Same here, except for that earworm Bennie.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road has some of my favorite deep cuts.
Yeah, Friends was the tile song for a movie about two teenagers who run away, end up on the French Mediterranean coast and eventually have a baby. John, Taupin and Paul Buckminster did the music. The film was not good and the soundtrack is forgettable.
Wait… you only want to listen to his Top 40 hits?
THIS is what’s wrong with civilization, people!
Go buy an album and listen to the whole thing, in the order that young Elton painstakingly arranged it.
I’d vote for Madman Across the Water, or Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road (his strongest work).
Or his early live 11-17-70 (lots of energy - he does a great “Honky-Tonk Women”!)
I’d avoid the later albums.
(I think of some past-their-prime bands’ later albums as one “Maybe this’ll get on the radio” single, and the rest is filler.)
The “deep tracks” on the the albums that had integrity are the ones that weren’t played to death on the radio, and listening to a whole album lets you experience an artist on their terms (Huh, I just realized I don’t own any “Greatest Hits”, by anyone).
I mostly agree, but “Peachtree Road” is solid.
mmm
“Friends” was one of my favorite songs at the time. I had no idea about the movie, but it was a perfect complement to “Your Song.”
Anybody who bought the album at the time probably has a treasure. It was never re-released as a separate album after the vinyl.
Bernie Taupin wrote almost all of Elton’s songs, the words, the structure, Elton just decided to add them to music. A piano player to Bernie’s words. Without Taupin there really would not have been an Elton John.
Honky Chateau is his best, with “Honky Cat,” “Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters” (his best melody), “Rocket Man,” and “Hercules.”
Going all the way back to the OP -
If all you know is individual songs, then embrace living in the future - as others suggest, you can easily listen to most albums on Youtube. Listen 2-3 times, because sometimes an individual song doesn’t grab you on first listening. If you end up only liking hit singles, after that, then the best of works just fine for most.
We also live in an era where you could, just, buy individual songs if that’s your bag, though if you listen to physical media, it’s ever-harder (not hard, just harder) to get a R/W CD-R drive and discs to make your own mixes later.
Generally if you like half an album or more, then I find it’s worthwhile to get the whole thing. Two or three songs is where I go for individual tracks.
For me, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – a double album – is Elton John’s greatest. I’m probably a bit biased because I associate it with some of the happiest times of my youth, but I think it’s widely considered a classic. For anyone looking for what to buy, I’d say forget about looking at the track listing – everything on it is excellent. Get it! I have a new pressing of the actual vinyl double album, and a turntable to play it on.
If you’re looking at entire albums, then I’d suggest looking at Elton’s earliest; everything from Empty Sky to Captain Fantastic. In order, they are:
Empty Sky (1969)
Elton John (1970)
Tumbleweed Connection (1970)
Madman Across the Water (1971)
Honky Chateau (1972)
Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player (1973)
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
Caribou (1974)
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)
While most spawned hit singles, I think that it’s the tracks you never heard on radio that really show off the talent of Elton and Bernie. Check out the poignancy of “First Episode at Hienton” and “The Greatest Discovery”, both from Elton John, the loneliness of “Skyline Pigeon” from Empty Sky, the fun “Teacher I Need You” from Don’t Shoot Me, the haunting “Harmony” from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and everything on Captain Fantastic
There is a lot more to Elton John than just the songs played on the radio, and in my opinion, these entire albums deserve to be heard in their … well, entirety.
I appreciate the suggestions. There’s some good material for me to explore.
Thank you
For folks that like Rocket Man, here’s a fun story from This American Life about putting together a “one-day band” to record a cover of the song: Musician’s Classifieds
We listened to Madman Across the Water driving from Cleveland to Chicago last Thursday, and I was very impressed.
I highly recommend “Songs from the West Coast” released in 2001.
An excellent return to form with lyrics by Bernie Taupin.
Free sample: https://youtu.be/SsuHAn54wPs?si=oV_CGHejEIgKZ1Qn
I bought Madman back when I did not have much money and I still have it. I also bought it in cassette and CD.
Many other posters have pointed to Elton’s early 1970s albums, which, I agree, are the core of his best work. That said, I’ll throw in Too Low for Zero, from 1983, which was his comeback album after several years of weaker music, compared to his prime.
It contains several hits (“I’m Still Standing,” “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues,” “Kiss the Bride”), but I like the moodier non-single tracks as much as the singles.
No love for 11/17/70? That first live album shows what put Elton John on the map.
I guess kinda sorta, if you are a lyrics first and foremost kind of person. Otherwise, the above is quite a ridiculous statement. Elton John had an immense talent in writing melodies and crafting music that people loved to hear, album after album, in addition to his considerable piano and vocal skills. In my mind, Taupin had the best gig in the world, getting half of the (huge) profits from writing opaque word salad to music that would have been hit material with any other set of lyrics, as well.
Elton has stated that Taupin’s lyrics inspired him greatly, and that he himself couldn’t write good lyrics to save his life. In that regard, Taupin was very important. But so was the backing band of Nilsson, Murray, and Johnstone, who beautifully arranged and played the songs Elton threw at them at an incredible speed. World class, every one of them.
As per the OP; yes I bought and listened to the albums. There’s a ton of classic songs in them in addition to the greatest hits. But most also have songs I don’t need to ever hear, and they become more common after the 1970’s. You can only decide for yourself. It is easy to do these days.
I didn’t know Harry was in Elton’s backup band! (just kidding) I guessing that might a typo or auto-correct since Nigel Olsson has been his drummer forever.
Thanks for the brain fart detection service! My bad, Olsson it of course is. But isn’t NIgel OlSSON kind of a Nilsson?