I started playing guitar in high school.

My first electric guitar was an epiphone, Les Paul custom black beauty,

ebony paint, cream binding, and gold hardware.

Sure, it wasn't a sunbursts 59 Gibson like Jimmy Page played,

and he's all I wanted to be at 15 years old, but he was still a Les Paul, with two humbuckers

and an attitude. Today, though, for the life of me, I can't remember what happened to that

guitar. I think the fretboard kind of delaminated. Anyway, I don't think it survives except in memory,

but what a potent memory. Rock and roll dreams die hard. There's a reason I've got a band playing

with me in my live show. I want to strap on a guitar and make some noise. But rock and roll,

well, it's a tough game. You have to be talented. You have to be a showman. You have to be smart. To really succeed, you need to be a musician, an actor, a writer, a marketing executive, a PR whiz, and a savvy entrepreneur. And you have to know that all of these roles, all of these personas are part of you, but not the whole of you. You have to be a chameleon. In the history

of rock and roll, one of the most successful chameleons of all time was David Bowie. Space

alien, spooky monster, debonaird gentleman, he's all of them and more. And on today's

Saturday matinee, we're bringing you an episode that explores all of Bowie's Chuchatha Changes from the podcast Hit Parade.

I hope you enjoy.

While you're listening, be sure to search for and follow Hit Parade.

We put a link in the show notes to make it easy for you.

Thank you. Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine, about the hits

from coast to coast.

I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song Number One series?

On today's show, 50 years ago, in January, 1975, David Bowie was climbing Billboard's Hot 100 with his archetypal single Changes.

It was the second attempt to turn that classic song into a hit.

Originally released on Bowie's 1971 album, Hunky Dory,

...