During his lifetime, English singer-songwriter David Bowie (1947–2016) released 26 studio albums, nine live albums, two soundtrack albums, 26 compilation albums, eight extended plays, 128 singles and six box sets. Since his death, one further studio album, 13 live albums, one soundtrack album, one compilation album, four extended plays and six box sets have been released. Bowie also released 28 video albums and 72 music videos.^[1] Throughout his lifetime, Bowie sold at least 100 million records worldwide.^[2] In 2012, Bowie was ranked ninth best selling singles artist in United Kingdom with 10.6 million singles sold.^[3] As of January 2016, 12.09 million Bowie singles had been sold in Britain.^[4] In a period of 24 months since his death, five million records were sold in UK, 3.1 million singles and two million albums.^[5]

Bowie's debut release was the 1964 single "Liza Jane" by Davie Jones & the King Bees.^[6] He released two more singles in 1965 under the names of the Manish Boys and Davy Jones & the Lower Third. His first release using the name David Bowie was the 1966 single "Can't Help Thinking About Me", which was released with the Lower Third. His next single, "Do Anything You Say", also released in 1966, was the first release by simply David Bowie.^[7] Bowie released four more singles and his debut album, David Bowie, but the first success in the United Kingdom was with the 1969 single "Space Oddity". The single reached number five on the UK Singles Chart after it was released five days before the Apollo 11 Moon mission.^[8][9] In 1975, the single was re-released, becoming Bowie's first UK number-one single.^[10] Bowie released three more albums – David Bowie (1969), The Man Who Sold the World (1970), and Hunky Dory (1971) – before he eventually entered the UK Albums Chart with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), which peaked at number five. Its success saw sales of Hunky Dory improve and it eventually peaked at number three in the UK in 1973. RCA re-released the 1969 David Bowie under the title Space Oddity and The Man Who Sold the World, which reached numbers 17 and 26 in the UK, respectively.^[11]

Bowie released nine more studio albums with RCA, all of which reached the top five of the UK Albums Chart; Aladdin Sane, Pin Ups (both 1973), Diamond Dogs (1974) and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) all reached number one. Young Americans included his first US number-one single "Fame".^[12] He then released three solo studio albums with EMI – Let's Dance (1983), whose title track became his first single to reach number one in both the UK and US, Tonight (1984) and Never Let Me Down (1987). Let's Dance and Tonight reached number one in the UK, while Never Let Me Down reached number six. The success of Let's Dance revitalised Bowie's back catalogue: throughout the summer of 1983, he had multiple albums on the UK Albums Chart. This peaked on 16 July that year, with ten entries – a figure bettered only by Elvis Presley.^[9]

From 1988 to 1992, Bowie performed as a member of the rock band Tin Machine, who released two studio albums before disbanding.^[13] Continuing as a solo artist, Black Tie White Noise (1993) reached number one on the UK Albums Chart.^[14] Despite numerous label changes throughout the decade,^[15] Bowie had further UK top ten success into the 2000s, from Outside (1995) to Reality (2003).^[16] After a ten-year hiatus, Bowie returned with The Next Day (2013), his first UK number one since Black Tie White Noise. His final album, Blackstar, was released on 8 January 2016, his 69th birthday and two days before his death on 10 January. The album debuted at number one in the UK and became his first album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 in the US.^[17] Since 2015, Parlophone has remastered Bowie's back catalogue through the "Era" box set series, starting with Five Years (1969–1973).^[18]