The Shel Talmy Recordings

David Bowie’s The Shel Talmy Recordings is an archival compilation released September 18, 2026, through Parlophone, collecting the music he recorded with producer Shel Talmy in 1965, when he was still known as Davie Jones. The CD and digital editions contain 22 tracks running approximately 57 minutes, while the vinyl presents a shorter selection; ten recordings were previously unreleased on CD and digital, with six appearing on the LP. Mastered and remastered by John Webber, the collection brings together performances with the Manish Boys and the Lower Third, solo demos, and alternative vocal takes, with contributions from session musicians Jimmy Page and Nicky Hopkins. Its defining quality is discovery: rather than presenting the fully formed Bowie of later decades, it documents a young singer and songwriter testing his identity within the British rhythm-and-blues and beat-group scene.

“You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving” and “Baby Loves That Way” anchor the Lower Third material, while the Manish Boys’ “I Pity the Fool” and “Take My Tip” place his emerging songwriting alongside an established blues cover. Previously unheard selections including “I Want Your Love,” “Cupid,” “Leave Her to Me,” and “Certain Woman” broaden the picture beyond the singles, while the instrumental “Keep Up With the Jones” shifts attention toward the band itself. On the expanded editions, demos such as “Today,” “I Live in Dreams,” and “I Do Believe I Love You” offer a more stripped-back counterpart to the group recordings, before alternative performances of the familiar songs close the sequence. Those repetitions make this an archival study rather than a conventional album, but they also let listeners compare arrangements and vocal approaches at a stage when Bowie’s later range was still taking shape.