The ups and downs of David Bowie's career are almost a perfect reflection of his music.

Throughout his four decades a solo artist – starting with his self-titled 1967 album, which sounds nothing like the music he'd make just a few years later, to Blackstar, which came out just a couple days before his 2016 death – he tried on various guises, personas and musical styles.

Some worked, some didn't.

But along the way Bowie became one of modern music's most important artists, building his way to a legacy with more than two dozen albums that spanned the history of popular music over 40 years. Rock, pop, dance, electronic, jazz, glam, blues, industrial, ambient and pretty much any other genre you can name were covered by the always-daring Bowie.

Choosing the Best Song From Every David Bowie Album got a little easier during some of the more fallow periods of his career – the '80s after Let's Dance, the '90s, the first decade of the millennium. But during those key years, like almost all of the '70s, you could make entire multi-disc compilations based on those LPs.

Either way, he was a relevant artist until the end. His resurgence in the '10s yielded two of his best albums and capped a legacy that had been sealed long before he tried to make sense of changing tastes. His records were still events, even when they weren't listened to as much as the core classics.

Only a handful of others have reached that pinnacle in the past 100 years or so. The Best Song From Every David Bowie Album merely scrapes the surface of his legend and influence.