David Bowie was one of our age's most celebrated musicians. With hit after electro-art-pop hit, the Thin White Duke has been the king of pop-imagination, working with everyone from Elton John to Brian Eno (though not Conny Plank). He produced a catalog of genre-defining, western-world-shattering, cinematic pop masterpieces, while also maintaining an out of this universe persona.

Bowie's career is decorated with hit singles, and culturally curious, chart-topping albums, with enough celebrity intrigue to merit him pop culture sainthood. Within that dense galaxy of success are singular stars which guide us through David Bowie's massive talent. Here is a list of the top 10 songs that shaped David Bowie's career. This list is more than just a collection of Bowie's commercial successes, but a chance to highlight the ambitious releases that made David Bowie a legend to listeners and fellow musicians alike.

10 Space Oddity

Album: David Bowie (1969)

"Space Oddity" is a key song in the David Bowie lifecycle. First off, it is Bowie's first hit. Released in 1969, the chart-topping debut glimpse into Bowie's never ending potential is the result of a solid vision and unquenchable drive to succeed. According to uDiscoverMusic, "Space Oddity" was written for one of Bowie's original projects, Feathers, a duo with his early collaborator, John "Hutch" Hutchinson.

Originally composed as a call and response duet between "Ground Control" and "Major Tom," "Space Oddity" is a mind-blowing example of psychedelic rock and roll mixed with masterful storytelling and cosmic ambition. Demos of “Space Oddity” would get Bowie into the same room as Elton John’s producer, Gus Dudgeon, who would produce the final album version of the song. According to MusicRadar, in 1975, the Decca Records producer said “Space Oddity was so obviously the best thing Bowie had written.” The world would agree.

9 Life On Mars?

Album: Hunky Dory (1971)

David Bowie was creating powerful music even in his adolescent catalog. Bowie’s fourth album, Hunky Dory, comes from his early 70s output which is embellished with on-point glam-rock and art-pop rock and roll. Hunky Dory’s flagship would be the iconic “Life on Mars?” David Bowie’s career-spanning mega-hit would reignite his following towards the end of his illustrious career.

According to American Songwriter, the track itself was written as a parody of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” Apparently, Bowie had written lyrics to the French tune, “Comme d’habitude,” but was unable to place the project with any studio. Simultaneously, Paul Anka was doing the same work, which would end up being Sinatra’s iconic “My Way.” In retrospect, both songs are massive hits and helped set up each singer with their own slice of legacy. As fans, we can enjoy yet another instance of Bowie’s sense of humor and ambition.

8 Young Americans

Album: Young Americans (1975)

“Young Americans” is one of the most successful examples of David Bowie’s strongest traits, his ability to soak in influences and run with them in such a unique way. Tapping into the local soul scene of Philadelphia, where the album was recorded, Bowie’s Young Americans is the English songwriter’s dive into soul music right at the source. The track features back-up vocals by Luther Vandross, who, according to American Songwriter, also fought for the song's call-and-response refrain, which really sells the song’s true soul.

From its representation of the American experience in the early 70s, to the congas and complementary saxophone, this song is a formative release in Bowie’s career.

It highlights Bowie’s dedication to producing top quality soul music—David Bowie is more than an observer, he can enter the world of the sound he is chasing, molding it as it sees fit. “Young Americans” proved it by breaking into the American Top 40. From its representation of the American experience in the early 70s, to the congas and complementary saxophone, this song is a formative release in Bowie’s career.

7 Fame

Album: Young Americans (1975)

Also on the genre blending Young Americans is David Bowie's first US chart-topping single "Fame,” which reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list in September 1975. Not only would the song break a personal record for Bowie, but the soul track would also get Bowie an invitation to perform “Fame” live on Soul Train. This made the British art-rocker the first white guest in the show’s history.

Young Americans was decked out with the finest studio talent. For “Fame,” Bowie was able to collaborate with The Beatles resident guru John Lennon, who ed the track as co-writer. According to American Songwriter, and in another perfect example of Bowie making the most of every opportunity, David folded advice from Lennon into his avant-garde-process approach. John Lennon’s key piece of advice was, “All you have to do is say what you mean, make it rhyme, and put a backbeat to it.” This absolute brilliant clarity marked “Fame” as an iconic step in Bowie’s development.

6 Station To Station

Album: Station to Station (1976)

Before finding electronic transcendence in Berlin, David Bowie released Station to Station, one of his last early American rock and roll albums. Filled with soul and heavy doses of Bowie's predilection for experimental influences, the title track “Station to Station” is a deft mixture of Bowie’s newly garnished connection with Black audiences in the US, after the soulful, proto-disco Young Americans, and the minimalist composition techniques of one of his idols Phillip Glass.

Always a student, David Bowie’s career is full of examples of the artist observing and learning from a wide range of influences. With “Station to Station,” David Bowie presented a starkly honest picture of change. Although Bowie would trade Los Angeles and movie sets for electronic instruments and the fertile world of art-pop overseas, “Station to Station” serves as a prime example of Bowie’s transition and has influenced bands like Talking Heads, Gary Numan, and The Cars.

