Aladdin Sane (40th Anniversary Edition)

With its title a pun on "A Lad Insane," Aladdin Sane was Bowie's first album after his landmark The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. At the time Aladdin Sane was intended to be a new Bowie character, but it's now considered Ziggy's further development—Bowie called it "Ziggy goes to America." The album was mostly recorded at London's Trident Studios in December 1972 and January 1973, between legs of Bowie's U.S. tour; a few songs were worked over in New York City and Nashville. The album is among Bowie's hardest-rocking albums and features the single "The Jean Genie" and his aggressive cover of The Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend the Night Together," which by 1973 was no longer the controversial idea it was in 1967. As was true of most Bowie releases, the album was a forward-thinking production that included a number of avant-garde arrangements ("Panic in Detroit," "Time") alongside the Mick Ronson/Stones-like rockers "Watch That Man" and "Cracked Actor."