Monday, December 31, 1973

Fred & Irwin Silber Folksinger’s Wordbook

Fred & Irwin Silber:

Folksinger’s Wordbook

First published in 1973, this book collects lyrics for nearly 1000 standards, predominantly from before the 20th century. There is no commentary or ranking of the songs in the book, but I have created a top 100 ranking by looking at how many other lists the songs in this book appeared on. Publication years for songs are indicated, but no specific artist is attached to each song.

Click here to see other lists from critics and individuals and here to see other lists from publications and/or organizations.

1. “Amazing Grace” (1772)
2. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic (aka ‘Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!’)” (1861)
3. “When the Saints Go Marching In” (1880)
4. “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814)
5. “Silent Night” (1818)
6. “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?” (1902)
7. “Home on the Range” (1873)
8. “America the Beautiful” (1895)
9. “Jingle Bells” (1857)
10. “Yankee Doodle (aka ‘Yankee Doodle Went to Town’)” (1754)

11. “Oh! Susanna” (1846)
12. “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (1706)
13. “Hello Ma Baby” (1899)
14. “After the Ball” (1892)
15. “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” (1863)
16. “Dixie” (1859)
17. “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” (1894)
18. “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” (1904)
19. “O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)” (1751)
20. “Camptown Races (Gwine to Run All Night)” (1850)

21. “In the Good Old Summertime” (1902)
22. “Joy to the World” (1719)
23. “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” (1852)
24. “The Yellow Rose of Texas” (1853)
25. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” (1739)
26. “Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart)” (1903)
27. “Auld Lang Syne” (1799)
28. “Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two)” (1892)
29. “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (1873)
30. “On Top of Old Smoky” (1841)

31. “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” (1899)
32. “Clementine” (1884)
33. “Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping?)” (1780)
34. “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (1868)
35. “The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)” (1851)
36. “Home Sweet Home” (1823)
37. “Turkey in the Straw” (1820)
38. “My Old Kentucky Home” (1853)
39. “Rock-a-Bye Baby” (1884)
40. “Danny Boy” (1913)

41. “Jimmy Crack Corn (The Blue Tail Fly)” (1846)
42. “The Sidewalks of New York” (1894)
43. “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” (1881)
44. “Rock of Ages” (1763)
45. “Away in a Manger” (1882)
46. “The First Noel” (1823)
47. “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” (1927)
48. “School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids)” (1907)
49. “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” (1905)
50. “Skip to My Lou” (1832)

51. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (1868)
52. “The Battle Cry of Freedom” (1862)
53. “Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay” (1891)
54. “Pop Goes the Weasel” (1853)
55. “This Old Man (Nick Nack Paddiwak)” (1842)
56. “Bingo (B-I-N-G-O)” (1780)
57. “Casey Jones (The Brave Engineer)” (1909)
58. “Polly Wolly Doodle (All the Day)” (1843)
59. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” (1760)
60. “Hush Little Baby” (1918)

61. “The Man on the Flying Trapeze” (1867)
62. “Beautiful Dreamer” (1864)
63. “The Band Played On” (1895)
64. “Red River Valley” (1896)
65. “Shenandoah” (1837)
66. “On the Banks of the Wabash” (1897)
67. “In the Sweet By-and-By” (1868)
68. “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” (1863)
69. “Twelve Days of Christmas” (1780)
70. “Listen to the Mocking Bird (aka “The Mocking Bird”)” (1855)

71. “My Wild Irish Rose” (1899)
72. “Buffalo Gals (Will You Come Out Tonight)” (1844)
73. “Grandfather’s Clock” (1876)
74. “A Bird in a Gilded Cage” (1900)
75. “What Child Is This?” (1865)
76. “I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair” (1854)
77. “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen” (1875)
78. “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” (1912)
79. “Froggie Went A-Courtin’” (1549)
80. “Nearer My God to Thee” (1841)

81. “Alouette” (1879)
82. “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” (1867)
83. “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho” (1865)
84. “Deck the Halls” (1862)
85. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (1900)
86. “We Shall Overcome” (1963)
87. “The Green Grass Grew All Around” (1912)
88. “Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)” (1935)
89. “Greensleeves” (1580)
90. “Alabamy Bound” (1925)

91. “Old Dan Tucker” (1843)
92. “The Little Brown Jug” (1869)
93. “The Old Grey Mare” (1915)
94. “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” (1709)
95. “Onward Christian Soldiers” (1871)
96. “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” (1843)
97. “Give Me That Old Time Religion” (1865)
98. “Down by the Riverside” (1918)
99. “Angels We Have Heard on High” (1862)
100. “Lorena” (1857)

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First posted 12/5/2025; last updated 12/7/2025.

