Here we have David Bowie in what he himself described as his “Phil Collins Years.” He was deliberately trying, not to sell out necessarily, but to sell as much as he could. He switched producers from Brian Eno to Nile Rogers. He starred in the Jim Henson-assisted kids movie Labyrinth. He would happily duet with Queen or Tina Turner or Mick Jagger. He was all over MTV – even while criticizing them for not playing enough black artists.

And it worked. David Bowie became a super-celebrity at this time. It may have become something of a “monkey’s paw” situation by the end, where he regretted going so fully commercial — but financially it worked out well.

The things is, even while he was pandering Bowie wasn’t churning out bubblegum. These were good songs. While most critics dismiss Let’s Dance, it does contain some of his best work, even with the catchy melodies and earworm hooks.

I was very tempted to add more to this list – maybe by sliding the first album, Scary Monsters, into the last playlist – but these all feel of one piece. And there are some of my favorite Bowie tracks recorded during this period.

But if your only goal is to sell records, and after Let’s Dance, each successive album sold less – so Bowie was going to make yet another drastic turn if he was going to continue.