's mouth. He wanted to rock harder, but delivered an LP that satisfied neither rock nor pop fans. So Bowie's next move would be to veer even further away from pop, submerging his identity into a grungy rock band. In 1989, Tin Machine, a four man band comprising guitarist Reeves Gabrels, Brothers Hunt Sales and Tony Sales on bass and drums respectively, and on vocals, David Bowie released a self titled album filled with noisy rock. The band was billed as Bowie returning to his roots as the frontman of a small rock combo like his 60s days leading the Manish Boys or the lower third. But Tin Machine's metallic, feedback laden sound was noisier than anything Bowie had tried before. It was his response to the rising art punk sound of bands like the Pixies or Sonic Youth. Bowie's timing was good in at least one way. The year before, Billboard had launched a new modern rock chart to track airplay on alternative and college stations. And Tin Machine did quite well on that chart. Under the God, the leadoff track from Tin machine, reached number four on modern rock tracks in the summer of 89. A follow up, the Bluesy Heavens In Here, just missed the modern rock top 10 at number 11.

[Chris Melanfi]

It.

[Narrator/Analyst]

And in 1992, the group's sophomore album Tin Machine 2 generated the band's biggest hit, One Shot, which reached number three on the modern rock chart.

[Child or Listener]

One stop further away.

[Narrator/Analyst]

While Tin Machines Workman, like alt rock, proved decent radio fodder, the band never developed a personality beyond its status as David Bowie's side project. More damning, the albums didn't sell. Their self titled debut peaked at number 28 and didn't even go gold. Tin Machine 2 reached an anemic number 126. After the three year Tin Machine experiment, Bowie not only went scurrying back to his solo career, he also went back to producer Nile Rogers to try to recreate their magic from let's Dance a decade earlier. David Niles 1993 reunion was called Black Tie White Noise, an attempt to remind listeners of David Bowie's debonair 80s image. But like Rip Van Winkle, the 46 year old Bowie was returning to a changed world. Pop had moved on in the early 90s, R B was now new jack swing and Top 40 radio was playing more club music and alt pop. So the only radio hospitable to Bowie in 93 were the alternative rock station jump, they say. The album's lead single did manage to.

[Chris Melanfi]

Reach number five on the modern rock.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Chart, and the album earned fairly upbeat reviews. Unfortunately, Black Tie White Noise was released on a small subsidiary of RCA Records and was poorly distributed and promoted. The album barely scraped the top 40 and was off the Billboard 200 chart in under two months, his shortest lived album ever to that date. In short, the 90s was something of a lost decade for Boaz. His greatest successes in the decade of grunge and gangsta rap turned out to be his dabblings in techno and industrial music. A track Bowie recorded for the 1992 animated film Cool World, called Real Cool World, had the pulse of electronic club.

[Chris Melanfi]

Music and scraped the modern rock top.

[Narrator/Analyst]

10, proving Bowie could keep pace with a younger sound. Three years later, Brian Eno reunited with bowie for the 1995 album Outside, which adapted their 70s Berlin techniques to 90s industrial rock rock. Its lead single, The Heart's Filthy Lesson, sported a thunderous beat and made the.

[Chris Melanfi]

Modern rock top 20.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Fans noticed that Bowie's mid-90s experiments seemed to be leaning in the direction of Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor's punishing yet platinum industrial rock project. So the Bowie faithful were excited when the Thin White Duke actually collaborated with Reznor himself on a remix of Bowie's single I'm Afraid of Americans from his 1997 album Earthling.

[Child or Listener]

Afraid of America, I'm Afraid of the World, I'm afraid I Can't Help It.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Earthling arrived just a few weeks after a 50th birthday concert. Bowie threw himself at Madison Square Garden, joined on stage by such alt rockers as Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, the Cures.

[Chris Melanfi]

Robert Smith Smith and old friend and.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Alt rock godfather Lou Reed. Even in middle age, Bowie was determined to keep up, but his 50s would actually turn out to be his quietest period artistically. Bowie Phase 7 Survivor Bowie in the early aughts, Bowie reunited with his longtime producer Tony Visconti for a pair of discs that were greeted by fans as a return to form.