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Monday, December 10, 1973

CBGB Club opened.

CBGB’s was a famous club that opened on 315 Bowery in Manhattan’s East Village in 1973. The site had previously been home to a biker bar and, before that, a dive bar. As far back as the 19th century, the site was a former saloon on the first floor of the Palace Lodging House.

Hilly Kristal founded the club, giving it the full name of CBGB & OMFUG, which stood for “Country, Bluegrass, Blues, and other Music for uplifting Gourmandizers.” The intent was to showcase music from all kinds of genres, but it became the landing place for the American punk and new wave scene. The club is credited with launching the careers of the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Television, and Patti Smith.

A storefront next to the club became a record shop and café known as the CBGB Record Canteen. It was replaced in the late ‘80s with a second performance space and art gallery.

The club closed after a final concert from Patti Smith on October 15, 2006. A retail store opened at the CBGB venue, operating there until the close of the month and then moving to 19-23 St. Mark’s Place on November 1. It stayed open until the summer of 2008. CBGB Radio was started in 2010 on the iheartradio platform and, two years later, the CBGB festival was launched. The latter was the largest music festival in New York City, producing free concerts in Times Square and Central Park and premiering rock movies in Manhattan theaters.

In 2013, the former home of the CBGB club was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Bowery Historic District. That same year, the movie CBGB was released starring Alan Rickman as Kristal.

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First posted 12/6/2023.

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Friday, December 7, 1973

Yes Tales from Topographic Oceans released

Tales from Topographic Oceans

Yes

Released: December 7, 1973

Peak: 6 US, 12 UK, 4 CN, 13 AU Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.1 UK, 0.6 world (includes US and UK)

Genre: progressive rock

Tracks:

Click on a song title for more details.
  1. The Revealing Science of God – Dance of the Dawn (Anderson, Howe) [20:23]
  2. The Remembering – High the Memory (Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman, White) [20:35]
  3. The Ancient – Giants Under the Sun (Anderson, Howe, Squire) [18:37]
  4. Ritual – Nous Sommes du Soleil (Anderson, Howe) [21:33]

Total Running Time: 81:14

The Players:

  • Jon Anderson (vocals, harp, percussion)
  • Steve Howe (guitar, backing vocals)
  • Chris Squire (bass, backing vocals)
  • Rick Wakeman (keyboards)
  • Alan White (drums, percussion)

Rating:

3.353 out of 5.00 (average of 11 ratings)

Quotable:

“Either the finest record or the most overblown album in Yes’ output.” – Bruce Eder, AllMusic.com

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

Prog Rock at Its Best…and Worst

“Either the finest record or the most overblown album in Yes’ output. When it was released, critics called it one of the worst examples of progressive rock’s overindulgent nature.” BE It has been “derided as being hopelessly overblown and pretentious.” TB Rolling Stone critic Gordon Fletcher called it “psychedelic doodling.” WK

Bassist “Chris Squire mentions listening to tapes of a live performance some years later and thinking ‘it does go on a bit,’ but then adding that he ‘really enjoyed it.’” WK Howe has “stated that some of his best guitar work was to be found on Tales from Topographic Oceans.