5 Breaking Glass

Album: Low (1977)

In the late 70s, Bowie was deep into the German sound revolution coming from places like Düsseldorf and West Berlin, where bands like Kraftwerk and their Kling Klang Studios, Tangerine Dream, Conny Plank and his phaser-focused, wildly imaginative production prowess were hard at work creating a new world in music. "Breaking Glass" would be from a set of three albums where Bowie experimented with synthesizers and electronic instruments in earnest. Featuring Brian Eno on a modded out Mini-Moog (via The Bowie Bible), "Breaking Glass" is one of the shining tracks off of the Tony Viscotti produced Low.

Alongside "Warsawa," which Bowie co-wrote with his conduit to the avant-garde, Brian Eno, "Breaking Glass" would be one of two tracks on Low with a writing credit to Bowie. A telling snapshot of Bowie’s potential, “Breaking Glass” is a key part of Bowie’s prolific development. It also showcases Bowie's willingness to take a chance on futuristic tech and sounds.

4 V-2 Schneider

Album: "Heroes" (1977)

David Bowie’s “Berlin phase” would be a three-album stint in the way of ’s new electronic vision. This was championed by bands like Kraftwerk, the work of producer Conny Plank, and others from the Krautrock movement. Of the songs which Bowie scried from Berlin, “V-2 Schneider” is one of the best examples of Bowie's tendency for dramatic tension and ability to spin great songs without compromising his voice.

Calling out the isolationist trends in krautrock, the song is a direct jab at Florian Schneider, one of the founders of Kraftwerk, who called out Bowie in their iconic electro-pop song “Trans-Europe-Express,” (the song behind the iconic Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force track “Planet Rock”). Feeling left out of the controversially guarded world of German electronic music, Bowie stuck out in a more personal way on his album "Heroes". Compared to Low, “V-2 Schneider” shows Bowie being unapologetically himself, even in borrowed territory.

The video above features audio from the 2017 remaster of the song "V-2 Schneider."

3 Heroes

Album: "Heroes" (1977)

As an artist, David Bowie’s time in Berlin cannot be understated. From feuding with Krautrock royalty to producing Iggy Pop, to his trilogy of albums recorded within the city limits, a single song stands out and celebrates Bowie’s gumption, “Heroes” from the album of the same name. The whole album shows Bowie standing his ground among an art scene which wanted little to do with commercial outsiders. With Heroes, Bowie was able to pull in his own roster of superstars to work on the album—namely one of music’s greatest icons, Brian Eno.

The whole album shows Bowie standing his ground among an art scene which wanted little to do with commercial outsiders.

Brian Eno would work on all three of Bowie’s Berlin records, but helped write the song “Heroes” directly. What is really exciting about “Heroes” is that it includes recordings from Eno’s EMS Synthi, the rare Putney Synthesizer, which Eno played in Roxy Music and later gifted to Bowie in the late 90s. These are the formative years which saw Bowie rise from a superstar to a legend.

2 Let's Dance

Album: Let's Dance (1983)

David Bowie is a man of many faces, which is no more evident than in his music. With his massively successful guitar-pop hit “Let’s Dance,” Bowie’s slick combination of soulful, guitar-forward, radio-pop is on full display. The title track for Bowie’s fifteenth studio album of the same name, “Let’s Dance,” sat at the number one spot on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks. The song also reached the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US.

Maybe the most groundbreaking, “Let’s Dance” helped turn the world on to one of America’s finest guitarists, Stevie Ray Vaughan. According to The Bowie Bible, in an interview with The Cut in 2008, legend Jimmy Page said “Let’s Dance” “introduced everybody to Stevie Ray Vaughan. People were always saying, ‘Who’s the guitarist on that?’ In the early days he was prolific and he put out some really important work.” With "Let's Dance," Bowie boosted not only his own legendary status, but also that of Vaughan's - emphasizing his true collaborative nature.

1 Lazarus

Album: Blackstar (2016)

In a fitting end for the Thin White Duke, David Bowie’s final single before his death in 2016 will remain one of his most defining tracks. “Lazarus,” off of Bowie’s final album Blackstar, is a song about death, legacy, and the hereafter. Bowie went back to his roots with “Lazarus,” which featured a stripped down production list of guitar, bass, saxophone, and drums. As with most of Bowie’s career-defining moves, he seemed to know something the world had yet to figure out—these would be the final songs of his career.

According to The Bowie Bible, in an interview with Mojo in 2016, decades-long co-conspirator Tony Visconti remarked, “I think it was clear in his mind that this could be his last album. He was putting all those messages in there. Like that first verse of ‘Lazarus’ – ‘Look up here, I’m in heaven’. I heard that and I smiled. “I know what you’re saying David,” and he laughed.” David Bowie cemented his legacy with this song, painting a picture we wouldn't see until it had already come into being not even a full year later.