Song:Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Album:Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Deluxe Edition
Elton John's 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick represents Elton John's transformation from popular singer songwriter to flamboyant pop superstar. Crocodile Rock was his first number one hit in the US and John also started wearing crazy costumes on stage. John, lyricist Bernie Taupin and producer Gus Dudgeon went to Kingston, Jamaica to record Goodbye Yellow Brick Road because The Rolling Stones had just recorded Goat Head's Soup there. They wrote the songs but there were technical problems in the recording studio and the commotion surrounding the George Foreman vs Joe Frazier boxing match was disruptive. So they decided to return to the Chateau d'Herouville in France where they had recorded the albums Honky Chateau and Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player. John and Taupin had written 22 songs but usually Dudgeon was able to whittle them down to a single LP. He didn't do that for Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and it was released as a 2LP set which can be very risky because of the retail price. Most of the songs were nostalgiac as Taupin was thinking about movies he watched when he was growing up. Apparently The Wizard Of Oz was the first film Taupin saw when he was a child. And the song is about returning to simpler times. The single reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 but it really set the stage for the album's huge success. Bennie and the Jets was the other big hit from the album. Candle In The Wind is considered a classic Elton John song but it was not a hit. It's probably John's most popular album and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 2003. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was released on one CD. Last year, Universal released a 2CD Deluxe Edition. The second CD contains live recordings from 1973 and covers of songs from the album by contemporary artists. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is covered by country artist Hunter Hayes. There is also a 4CD/DVD Super Deluxe edition 2CDs of live recordings and some sort of documentary DVD. It's too expensive so I recommend the 2CD Deluxe Edition. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was certified 8XPlatinum last year. Here's Elton John performing Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on Top Of The Pops 1973.
Those two songs were monster hits for Elton John, I remember both being played a lot on the pop radio stations when the album first came out. They really help launch Elton John's career.
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