In just two days, the David Bowie Center will open at the V&A East Storehouse in London, giving the public access to a vast archive of 90,000 items from the singer’s life and career. One of the more intriguing artifacts is a list of Bowie’s 15 favorite songs from a document entitled “Memo for radio show — list of favourite records.”
The list contains some unsurprising picks like Roxy Music’s “Mother of Pearl,” Sonic Youth’s “Tom Violence,” and Jeff Beck’s “Beck’s Bolero.” There are also songs he covered throughout his long career, including the Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” Ronnie Spector’s “Try Some, Buy Some,” and Legendary Stardust Cowboy’s “I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship. (The first song appeared on 1975’s Young Americans, the second on 2003’s Reality, and the third on 2002’s Heathen.)
There are also 1950s obscurities he likely remembered from childhood, including Alan Freed and His Rock ’N’ Roll Band’s “Right Now Right Now” and Little Richard’s “True Fine Mama.” The list also touches on jazz numbers like Charlie Mingus’ “Ecclusiastics” and “Miles Davis’ “Some Day My Prince Will Come.”
The final batch of songs are eclectic tunes from multiple eras, including the Hollywood Argyles’ “Sho Know a Lot About Love,” Edgar Froese’s “Epsilon in Malaysian Pale,” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.”
When the public gains access to the David Bowie Center, many more tantalizing documents like his are likely to surface. And this week, the 12-disc box set David Bowie 6. I Can’t Give Everything Away (2002 to 2016) arrives. It documents the final 14 years of Bowie’s career, and is packed with unheard material along with recordings from his final live appearances in 2005 and 2006.
Here is the complete listing of Bowie’s 15 favorite songs:
Ralph Vaughan Williams – “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis”
Richard Strauss – “Four Last Songs”
Alan Freed and His Rock ’N’ Roll Band – “Right Now Right Now”
Little Richard – “True Fine Mama”
The Hollywood Argyles – “Sho Know a Lot About Love”
Miles Davis – “Some Day My Prince Will Come”
Charles Mingus – “Ecclusiastics”
Jeff Beck – “Beck’s Bolero”
Legendary Stardust Cowboy – “I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship”
The Beatles – “Across the Universe”
Ronnie Spector – “Try Some, Buy Some”
Roxy Music – “Mother of Pearl”
Edgar Froese – “Epsilon in Malaysian Pale”
The Walker Brothers – “The Electrician”
Sonic Youth – “Tom Violence”
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