Elton John released Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: October 5, 1973

Originally published October 5, 2012.

image from myq105.cbslocal.com

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Release date: 5 October 1973

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Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding / Candle in the Wind (3/2/74, #6 US, #5 UK, #2 AC) / Bennie and the Jets (2/16/74, #1 US, #37 UK, #15 RB. sales: 1.0 m) / Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (9/29/73, #2 US, #6 UK, #7 AC. sales: 1.0 m) / This Song Has No Title / Grey Seal / Jamaica Jerk Off / I’ve Seen That Movie Too / Sweet Painted Lady / The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-34) / Dirty Little Girl / All the Girls Love Alice / Your Sister Can’t Twist But She Can Rock ‘N’ Roll / Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting (7/7/73, #12 US, #7 UK) / Roy Rogers / Social Disease / Harmony

Sales (in millions): 7.0 US, 0.3 UK, 15.0 world

Peak: 1⁸ US, 1 ² UK

Rating:

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Review: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is Elton John’s “commercial and creative apex.” ^ZS 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 This “flamboyant tour de force” ^ZS is “a recap of all the styles and sounds that made John a star” ^AMG although this was also where his “personality began to gather more attention than his music.” ^AMG He “achieved superstardom with this effort and never matched its mastery again.” ^RV

The was recorded in a mere 12 days in Europe after a failed effort to record in Jamaica. ^CRS It “demonstrates the ease with which John and Taupin could write not only the hit singles, but the outstanding album tracks.” ^ZS While it has been called “Elton’s White Album” ^ZS and a “stunning song cycle with no filler” ^ZS this double album also can be said to suffer from being “overstuffed.” ^TL Nonetheless, it “holds claim to a lot of brilliant, very pop-savvy music” ^AZ and is “considered the high watermark of Elton’s reign of popularity.” ^CRS “Its individual moments are spectacular and the glitzy, crowd-pleasing showmanship…pretty much defines what made Elton John a superstar in the early ‘70s.” ^AMG

The opening kick-off of Funeral for a Friend and Love Lies Bleeding has been called both a “prog rock epic” ^AMG and a “Wagnerian-operalike combo.” ^RS500 The album quickly announces that it will be “all over the map” ^AMG by immediately careening into the balladry of Candle in the Wind,” ^AMG which pays tribute to Marilyn Monroe and, more than 20 years later, was revamped as a memorial to Princess Diana.

Candle in the Wind

There’s also “the ready-made nostalgia of The Ballad of Danny Bailey” ^AZ which features “Bernie Taupin’s literary pretensions,” ^AMG, “the downbeat melodicism of Harmony,” ^AZ “novelties [like] Jamiaica Jerk-Off…and everything in between.” ^AMG

Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting

Elton shows off his rock side with “the fairground jive of Your Sister Can’t Twist” ^TB and “the strutting rock and roll” ^RS500 of “the Stonesy rocker Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.” ^TB Meanwhile Bennie and the Jets “was a nod in the direction of Bowie’s Ziggy.” ^TB

Bennie and the Jets

Songs like “This Song Has No Title and Grey Seal had gospel-tinged melodies and progressions” ^TB and “the title track harnesses the fantastic imagery of glam to a Gershwin-sweet melody.” ^RS500

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

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Resources and Related Links:

• Elton John’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry
• album page on DMDB website (even more in-depth look at album)
• ^AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
• ^AZ Amazon.com review by Rickey Wright
• ^CRS Tim Morse (1998). Classic Rock Stories: The Stories Behind the Greatest Rock Songs of All Time. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin.
• ^RV The Review “100 Greatest Albums of All Time” by Clarke Speicher (October – November 2001; Vol. 128: numbers 12-23).
• ^RS500 Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
• ^TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 162.
• ^TL Time Magazine’s All-TIME 100 Albums by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light (11/13/06).
• ^ZS Zagat Survey (2003). Music Guide: 1,000 Top Albums of All Time. Coordinator: Pat Blashill. Music Editor: Holly George-Warren. Editors: Betsy Andrews and Randi Gollin. Zagat Survey, LLC: New York, NY. Page 134.

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Award(s):

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