Indeed, the album has also been celebrated as “the pinnacle of prog ambition in the 1970s.” TB It “is a sprawling, richly orchestrated work, awash with sudden changes in tempo and time signature, searing guitar solos, synthesizer flourishes, and impenetrable lyrics about Eastern mysticism.” TB

A Commercial Success

“Yes spent the latter half of 1973 attempting to fashion a record that would top all of the group’s previous releases.” TB “There was clearly a market for the band’s prog excesses in its day: Tales from Topographic Oceans was the group’s biggest commercial success to date.” TB “Public anticipation for Tales was so high that the album, a double, achieved gold status in the UK on the strength of pre-sale orders alone.” TB

The Concept

“Jon Anderson’s fascination with Eastern religions never manifested itself more clearly or broadly” WK than on Tales. The album, the group’s “most ambitious to date,” TB was “based on the Shastric scriptures,” WK specifically “rooted in the spiritual text Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogandanda.” TB It is a “four-piece work of symphonic length and scope” WK with each piece filling one side of vinyl. The songs symbolize – “in track order, the concepts of Truth, Knowledge, Culture, and Freedom.” WK

Drummer Bill Bruford said, “former King Crimson percussionist Jamie Muir introduced vocalist Jon Anderson to Paramahansa Yogananda’s work during Bruford's wedding in March 1973.” WK However, “one needn’t understand any of that to appreciate the many sublimely beautiful moments on this album, some of the most gorgeous passages ever recorded by the band.” BE

Rick Wakeman’s Exit

“Keyboardist Rick Wakeman left shortly after the album’s completion, unhappy with the direction Yes was taking.” TB He has “expressed intense dislike of the album, stemming in part from the fact that vocalist Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe constructed the bulk of the album entirely on their own (as the sleeve notes suggest), leaving the remaining three members with relatively little to contribute (which the sleeve notes dispute).” WK Wakeman “spent much of the time playing darts with Black Sabbath members” WK who were “in the studio recording Sabbath Bloody Sabbath at the same time as Yes.” WK

He wasn’t the first to be frustrated with “Anderson and Howe’s studio behavior.” WK “Bruford had left the band for King Crimson a year earlier for similar reasons.” WK

Wakeman has acknowledged “that he enjoyed some of the musical content of ‘The Ancient,’ and Wakeman has performed ‘The Revealing Science of God’ and ‘Ritual’ with the band often in the years since.” WK

Reissue

A 2003 reissue added studio run-throughs of “Dance of the Dawn” and “Giants Under the Sun.” 2016 edition added a third disc of material, including single edits of each of the four songs.

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First posted 6/7/2011; updated 9/21/2025.

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Wednesday, December 5, 1973

Paul McCartney & Wings released Band on the Run: December 5, 1973

Originally posted December 5, 2011.



“The consensus of critics, as well as cold hard sales figures, says that Band on the Run was Paul McCartney’s most successful solo album.” RG “Neither the dippy, rustic Wild Life nor the slick AOR flourishes of Red Rose Speedway earned Paul McCartney much respect, so he made the self-consciously ambitious Band on the Run to rebuke his critics. On the surface, Band on the Run appears to be constructed as a song cycle in the vein of Abbey Road, but subsequent listens reveal that the only similarities the two albums share are simply superficial.” STE

“McCartney’s talent for songcraft and nuanced arrangements is in ample display throughout the record, which makes many of the songs – including the nonsensical title track – sound more substantial than they actually are. While a handful of the songs are excellent – the surging, inspired surrealism of Jet is by far one of his best solo recordings, Bluebird is sunny acoustic pop, and Helen Wheels captures McCartney rocking with abandon – most of the songs are more style than substance. Yet McCartney’s melodies are more consistent than any of his previous solo records, and there are no throwaways; the songs just happen to be not very good.” STE

“Still, the record is enjoyable, whether it’s the minor-key Mrs. Vandebilt or Let Me Roll It, a silly response to John Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep?,’ which does make Band on the Run one of McCartney’s finest solo efforts. However, there’s little of real substance on the record,” STE although it should be noted that the album is “an artistic triumph over very trying conditions – the defection of two-fifths of Wings.” RG Still, “no matter how elaborate the production is, or how cleverly his mini-suites are constructed, Band on the Run is nothing more than a triumph of showmanship.” STE



Awards:
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Saturday, November 10, 1973

Elton John hit #1 with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Elton John

Released: October 5, 1973

Peak: 18 US, 12 UK, 15 CN, 13 AU Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): 8.0 US, 0.6 UK, 31.0 world (includes US + UK), 32.85 EAS

Genre: pop/classic rock

Tracks:

