OK, this is a very loose definition of “top 10.” I was wondering what Google would give me if I searched for “Top 10 David Bowie songs.” What follows are the first ten items that came back:

1. Top 10 David Bowie songs from sources across the web. Google’s own top ten list is … 24 songs. Its actually a fairly plausible, if AI generated list: Heroes; Space Oddity; Let’s Dance; Life on Mars; Ziggy Stardust; Starman; Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps); Changes; Ashes to Ashes; Low; Modern Love; Sound and Vision; Moonage Daydream; Lodger; Golden Years; Five Years; Fame; Suffragette City; Black Tie White Noise; Tonight; Never Let Me Down; Under Pressure; Heroes (again) and Lazarus. Obviously, there are some albums that snuck into this supposed list of songs, which I think explains the double entry of Heroes. Also, I’m aware that I’m not using correct punctuation— I just don’t want to type in all the quotation marks— this is a blog entry, not a term paper.

2. Live365 Top 10 David Bowie songs. Unfortunately the link to the original article seems to be corrupted but at least part of this list serves as the answer to Google’s hypothetical question, “what was David Bowie’s biggest hit?” The first eight songs appear, which are Ziggy Stardust; Starman; Changes; Let’s Dance; Modern Love; Rebel Rebel; Moonage Daydream and Heroes.

3. Rolling Stone Reader’s Poll. OK, the link to this one worked and I’ve attached the link to the title. And the survey says… (1) Heroes; (2) Life on Mars; (3) Space Oddity; (4) Ziggy Stardust; (5) Changes; (6) Ashes to Ashes; (7) Moonage Daydream; (8) Young Americans; (9) Rebel Rebel; (10) Starman.

4. The Guardian: David Bowie’s 50 Greatest Songs – Ranked! Link attached if you want to see the whole list, which includes some songs out of left field. If you just want the top 10, they are: (1) Sound and Vision; (2) Ashes to Ashes; (3) Station to Station; (4) Life on Mars; (5) Heroes; (6) Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing; (7) Young Americans; (8) Oh! You Pretty Things; (9) ‘Tis a Pity She was a Whore; (10) Drive in Saturday.

5. Smooth Radio. David Bowie’s 20 Greatest Ever Songs, ranked- Smooth. Again, the title links to the original article if you want to see the complete list, which includes links to videos. The top are: (1) Heroes; (2) Life on Mars; (3) Let’s Dance; (4); Under Pressure; (5) Space Oddity; (6) Starman; (7) Ashes to Ashes; (8) Ziggy Stardust; (9)Changes; (10) Sound and Vision

6. The Top 10s Top 10 Best David Bowie Songs. (1) Space Oddity; (2) Life on Mars; (3) Heroes; (4) Changes; (5) Starman; (6) Ziggy Stardust; (7) Under Pressure; (8) Ashes to Ashes; (9) The Man Who Sold the World; (10) Moonage Daydream. The title links to the original article, which contains fair extensive quotes about each song.

7. Ultimate Classic Rock Top 10 David Bowie Songs. (1) Space Oddity; (2) Changes; (3) Moonage Daydream; (4) Heroes; (5) Young Americans; (6) Ziggy Stardust; (7) Rebel Rebel; (8) Modern Love; (9) Five Years; (10) The Man Who Sold the World. Once again, the title links to the article.

8. Classic Rock History Top 10 David Bowie Songs. (1) Lazarus; (2) Fame; (3) Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide; (4) Space Oddity; (5) Blackout; (6) The Next Day; (7) Sound and Vision; (8) Let’s Dance; (9) Seven Years in Tibet; (10) Ashes to Ashes. Title links etc. etc. This appears to be identical to a list that appears on a site called Singersroom (link attached).

9. Gold Radio UK David Bowie’s 20 greatest songs ever, ranked. Once again, title links if you want to see all 20. The top 10 are: (1) Life on Mars; (2) Heroes; (3) Changes; (4) Modern Love; (5) Ashes to Ashes; (6) Space Oddity; (7) Lazarus; (8) Let’s Dance; (9) Starman; (10) Under Pressure

10. Far Out David Bowie’s 50 Greatest Songs of All Time. Once again, title links if you want to see the full list. Top 10: (1) Heroes; (2) Life on Mars; (3) Space Oddity; (4) Let’s Dance; (5) Changes; (6) Ashes to Ashes; (7) Rebel Rebel; (8) Starman; (9) Sound and Vision; (10) Modern Love.

OK, so Google gives me many more lists than this, and the order of the lists is different on my phone than on my iPad, so this list is not representative of anything. That said, I found it to be an interesting enough exercise that I will reflect on these lists tomorrow. One parting list, though— the 10 #1 songs from these top 10 lists (understanding that the first two are not necessarily in rank order: (1) Heroes; (2) Ziggy Stardust; (3) Heroes; (4) Sound and Vision; (5) Heroes; (6) Space Oddity; (7) Space Oddity; (8) Lazarus; (9) Life on Mars; (10) Heroes.

To be continued…