Never Let Me Down

David Bowie's Never Let Me Down, released April 27, 1987 on EMI Records, is the final album of what critics have called the 'commercial trilogy' following Let's Dance and Tonight, a hard rock and pop record that Bowie himself later described as 'not a great album' and whose Glass Spider Tour productions he found overwrought. Bowie wrote nine of the eleven tracks himself, with 'Never Let Me Down' co-written with Carlos Alomar and 'Iggy Pop's Bang Bang' serving as the lone cover. Peter Frampton appears as lead guitarist across much of the album. 'Day-In Day-Out' and 'Time Will Crawl' were the principal singles. The album reached the top six in the UK but received mixed reviews and underperformed commercially, prompting Bowie to later reassess his mid-80s output and ultimately return to more experimental work with Tin Machine. Despite its reputation, Bowie's authorship of the underlying material remained consistent, he wrote or co-wrote virtually everything, even at this commercial and creative low point.