Click on a song title for more details.
  1. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding [11:08]
  2. Candle in the Wind [3:50]
  3. Bennie and the Jets [5:23]
  4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road [3:14]
  5. This Song Has No Title [2:23]
  6. Grey Seal [3:58]
  7. Jamaica Jerk Off [3:39]
  8. I’ve Seen That Movie Too [5:59]
  9. Sweet Painted Lady [3:52]
  10. The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-34) [4:24]
  11. Dirty Little Girl [5:01]
  12. All the Girls Love Alice [5:08]
  13. Your Sister Can’t Twist But She Can Rock ‘N’ Roll [2:42]
  14. Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting [4:54]
  15. Roy Rogers [4:08]
  16. Social Disease [3:44]
  17. Harmony [2:45]

Total Running Time: 76:12

Rating:

4.481 out of 5.00 (average of 30 ratings)

Quotable:

It “plays like a greatest hits album, overflowing with classic songs.” – Clark Speicher, The Review

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Album

In Elton John’s vast (and uneven) catalog” EW’93 this is “his most effective song cycle.” EW’93 He is “at the peak of his powers…on this sprawling opus of an album.” EW’12 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is “considered the high watermark of Elton’s reign of popularity,” CRS his “commercial and creative apex,” ZS “his magnum opus.” CQ It’s also important to note that this “is perhaps the best example of the magic that was the Elton John-Bernie Taupin songwriting partnership.” PM

“John had successfully become the biggest hit-maker since The Beatles” CQ and this “pretty much defines what made Elton John a superstar in the early ‘70s.” AM However, this was also where his “personality began to gather more attention than his music.” AM He “achieved superstardom with this effort and never matched its mastery again.” RV

This is “more musically ambitious than anything he attempted previously.” TM It “holds claim to a lot of brilliant, very pop-savvy music.” AZ “Its individual moments are spectacular and the glitzy, crowd-pleasing showmanship.” AM “The grandiose rock is filled with an energy unlike any of his other works, giving us a new side to the piano man.” CQ This is “piano glam rock at its finest, strutting a supersonic sound with prowess and ease.” CQ

It “plays like a greatest hits album, overflowing with classic songs” RV which “remain standards more than 30 years later thanks to Bernie Taupin’s sharpest lyrics, John’s propulsive keyboard skills and vocals that leap into falsetto without losing any of their power.” TL The album “demonstrates the ease with which John and Taupin could write not only the hit singles, but the outstanding album tracks.” ZS

The Triumphs and Perils of a Double Album

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road has been called “Elton’s White Album.” ZS Like all double albums, though, there is the danger of being criticized as “overstuffed.” TL Critic Robert Christgau said, “This is one more double album that would make a nifty single.” SS Bill Shaprio echoed that sentiment, noting that there is “some strong material, as well as some pretty forgettable exercises.” SS “Edited down to one disc, this would easily be John’s recorded pinnacle.” SS

However, others would argue that this is a “stunning song cycle with no filler.” ZS The “flamboyant tour de force” ZS has been celebrated as “a recap of all the styles and sounds that made John a star.” AM In a 1974 review for Circus magazine, Janis Schacht said “Elton John is back and stronger than he’s been on record in many a blue moon. The lush two-record set moves from mood to mood with no apparent effort and a great sense of timing, class and style.” SS A 1973 Billboard review said “John seems able to sing almost any type of material, from rock to country to Jamaican-flavored tunes.” SS In a largely negative review, Rolling Stone’s Stephen Davis acknowledged that the album mixes “straight ultramodern British music hall revue” SS with “plenty of rock synthesized flash and the inspection of the inner feelings of several different versions of Elton John persona.” SS

Bernie Taupin and the Lyrics

On the album’s lyrics, “Taupin ranges far and wide, but always on what he considers the ‘other’ side of the tracks, romanticizing your moderately seamy crowd.” SS “Bernie takes us into the mind of a tired sort of man who does his living vicariously, via Roy Rogers movies on the telly, …into bed with a prostitute…And so on.” SS

The Writing and Recording

The Rolling Stones had just recorded Goats Head Soup in Jamaica and encouraged Elton John to give the “relaxing tropical paradise” SF a chance. However, he and his crew “encountered hostile locals and faulty equipment.” SF “Too frightened to leave his hotel room (things were volatile...) and holed up in his hotel room with a batch of Bernie Taupin's lyrics, Elton wrote twenty-one songs in three days.” SS

