David Bowie | The World of David Bowie [Ltd Edition Blue Coloured Vinyl Album] LP

Record Store Day 2019 release. Decca launched its much-loved World Of Series in 1968. The first album set out the series’ stall perfectly, looking at one of the label’ s biggest selling artists – yet hardly one that chimed with the counter culture in 1968. The World Of Mantovani – SPA 1, (or PA 1 in mono) – was a 14 track collection, each track a different selection from his sizeable Decca album catalogue. Released in the autumn of the year, it acted as a perfect primer, and its price, 17s, put it shy of the 37s 6d of the full price albums. Its whole raison d’ etre was to drive sales of the artist’ s deeper repertoire – dip in here and then indulge further – the rear sleeve clearly offered the catalogue numbers of the parent albums. The series would run throughout the 70s and become a ubiquitous feature of the label. It was taken so seriously, that David Bowie himself offered the track listing for his own addition to the series, (SPA/PA 58), which was released in March 1970 after the success of the Phillips-released single Space Oddity. It also showed how the World Of’s could be a veritable treasure trove for rarities and one-offs, as it contained the first official release of Let Me Sleep Beside You, Karma Man and In The Heat Of The Morning. According to Kevin Cann’ s invaluable book on Bowie’ s early years, Any Day Now, Bowie bought a copy of the original himself from a record shop on Beckenham High Street. It became a big seller – indeed, Decca repackaged it – when Bowie finally became a big star. Imagine the shock people had thinking they had The Jean Genie when all they had was Uncle Arthur and Little Bombardier.