Aladdin Sane

From David Bowie in 1973.  Mike Garson's piano, which builds into a crazy solo, makes an otherwise musically uninteresting song memorable.  Garson had just joined Bowie's band for what was supposed to be eight weeks, but ended up playing tours with him for decades.  He said of recording Aladdin Sane:

I had told Bowie about the avant-garde thing. When I was recording the Aladdin Sane track for Bowie, it was just two chords, an A and a G chord, and the band was playing very simple English rock and roll. And Bowie said: 'play a solo on this.' I had just met him, so I played a blues solo, but then he said: 'No, that's not what I want.' And then I played a Latin solo. Again, Bowie said: 'No no, that's not what I want.' He then continued: 'You told me you play that avant-garde music. Play that stuff!' And I said: 'Are you sure? 'Cause you might not be working anymore!'. So I did the solo that everybody knows today, in one take. And to this day, I still receive emails about it. Every day. I always tell people that Bowie is the best producer I ever met, because he lets me do my thing.

And here is Garson talking about his collaboration with Bowie and approach to music.