David Bowie was born David Jones but after the Monkees became popular he realized that he would be confused with Davy Jones from that group so he became David Bowie (at least professionally). He first came to fame in 1969 with the release of “Space Oddity” about the exploits of Major Tom. That song only got up to #15 on the Billboard chart.

In 1972 he released “Starman” which was played a lot on WCMF but only got up to #65 on the Billboard chart.

Bowie’s first #1 was “Fame” in 1975. It was written by Bowie, Carlos Alomar and John Lennon.  Lennon did backing vocals and played acoustic guitar on the song. The song was on the top of the Cash Box chart for the week of Sept. 21 – 27. On the Billboard chart it was at #1 for the week of Sept. 14 – 20. Then it was knocked off the top spot the next week only to return to #1 for the week of Sept. 28 – Oct 4.

That photo of David is from 1976 when he and Iggy Pop were arrested in Rochester at their hotel after a concert. A jury refused to press the charge of Felony possession of marijuana. David never did appear in Rochester again. For years people wanted copies of the mugshot but couldn’t find it because they were looking for it under the name of “David Bowie.” Eventually someone realized the mug shot was filed under his real name “David Jones.” Now you can find the mugshot on stickers, mugs, and t-shirts.

David Jones (alias Bowie) died in 2016 of liver cancer in New York City. He had been diagnosed 18 months earlier, but he had not made his condition public. His ashes were scattered in Bali, Indonesia.