Attempts to record in Jamaica were abandoned and then “an equally unsatisfactory spell in New York” SS followed. Eventually, they relocated to France at the Château d'Hérouville where he’d recorded his previous two albums. “Originally intended as a single album, by the time Elton John had finished recording tracks…it was clear – to him at any rate – that only a double LP would suffice.” SS

Notes

A 2003 Deluxe Edition adds “Whenever You’re Ready (We’ll Go Steady),” “Jack Rabbit,” “Screw You (Young Man Blues),” and an alternate version of “Candle in the Wind.”

The Songs

“John seamlessly shifts from brash to mournful over the course of its 17 tracks, and the result is not unlike when Dorothy steps into the Technicolor land of Oz for the first time.” PM

Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: 2 CL, 1 DF Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 29.49 streaming

About the Song:

The album opens “in a dark and stormy mood. The wind is howling. A lone church bell chimes in the distance, ushering in an eleven-minute faux-goth suite ‘Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding.’” TM The first part is “an eight-minute instrumental prologue featuring grandiose and tasteless typhoon whooshings, booming ecclesiastic organ, [and] some stinging guitar.” SS It segues into “‘Love Lies Bleeding,’ a rocker with a soaring, handsome chorus.” SS

The “back-to-back blowouts” CQ have been called both a “prog rock epic” AM and a “Wagnerian-opera-like combo.” 500 “It’s as though the prodigiously talented pianist and his longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin, mean to bust out of the radio-bonbon business.” TM Critic David Prakel praises the song as a “stunner…in which he musters and commands every last musical talent and trick.” SS

Candle in the Wind

Candle in the Wind

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin (see lyrics here)

Recorded: May 1973

Released: 2/4/74 (single), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

B-Side: “Bennie and the Jets”

First Charted: March 2, 1974

Peak: 6 US, 7 CB, 8 GR, 8 RR, 2 AC, 2 CL, 5 UK, 5 CN, 5 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.4 UK

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 4.0 radio, 40.54 video, 249.94 streaming

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Song:

According to Elton John, lyricist Bernie Taupin called “Candle in the Wind” “the best song we’ve ever written.” KL It charted three times in three decades with three versions. The original was a a tribute to legendary film star Marilyn Monroe “from the somewhat tragic viewpoint of a sentimental and obsessive young Monroe fan” LW trying “to reconcile the myths and legends attached” TM to her. However, the song “took its title from a newspaper cutting about the death of Janis Joplin.” SS

In his 1973 review for Rolling Stone, Stephen Davis called it “prettily solemn and unbelievably corny, a necrophiliac erection.” SS In his review for Stereo Review, Noel Coppage asserts that “EJ has given it such a nice melody and sings it with such emotional credibility that the words actually do begin to mean something.” SS

Despite any dismissiveness, the general public reveled in the song’s sentimentality. The original version was a single in the UK and reached #11. However, in the U.S., when DJs latched on to “Bennie and the Jets” the planned single release was aborted. RS500 “Candle” wasn’t done yet though – a 1987 live version hit the top 10 in the United States. In 1997, the lyrics were revamped as a memorial to Princess Diana and it became the second-biggest-selling song of all time, only behind Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.”

“Essentially a piano ballad rooted in a series of gospel-tinged chords, the song actually breaks away from the more traditional structure of a rock ballad but doesn't fail to include some typical John piano flourishes.” LW “It had pathos and a generalized emotional truth that underscored and informed Elton John’s otherwise flamboyant and hugely camp character.” LW

Bennie and the Jets

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John (music), Bernie Taupin (lyrics) (see lyrics here)

Recorded: 1973

Released: 2/4/74 (single), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973), Greatest Hits (1974)

B-Side: “Harmony”

First Charted: February 16, 1974

Peak: 11 US, 11 CB, 11 HR, 13 RR, 15 RB, 1 CL, 37 UK, 12 CN, 5 AU, 5 DF Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 0.60 UK

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 3.0 radio, 55.08 video, 624.06 streaming

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Song:

