Product Description

The 47-track Best of Bowie traces the many incarnations of David Bowie from the androgynous, glam-rock rebel of the 1970s to his more recent incarnation as the postmodern pop ironist of the '90s. He's always kept us on our toes-and now you can relive some of his greatest moments-from Ziggy Stardust to China Girl. It's all here.

• Format: Best of, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. )
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating:
• Studio: Virgin Records
• DVD Release Date: November 19, 2002
• Run Time: 252 minutes
• DVD Features:
  • Available Audio Tracks: English (PCM Stereo)
  • Disc 1: Oh! You Pretty Things (from Old Grey Whistle Test), Queen Bitch (from OGWT), Five Years (from OGWT), Starman (from Top of the Pops), John I'm Only Dancing, The Jean Genie, Space Oddity, Drive-in Saturday (from Russell Harry Plus Pop), Life on Mars?, Ziggy Stardust (from the motion picture), Rebel Rebel (from TopPop), Young Americans (from the Dick Cavett Show), Be My Wife, "Heroes," Boys Keep Swinging, D.J., Look Back in Anger, Ashes to Ashes, Fashion, Wild Is the Wind, Let's Dance, China Girl, Modern Love, Cat People (Putting Out Fire) (from Serious Moonlight Tour), Blue Jean, Loving the Alien, Dancing in the Street (with Mick Jagger)
  • Disc 2: Absolute Beginners, Underground, As the World Falls Down, Day-In Day-Out, Time Will Crawl, Never Let Me Down, Fame '90, Jump They Say, Black Tie White Noise, Miracle Goodnight, Buddha of Suburbia, The Heart's Filthy Lesson, Strangers When We Meet, Hallo Spaceboy, Little Wonder, Dead Man Walking, Seven Years in Tibet, I'm Afraid of Americans, Thursday's Child, Survive
  • Hidden interviews and alternate videos
• Size: 7 1/2" x 5 1/4" x 1/2"

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17931 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-11-19
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Best of, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 252 minutes

Amazon.com
Probably the most comprehensive anthology of any musical artist to date, the 47-track Best of Bowie traces the guises of David Bowie from the androgynous, glam-rock rebel of the 1970s to his more recent incarnation as the postmodern pop ironist of the '90s. The collection provides an added insight into wider developments in fashion, music, and the pop video. Most of the early material is taken from television music programs such as The Old Grey Whistle Test ("Oh! You Pretty Things," "Queen Bitch," and "Five Years"); however, as the demands of television and music promotion progress, Bowie ventures into more sophisticated stand-alone videos culminating in 1983's "Let's Dance."

Best of Bowie's animated menus, and the opening menu sequence of both discs are excellent. Although there are no listed bonus features, the discs are swarming with extra "Easter egg" features such as alternative videos and vintage interviews (these can be accessed via the track-listing menu by selecting certain tracks and pressing the Right button). Background information about each video is displayed before the start of every promo, which is reproduced in the accompanying glossy booklet. The sound and picture quality is variable for early videos but improves (admittedly erratically) for later videos. Despite the mountains of material on both discs, there are a number of unexplainable absences such as "Changes", "Under Pressure," and "Sound and Vision." Watch out for the Best of Bowie, Vol. 2. --John Galilee

Customer Reviews

More than expected
This is a Bowie DVD that is actually clear and of great quality. For those poor souls who bought the Glass Spider or Serious Moonlight DVD I'm sure you haven't noticed much difference from the VHS. This DVD is extra special because of the more recent videos that never made it to USA TV and the stunning clarity of the older material. Yes, LIFE ON MARS is supposed to look like that! We have all years represented here but we still have some of the more oscure stuff missing like DB's '80's soundtrack work with Pat Metheny or Raymond Briggs. Maybe those recordings are owned by someone else and will never see a real release. Now as far as Easter Eggs go...I won't say WHERE but I will say WHAT: full 20 minute Jazzin' For Blue Jean video promo, Russell Harty interview, MTV promo club version of Blue Jean (alternate video), Day In Day Out (extended dance mix video),Seven Years in Tibet (mandarin Version video), Survive (Live paris '99 and more to be discovered. Remember you have 2 discs here...there will be a lot!!

Fabulous collection - but why the easter eggs?
For the record, I hate easter eggs. Why hide stuff? I've already bought the disc. That said...

Best of Bowie is a thoroughly decent collection of David Bowie videos, many of which will be unfamiliar to American audiences - especially if you tuned out after the mid-80's.

The video quality is consistently good throughout, though some of the production values of the videos produced during the '70s ("Space Oddity" is a good example) seems downright quaint now. The late '70s/early '80s stuff (pretty much everything from "Be My Wife" through "Fashion", and, maybe, "Wild Is The Wind"), though, is a good reminder of how much Bowie brought to the then-fledgling art of music videos.

The sound quality, unfortunately, is not as consistent. Most of this is due to the source material - much of the TV clips are in mono, for example, and the performance of "Young Americans" on the Dick Cavett Show is downright distorted in many places. Some of it, however, could have easily been corrected in the mastering - for example, "Fashion" appears to consist of one side of the stereo mix presented as a mono track.

The easter eggs are a major annoyance - especially after having spent some [money] on the collection; their inclusion as such is - in my opinion - a remnant of the geek chic that surrounded the DVD format during its first two or three years of existence. Some, like the interview and the Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture DVD promo on disc 1, can be easily accessed via the track listings; others (pretty much everything else - the Credits section on disc 2 lists all of the easter eggs contained within) involve more trickery and/or careful observation (or hit-and-miss searches) of title and chapter numbers. So far, I've managed to access all of them except the live performance of "Survive".

I'm a little disappointed that neither "Golden Years" nor the original version of "Fame" are included, especially given the embarrassing performance (flubbed lines all over the place suggest either lack of rehearsal or the influence of certain illicit substances) of "Young Americans" that is included.

Still, this collection is a fabulous reminder of why David Bowie remains such a vital presence. Even the less interesting songs (mostly from the late '80s) still have perfectly good videos to accompany them.

worth every single penny!
wow. what surprised me about this collection was how GOOD the quality of the videos were. i expected really grainy 1960's footage, but all of the music videos were SO CLEAR!!!

so will people stop complaining about the fact this dvd lacks the Changes music video? if you've ever even seen Changes, you know you're not missing out on a whole lot.

plus, that elusive 20 minute blue jean promo video is hidden as an easter egg in here. before this dvd came out, that video was so rare it was virtually nonexistent.

This is a FABULOUS collection of bowie. you're getting 47 of bowie's best music videos... plus easter eggs! it's definetely worth every penny.