David Bowie | Space Oddity | The Man Who Sold the World | Hunky Dory
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars | Aladdin Sane | Pin Ups | Diamond Dogs | Young Americans
Station to Station | Low | "Heroes" | Lodger | Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) | Let's Dance | Tonight | Never Let Me Down
Tin Machine | Black Tie White Noise | The Buddha of Suburbia | Outside | Earthling | 'hours...' | The Next Day | ★
Changesonebowie
- Covered Up: Far more people are familiar with Bowie's renditions of "Oh! You Pretty Things" and "Fill Your Heart" than with the original recordings by Peter Noone and Biff Rose, respectively, largely due to the much greater critical recognition and commercial success of Hunky Dory after Ziggy Stardust broke Bowie into the mainstream. The fact that the former track was penned by Bowie and simply given to Noone first is also a contributing factor.
- Growing the Beard: Within the context of his career, Hunky Dory is considered to be the album where "Bowie starts to become Bowie", definitively discovering his voice and style. Bowie himself thought as much; the 2022 anniversary Boxed Set Divine Symmetry quotes him saying that "after the struggle of The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory was the album where I said 'yes, I understand what I've got to do now.'"
- Vindicated by History: At the time of Hunky Dory's release, Bowie was still known as a One-Hit Wonder for "Space Oddity"; the album's first-run sales were middling, and the one single ("Changes") was a blip in the States and failed to chart in Britain. Then, half a year later, a little album called The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was released... and Hunky Dory is now frequently cited as his second-best or even best, often making "best album" lists, even outselling Ziggy itself by the end of the year. "Changes", "Queen Bitch" and especially "Life on Mars?" are now regarded as classics, with the first and last of those three being candidates for Bowie's Signature Song.