[Child or Listener]

Everyone says hi.

[Narrator/Analyst]

The melodic Heathen in 2002 sparked the comeback. Critics called it David Bowie's strongest album since Scary Monsters, and it reached number 14 on the Billboard 200, his best album chart showing in nearly two decades. In the UK, Heathen made the top five and spawned a solid hit, the single Everyone Says hi, which cracked the UK top 20.

[Child or Listener]

The Bad Things.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Bowie and Visconti kept the momentum going with 2003's more rock forward Reality, an album they recorded with the intention of giving Bowie's touring band more live material.

[Chris Melanfi]

Away.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Reality's lead single, New Killer Star, didn't chart anywhere, but the album did solid business, making the top 30 in America, the top three in the UK. In late O3, Bowie embarked on his reality tour, playing more than 110 dates worldwide through the middle of 2004. But in late June, on stage in Prague, Bowie experienced severe chest pain. He wound up needing an emergency angioplasty to unblock an artery. The heart attack not only canceled the rest of the 2004 Tour, it essentially sent Bowie into near seclusion. For the rest of the decade. He would make periodic appearances in movies and TV shows, such as this improvised.

[Chris Melanfi]

Song he performed as part of a.

[Narrator/Analyst]

2006 cameo on an episode of the Ricky Gervais BBC HBO series Extras.

[Child or Listener]

Pathetic little fat man, no one's bloody laughing the clown that no one laughs at they all just wish he died.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Even as he stopped releasing new albums or touring, David Bowie was being cited as an influence and inspiration by a new generation of pop acts with chameleonic material, including Daft Punk, Lose yourself to dance, lady gaga. And janelle monae. In other words, despite David Bowie's absence, his fingerprints were all over 21st century pop by the early 2000 and tens. Bowie had been so quiet for so long, no one expected to hear new music from him again, which is what made what happened next so surprising. We'll be right back.

[Dutch Vet Advertiser]

Time is precious and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24. 7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch. You'll get more time with your pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care. Go to Dutch.com to get vet care that is always there for just $92 a year.

[LifeLock Advertiser]

The new year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Your info is in endless places that could expose you to identity theft leading to lost funds. Lifelock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Resolve to make identity, health and wealth part of your New Year's goals with LifeLock, save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com Special offer terms apply.

[Dutch Vet Advertiser]

Wallet Feeling light After the holidays, Recovery starts with TikTok slash and free Pick products, share the link and watch the price drop to zero. Download TikTok search free and start slashing Today.

[Verizon Advertiser]

Lunch was great, but this traffic is awful.

[Dutch Vet Advertiser]

Um, can we stop at a bathroom?

[Chris Melanfi]

Are you alright?

[Dutch Vet Advertiser]

And keep having stomach issues after eating, like diarrhea, gas and bloating, abdominal pain and sometimes oily stools. Sound familiar? Those stomach issues may actually be a pancreas issue called exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, or epi. Creon pancrelipase may help manage ep. Creon is a prescription medicine used to treat people who can't digest food normally because their pancreas doesn't make enough enzymes.

[Creon Medication Advertiser]

Creon may increase your chance of fibrosing colonopathy, a rare bowel disorder. Tell your doctor if you have a history of intestinal blockage or scarring or thickening of your bowel wall, if you are allergic to pork or if you have gout, kidney problems or worsening of painful, swollen joints. Call your doctor if you have any unusual or severe gastrointestinal symptoms or allergic reactions. Take Creon as directed by your doctor and always with food. Do not chew capsules as this may cause mouth irritation. Other side effects may include blood sugar changes, gas, dizziness, sore throat and cough. These are not all the side effects of Creon. Call 8639110 or visit creoninfo.com learn [e-mail].

[Dutch Vet Advertiser]

I'm asking my doctor about epi and.

[Verizon Advertiser]

If Creon could help.

[Chris Melanfi]

Bowie Phase 8 departing Starman here's an odd David Bowie chart statistic. His two highest charting US albums were his two last albums. Even stranger, these were two of his most challenging, least pop oriented LPs. After Bowie's decade of undeclared de facto retirement, fans were so grateful to have new material from him that they showed up in droves as soon as the albums dropped. Maybe to paraphrase a prior Bowie single, the heart's filthy lesson is that absence makes the heart grow fonder.

