Bowie’s ‘Hunky Dory’ gets special 50th-anniversary treatment
(NewsNation Now) — Friday marked 50 years since the release of music icon David Bowie’s “Hunky Dory” studio album, which featured hits including “Changes,” “Life on Mars?” and “Oh! You Pretty Things.”
In celebration of half a century of “Hunky Dory,” Parlophone Records announced details for two special releases to mark the album’s Golden Jubilee.
A streaming single of “Changes” (2021 Alternative Mix) became available Friday. The new release was mixed from the original multi-tracks by “Hunky Dory” co-producer Ken Scott, according to a release on Bowie’s official Facebook page.
“When listening to the original multi-track I discovered a few things that I had eliminated from the original mix and also a completely different sax solo at the end,” Scott said in the release. “It was those things that led me to try a new mix, trying for a slightly harder, more contemporary edge to it.”
On Jan. 7 – the day before what would have been Bowie’s 75th birthday and 50 years to the day since the U.K. release of the “Changes” single — “Hunky Dory” will be issued as a limited edition 50th anniversary picture disc, according to the release. It’s slated to feature a 2015 vinyl remaster and a poster of Bowie’s original version of the annotated back cover image
Though it’s now revered as one of the greatest albums of all time, “Hunky Dory” didn’t perform as well on the U.K. album charts after its release in 1971.
In August 1973, however, the album was among the U.K. Top 5. The success came on the heels of a reissue of “Life on Mars?” following the 1972 release of Bowie’s breakthrough album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,” according to the release.
Surprisingly, “Changes” never became a top 40 hit in the U.K., despite its popularity. It did peak at No. 41 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1975, however.