From Little Richard to Strauss: David Bowie’s favourite tunes revealed as new exhibition opens

Influential musician was a fan of Jeff Beck, Sonic Youth and The Beatles

The David Bowie Centre has revealed a list of the musician’s favourite songs to mark the public opening of its archive.

The centre is the latest attraction to be opened by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, which launched its East Storehouse building in late May.

Based in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the visitor attraction houses around half a million works encompassing items from the museum’s Glastonbury Festival archive, concert costumes worn by Elton John, designer couture and more.

The newly opened Bowie display contains 90,000 items related to the iconic musician, outlining his career and showcasing his work, including his outfits, lyrics and songs, as well as an unearthed list of the artist’s favourite tracks and LPs.

David Bowie at King’s Cross station in 1973 (Getty)

The note, titled “Memo for radio show – list of favourite records,” includes Jeff Beck’s “Beck’s Bolero”, “Across the Universe” by The Beatles,  and Sonic Youth’s “Tom Violence”.

The complete list of tracks/albums is as follows:

Ralph Vaughan Williams – Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Richard Strauss – Four Last Songs

Alan Freed and His Rock ’n’ Roll Band – Right Now Right Now

Little Richard – True Fine Mama

The Hollywood Argyles – Sho’ Know a Lot About Love

Miles Davis – Someday My Prince Will Come

Charles Mingus – Ecclusiastics

Jeff Beck – Beck’s Bolero

Legendary Stardust Cowboy – I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship

The Beatles – Across the Universe

Ronnie Spector – Try Some, Buy Some

Roxy Music – Mother of Pearl

Edgar Froese – Epsilon in Malaysian Pale

The Walker Brothers – The Electrician

Sonic Youth – Tom Violence

In uncovering the archive, it was also reportedly discovered that Bowie was working on a musical titled The Spectator, set in 18th century east London. Even his closest collaborators were not aware of the project, notes on which were found in his study after his death from cancer in 2016.

Items from the David Bowie Archive being prepared for display at the V&A’s David Bowie Centre (Victoria and Albert Museum)

As described by the installation’s curator, Madeleine Haddon, in a preview of the archive, the show is about “the relationship between art and politics in London at the cusp of modernity”.

In its five-star review of the exhibition, The Independent predicted that it would “make a lot of people, from pop culture theorists to diehard Bowie aficionados, extremely happy”.

The V&A’s David Bowie Centre will open on Saturday 13 September.