David Bowie: His Top 20 most played songs of the 21st Century revealed

TV, radio and streaming figures reveal it's difficult to define Bowie by just one song.

david-bowie-1983-cannes-film-festival-rex.jpg

With a back catalogue as varied and successful as David Bowie's, it's to his credit that it's difficult to define him by just one song. 

We've already revealed exclusively on OfficialCharts.com that the star's most downloaded track is 1973's Life On Mars - see the full Top 40 rundown here - but unsurprisingly, it's a different story when it comes to radio play and streaming. 

Numbers today released by music licensing company PPL, who compile the UK's airplay data, reveal His most played track of the 21st Century is his most recent solo Number 1 - 1983's Nile Rodgers-produced Let's Dance, with his Queen duet Under Pressure coming in second and Starman completing the Top 3.

MORE: David Bowie's Blackstar charging towards this week's Number 1

The Top 20 list, which appears below, spans three decades of Bowie recordings. The earliest is 1969's Space Oddity and the most  recent is 1986's Absolute Beginners, which appears at Number 19 on the tally. 

1 LET'S DANCE DAVID BOWIE
2 UNDER PRESSURE DAVID BOWIE & QUEEN
3 STARMAN DAVID BOWIE
4 ASHES TO ASHES DAVID BOWIE
5 REBEL REBEL DAVID BOWIE
6 SPACE ODDITY DAVID BOWIE
7 LIFE ON MARS? DAVID BOWIE
8 CHANGES DAVID BOWIE
9 THE JEAN GENIE DAVID BOWIE
10 CHINA GIRL DAVID BOWIE
11 HEROES DAVID BOWIE
12 MODERN LOVE DAVID BOWIE
13 YOUNG AMERICANS DAVID BOWIE
14 GOLDEN YEARS DAVID BOWIE
15 SOUND AND VISION DAVID BOWIE
16 FASHION DAVID BOWIE
17 SORROW DAVID BOWIE
18 DANCING IN THE STREET DAVID BOWIE & MICK JAGGER
19 ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS DAVID BOWIE
20 ZIGGY STARDUST DAVID BOWIE

 

MORE: See where all of David Bowe's singles and albums have charted in the UK

In addition to the list, the PPL also confirmed that Bowie received over 360 million seconds of radio and TV airplay since 2000 - an impressive if not tricky figure to get your head around. 

When it comes to streaming, music service Spotify has revealed that streams of Bowie's music saw a 2822% increase globally yesterday (January 11) as fans look back over his iconic tracks. 

The most streamed song on the service was Heroes, followed by Let's Dance and the title track from his new album, Blackstar. 

Relive David Bowie's incredible chart career in our gallery of his album artwork below:

 

Related artists

Join the conversation by joining the Official Charts community and dropping comment.

Already registered?

Log in

No account?

Register

avatar

Aniston's Revenge

0

I still can't over how "Fame" is such a non-entity in the UK. In the States, it's everything!