Elton John established himself as the most successful act of the 1970s on the strength of hits like “Bennie and the Jets” and five other #1’s that decade. This, however, was his first of only a handful of forays onto the R&B chart, where it reached #15. He was thrilled with the accomplishment, saying “Even if it doesn’t get any higher than 34 I’m gonna stick it up and frame it.” FB He knew, though, that it wasn’t his primary audience. He told Rolling Stone, “What am I going to do on my next American tour? Play the Apollo for a week, open with ‘Bennie’ then say, ‘Thanks, you can all go home now.’” FB It did, however, land him an appearance on Soul Train. WK

In the United States, the song was the third single from Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, following “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” and the title cut. In most other territories, “Candle in the Wind” was released as the third single with “Bennie” (spelled “Benny”) as the B-side. WK Elton didn’t want to release “Bennie” as a single because he was sure it would fail. However, a radio station in Ontario started playing it and then it became the #1 song in the Detroit market. WK The record company decided it would make for the better A-side in America and slated “Candle” as the flip side. FB It became his second chart-topper in America after 1972’s “Crocodile Rock.”

This is where “Taupin’s snarling outsider cynicism collides most spectacularly with John’s questioning melodies and dizzying etude-book piano arpeggios.” TM The song was sort of an homage to the fictional band of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the glam rock of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust persona. Elton described Bennie as “a sci-fi rock goddess” SF and lyricist Bernie Taupin said Bennie and the Jets “were supposed to be a prototypical female rock ‘n’ roll band out of science fiction.” SF He explained that he “had this wacky science fiction idea about a futuristic rock and roll band of androids fronted by some androgynous kind of Helmut Newton style beauty.” SF He said that Robert Palmer’s video for “Addicted to Love” portrayed how he saw the band: “a dapper frontman backed by robotic models.” SF

Taupin also said the song, told from the standpoint of a fan, was a satire on the music industry and its greed and glitz. WK “The heavy metal groupie immortalized in ‘Bennie and the Jets’…engages in ritualistic animal sacrifice,” TM not exactly your standard top-40 fare. Also of note – the song integrates live sound effects from a show Elton played at Royal Festival Hall in 1972 and a falsetto where Elton tries to sound like Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons. SF

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John (music), Bernie Taupin (lyrics) (see lyrics here)

Recorded: May 10, 1973

Released: 9/7/73 (UK single), 10/15/73 (US single), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973), Greatest Hits (1974)

B-Side: “Screw You (Young Man’s Blues)”

First Charted: September 29, 1973

Peak: 2 BB, 11 CB, 11 GR, 11 HR, 13 RR, 7 AC, 1 CL, 6 UK, 11 CN, 4 AU, 6 DF Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.6 UK

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 4.0 radio, 50.73 video, 602.81 streaming

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Song:

The title cut for Elton John’s seventh album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, was released as the second single after “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.” While “Saturday” peaked at #12, “Road” went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts on three of the other major pop charts in America at the time.

The song was a top singles pick in the October 20, 1973, issue of Billboard which said, “Elton returns to a medium tempo for his large, round sounding production of a man returning to a simple life. At times it’s hard to understand Elton, but the sonic impression is still strong and haunting. The blending of voices with strings on the bridges is beautiful.” BB

Circus magazine’s Janis Schach called the song “delicate and beautiful,” WK asserting that “Elton finally has met his original potential” JS AllMusic.com’s Stewart Mason has called it “a strong contender for the coveted title of John’s finest song ever.” AMG “Extravagant, but not pretentious,” AMG the “arrangement builds slowly…to a full orchestral climax at the end of each chorus.” AMG “The wordless melisma that decorates the bridge between the verse and chorus melodies is straight out of the Beach Boys playbook.” AMG “It’s very likely his single finest vocal moment.” AMG It “harnesses the fantastic imagery of glam to a Gershwin-sweet melody.” 500

Taupin often wrote about Elton, but this song “about giving up a life of opulence for one of simplicity in a rural setting” SF appears to be more about Taupin as John “has enjoyed a very extravagant lifestyle.” SF Taupin said, “I was going through that whole ‘got to get back to my roots’ thing…I don’t believe I was ever turning my back on success…I think I was just hoping that maybe there was a happy medium way to exist successfully in a more tranquil setting.” SF

Lyrically, Taupin addresses “the many facets of a dying Hollywood” SS and “faded Hollywood glamour.” AMG While this isn’t “a ‘concept’ album in the strictest sense…[it] does have a recurring theme – disillusionment” TM as Bernie Taupin lyrically The title track is about a boy “stung by the city he once viewed as an Oz,” TM as in The Wizard of Oz.