[Child or Listener]

Hard to get the train from Potts Dumb.

[Chris Melanfi]

On January 8, 2013, David Bowie's 66th birthday, he ended his unofficial retirement with no prior warning. Bowie dropped a ruminative new single called Where Are we now? And he announced the arrival of a new album two months later, which would be called the Next Day. It turned out Bowie and producer Tony Visconti had been working on the LP in secret for more than a year. Bowie was so intent on maintaining the secrecy of the project, he scoped out New York City studios based on their confidentiality and had all of his session musicians sign non disclosure agreements. Where Are We now? Bubbled under the hot 100, driven mostly by download sales at itunes, and it cracked the top top 10 in the UK. Musically it was, unlike the lead single from any prior Bowie album, a gentle rumination from a man looking back wistfully on how he has spent his life. It suggested that the Next Day album would be somber and funereal, but that's not quite how it turned out.

[Child or Listener]

Stars are never sleeping, Dead ones and the living.

[Chris Melanfi]

The Next Day was moody, but mostly in the lyrics, not the music. Much of it was up tempo, even rocking. The second single, the Stars Are Out Tonight, was a banger released with a cheeky music video co starring actress Tilda Swinton, and when fans saw the album's cover, many thought Bowie was taking the piss. It was simply A copy of Bowie's 1977 Heroes album cover, a famous black and white photo of Bowie holding up two hands around his face in a kind of proto voguing pose. Except the word Heroes had been crossed out and Bowie's entire face was obscured by a giant plain white square with the title the Next Day in a simple sans serif font. It was the album cover as ready made art, Bowie satirizing his own past much as he had done with the major top story on Ashes to Ashes in 1980. The implication being Bowie was regarding his own life as an elder statesman, but with a sense of humor and a skeptical perspective. In the UK. Unsurprisingly, The Next Day debuted at number one on the album chart when it arrived in March 2013 in the US. Amazingly, it entered the Billboard 200 at number two, Bowie's highest charting LP in America to date, surpassing the number three peak of 1976's Station to Station. It would have become David Bowie's first ever US 1 album, but the Next Day had the misfortune to arrive in music stores the same week as a new Bon Jovi album, which debuted at number one just ahead of Bowie. We won't dignify that Bon Jovi album by playing any of its songs here. You can imagine how I felt in 20 2013. So the upshot David Bowie was back. Would there be more new music? Because Bowie did no interviews or traditional promotion for the Next Day other than a couple of music videos, it was Anybody's guess in 2014, Bowie issued another of his many hits compilations. He'd released more than a dozen dating back to 1976's best selling Changes 1 Bowie Only. This 2014 compilation, nothing has changed, not only covered Bowie's entire career across multiple labels, it also ended with a new song song called Sue Parentheses or In A Season of Crime. What was remarkable about sue was the music, specifically who Bowie was playing with a jazz combo led by saxophonist Danny McCaslin. Bowie's music had been jazzy before, but this was his first time attempting actual experimental jazz. Sue wound up appearing on and serving as a preview of Bowie's next album, which would find him recording a full LP's worth of jazz inflected art rock with McCaslin and his seasoned ensemble. Bowie demoed the tracks before the sessions for the album, but then in the studio he encouraged the players to experiment. One of the tracks they worked on, Lazarus, doubled as the title track to a jukebox musical of Bowie's life's work that he was co writing with Irish playwright Enda Walsh. Lazarus would premiere Off Broadway in late 2015.

[Child or Listener]

Look up here, man, I'm in danger. I've got nothing left to lose.

[Chris Melanfi]

Between the musical and the album, David Bowie was maintaining a very busy schedule. What almost no one knew, except for Bowie, his closest loved ones, and producer Tony Visconti, was that Bowie had been diagnosed with liver cancer in mid-2014. He was working against the clock, staving off the dying of the light. Visconti later revealed that Bowie did not originally intend this album to be his last, last will and testament. But when he Learned in late 2015 that his cancer was terminal, that's what it became. As it was, the album was suffused with lyrics about death and some of the most ghostly vocals Bowie had ever recorded.

