What Was the Last U.S. Top-40 Single by David Bowie?

David Bowie‘s impact on the music world can’t properly be judged by his success on the pop charts. He had plenty of that, of course, but that was rarely his goal. His most challenging and compelling work often came buried deep on his albums.

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In the ‘80s, Bowie consciously courted chart success, and he achieved it in droves. That was the decade that included the final song that he ever placed on the U.S. Top 40, and it’s a track that’s been largely forgotten by all but the Bowie faithful.

Bowie’s Pop Period

At some point, David Bowie got tired of being the arty darling of the critics. Although he occasionally made a big radio splash in the ‘70s (most notably with the U.S. chart-topper “Fame” in 1975), the respect he received from the music cognoscenti far outweighed his pop radio airplay.

That’s why he enlisted Nile Rodgers to help him with his 1982 album Let’s Dance. Rodgers’ pop-funk grooves proved an accessible backdrop. Bowie leaned into the effect by concentrating his lyrics on the fan-friendly topic of modern romance to a greater extent than he ever had before. The result was three Top-15 U.S. singles, including “Let’s Dance,” another No. 1.

Bowie tried to follow the same path on the 1984 album Tonight, but it produced diminishing returns. For a few years after that, he focused mostly on the film world, in both soundtrack work and acting. When he returned with his next album in 1987, he wanted to grab more control of the reins and not worry so much about how the songs would be received by the public at large.

Ever Say “Never”

In 1987, Bowie released the album Never Let Me Down. He worked out intricate demos of most of the songs that would appear on the record. That wasn’t the case, however, with the title track, which was written suddenly while in studio and completed within a 24-hour period after its creation. (Guitarist Carlos Alomar, who helped with the chord structure, received a co-writer credit on the song with Bowie.)

Bowie later admitted “Never Let Me Down,” which some people might have assumed was a tribute to a lover, was actually meant to honor Coco Schwab, his longtime assistant. She’s the one who was there for Bowie, as the lyrics say, When I believed in nothing and When I was falling to pieces.

“Never Let Me Down” arrived on radio as the album’s third and final single. It snuck into the U.S. Top 40 and peaked at No. 27. As fate would have it, that would be Bowie’s last entry that high on the American singles charts.

The Aftermath

Bowie felt frustrated by the direction of his career after the completion of Never Let Me Down. His next move surprised even those completely used to his transformations. He formed the band Tin Machine, who focused on a harsh, industrial rock sound far removed from what he had done as a solo artist throughout the ‘80s.

Even though Bowie talked up the Never Let Me Down album when it was released, he later regretted it, conceding his demos got lost in translation and he wasn’t in the best personal space when he made the album. Still, the surprising sentimental side he showed on the “Never Let Me Down” track, his last significant U.S. single, makes it a charming curveball.

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