This Song Has No Title

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 9.50 streaming

About the Song:

A

Grey Seal

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: 13 CL, 28 DF Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 10.73 streaming

About the Song:

“Grey Seal” was originally released as the B-side to Elton’s 1970 single “Rock and Roll Madonna.” He re-recorded it for Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and It shows ““just how stacked this record really is.” CQ “Grey Seal” and “This Song Has No Title…had gospel-tinged melodies and progressions.” TB

In his largely negative review, Rolling Stone’s Stephen Davis called this “a fine, fast number, episodic and brilliantly-produced, one of the few large-production numbers here that succeeds all the way through.” SS

Jamaica Jerk Off

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.29 streaming

About the Song:

The album also features “novelties [like] Jamiaica Jerk Off…and everything in between.” AM “All of this could only come from the man in the glittery glasses who knew no limits to where his piano could take him and thank God for it.” CQ

I’ve Seen That Movie Too

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 7.56 streaming

About the Song:

A

Sweet Painted Lady

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 11.53 streaming

About the Song:

A

The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934)

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.76 streaming

About the Song:

There’s also “the ready-made nostalgia of The Ballad of Danny Bailey” AZ which features “Bernie Taupin’s literary pretensions” AM

Dirty Little Girl

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 4.86 streaming

About the Song:

A

All the Girls Love Alice

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: 9 CL, 28 DF Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 9.36 streaming

About the Song:

There are “darker rockers such as All the Girls Love Alice” EW’93 which “proved to be a ballad of a teenage lesbian,” SS “possibly the earliest rock song to address lesbianism.” SS

Your Sister Can’t Twist But She Can Rock ‘N’ Roll

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 4.19 streaming

About the Song:

Elton shows off his rock side with “the fairground jive of Your Sister Can’t Twist.” TB

Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Recorded: May 1973

Released: 6/29/73 (single), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973), Greatest Hits (1974)

B-Side: “Jack Rabbit,” “Whenever You’re Ready We’ll Go Steady Again”

First Charted: July 7, 1973

Peak: 12 BB, 9 CB, 13 GR, 8 HR, 2 CL, 7 UK, 12, CN, 31 AU, 5 DF Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.4 UK

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, -- video, 209.55 streaming

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Song:

“Guitarist Davey Johnstone was a rare find when he joined the band” SS and this “omnipresent AM hit…ably testify to his power.” SS “The strutting rock and roll” 500 of “this “rollicking” PM “Stonesy rocker” TB “easily finds itself in the top echelon of fist-pumping rock songs that get your blood boiling and your head banging.” CQ As the lead single from the album, the song “about Bernie Taupin’s raucous teenage days” SS marked Elton’s fifth trip to the top ten in his native UK. Stateside, he’d already had five top-10s, but this one just missed the mark, landing at #12.

Roy Rogers

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 4.91 streaming

About the Song:

Roy Rogers is “sentimental and sensitive without ever slipping into that dangerous songwriter’s trap of banality.” SS

Social Disease

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 3.96 streaming

About the Song:

A

Harmony

Elton John

Writer(s): Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Released: 2/4/74 (B-side of “Bennie and the Jets”), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Peak: 11 CL, 20 DF Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 10.85 streaming

About the Song:

This song’s “downbeat melodicism” AZ “is a change of pace number. Haunting and subtle, it has great mid-sixties three-part harmony (natch) with backup vocals compliments of Davey Johnstone and Nigel Olsson. The song sounds as if it might have been recorded for the first or second Bee Gees’ LP, way back when they were a great band.” SS The “sunny, symphonic pop finale” SS is “a star track and a perfect end for a near-perfect album.” SS

Resources/References:

Related DMDB Pages:

First posted 3/21/2008; last updated 5/31/2026.

 
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