[Child or Listener]

Something happened on the day he died. Spirit, somebody else took his place and bravely cried.

[Chris Melanfi]

A few months ahead of the album, a song called Black Star was released via the soundtrack to a TV show called the Last Panthers. That title, Blackstar, would also double as the title of the next David Bowie album, which was announced in October 2015, accompanied by a music video for Blackstar. The surreal 10 minute short film depicted a woman discovering a dead astronaut and Bowie himself appeared in the video as both a spirit in the clouds holding a Bible like book and a wraith with bandages and buttons over his eyes. Like where are we now? The Black Star album was released on Both Bowie's birthday, January 8, 2016. Two days later, on January 10, 2016, David Robert Jones, aka David Bowie, died at the age of 69. In interviews after Bowie's passing, Tony Visconti revealed all the work that had gone into the Black Star album, how determined Bowie was to finish it after his diagnosis, and Visconti called it Bowie's parting gift. As the world mourned, the album was praised, purchased and pored over both as a great work by Bowie. Critics ranked it among his best LPs and as a seminal meditation on down death. Not incidentally, all of this attention and consumption made Bowie's final album improbably one of his biggest hits. One week later, Billboard magazine announced that David Bowie's Black Star had debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, remarkable, by the way, as it knocked out Adele's smash album 25, which had been number one for months. Bowie would not live to see an album of his at number one in America, but the chart coronation was America's parting gift to him. On the Hot 100 Songs chart, the single Lazarus debuted at number 40. That made the six minute mortality obsessed track officially Bowie's last American top 40 hit.

[Child or Listener]

Look up here, I'm in Heaven.

[Narrator/Analyst]

I.

[Child or Listener]

Got scars that can't be seen.

[Chris Melanfi]

Lazarus wasn't even the only Bowie song on the charts that week, a bit lower on the Hot 100. Two of his classic hits Space Oddity and the Queen duet under pressure re entered at numbers 42 and 45 respectively. As I have noted in prior episodes of Hit Parade, it is always morbidly fascinating after an artist dies to see which of their songs the public turns to to mourn them. And on Build Board's Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart, which uses the Hot 100 formula to track songs classified as rock 21 Bowie songs debuted that week in January 2016, including seven tracks from Blackstar and another 14 of his greatest hits. Bowie songs took up more than half of the rock charts top 20, including such classics as let's Dance Changes and Life on Mars. In the 10 years since David Bowie's death, several of his songs have remained perennials on the Hill Hit Parade. At Spotify, more than a dozen Bowie songs have been played more than 100 million times each, from Moon Age Daydream. To modern love. And one Bowie favorite that has been commercially redeemed in the Digital age is 1977's Heroes. As I noted earlier in this episode, in its day, Heroes was not a hit. But that's not the story the charts are telling now. Generations later, Heroes is one of David Bowie's most beloved songs. The week he died. It was his fifth most played catalog song after Space, Oddity, Under Pressure, let's Dance and Changes, remarkable for a song that did not chart as well as any of those hits. And this week, in January 2026, Heroes just re entered the rock and Alternative Songs chart after its use in Netflix's Stranger Things. A fitting tribute, you might say, to rock's original Stranger Thing. Many pundits have observed that the world hasn't been quite right since David Bowie went from earthly starman to heavenly black star a decade ago. Go 2016 was hard on the world and especially cruel for music fans the year we lost both Bowie and Prince. But in 2026, as we persist in the fallen world, Bowie left us one marked by cruelty, strife and hardship. And as people on streets do their best to fight back against injustice, I can't help but think that the Thin White Duke had it exactly right. We really all can be heroes just for one day. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producer is Kevin Bendis, our supervising producer is Joel Meyer, and the executive producer of Slate Podcasts is Mia Lobel. Check out their roster of [e-mail] podcasts you can see. Subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one I'm Chris Melanfe.

[Child or Listener]

It oh we can be there forever. Just for one day. Wake a mirror, Wake up.