Elton John Discography – Overview
The Elton John Discography is an extensive one with many exceptional and memorable songs. Who cannot forget some his favorite albums like “Elton John”, “Madman Across the Water”, “Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, etc, etc
1. ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road almost seems like a greatest-hits album. This 1973 double LP has “Candle in the Wind,” “Bennie and the Jets,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.” This was Elton at the peak of his popularity, when every kid on your street (and their parents) absolutely adored him.
Popular Album
But even at his most commercial, he still released songs like “All the Girls Love Alice,” the crazy tale of a dead 16-year-old lesbian prostitute with “a simple case of Momma-doesn’t-love-me blues.” The album kicks off with “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding,” a song so prog-tastic that even Dream Theater covers it. The album is all over the place style-wise, but every bit of it works. It hit shelves just three years after “Your Song” hit radio, but this was still the apex of Elton-mania. He’s been a superstar for nearly 45 years, but this was the peak.
2. ‘Madman Across the Water’
Elton and Bernie don’t get enough credit for writing truly weird songs. The title track of Madman Across the Water is a quasi-prog-rock song written from the perspective of a psychopath in an asylum. “Levon” is one of their best sing-along songs, but what does it mean? We’ve listened to it 10,000 times and still couldn’t tell you. And who is this Razor Face character? None of this really matters, though.
Tiny Dancer
Madman Across the Water has some of Elton’s most enduring works, including “Tiny Dancer,” a song that seems to become more beloved with each passing decade. It’s impossible to listen to it without smiling. “Indian Sunset” seems like the greatest song that Neil Young never wrote, and “Holiday Inn” makes the discount hotel chain seem like a paradise.
3. ‘Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy’
Elton and Bernie’s partnership was less than a decade old in 1975, but they were already looking back at their pre-fame days of struggle with a powerful sense of nostalgia. This Record was recorded during the peak of Elton’s fame, but he wanted to make a concept record about that early period. Much to their label’s chagrin, they made virtually no effort to write radio-friendly songs, though the lone single “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” did become a hit.
The album takes the listener on a journey to late-1960s England, when a struggling piano player met an equally struggling songwriter. They were cold, hungry and occasionally even suicidal but, in the end, they discovered that their love for each other and their music would be their salvation. “We wrote it and I played it,” Elton sings on “We All Fall in Love Sometimes.” “Something happened/ It’s so strange, this feeling.”
4. ‘Tumbleweed Connection’
COURTESY OF MERCURY RECORDS
Elton John and Bernie Taupin had yet to step foot on American soil when they cut Tumbleweed Connection in early 1970, but they’d watched enough westerns and listened to Music From Big Pink enough times to have a pretty good idea of what it was like over here.
Recorded before Elton John was even in stores, The Tumbleweed Connection is a loose concept album about the American West. We meet a boastful cowboy, a vengeful Confederate soldier, proud farmers and a depressed old soldier. There wasn’t a single hit on the album, and it briefly seemed like a disappointing follow-up to Elton John – but over time, the album revealed itself to be Elton and Bernie working at the absolute peak of their abilities.
5. ‘Honky Château’
Elton John was a proven commodity when he began work on Honky Château in early 1972, so his label finally handed him creative freedom. His first act was to toss out the studio pros they forced onto his earlier albums.
He replaced them with his touring band and they settled into a historic château in France and cut Elton’s most rocking album to date. Big hits like “Honky Cat” and “Rocket Man” are best remembered from the disc, but deeper cuts like “Mellow” and “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” are even better. It’s ten songs, and all of them are great. This was the transformation of Elton from a gentle singer/songwriter into a legit rock star.
6. ‘Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player’
Just six months after wrapping work on Honky Château, Elton John returned to the Château d’Hérouville in France to cut another album. Songs were pouring out of Elton and Bernie Taupin at this point, and radio was playing their music constantly. The Beatles were long over, Bob Dylan was in hiding and CSNY were burned out. A lot of mainstream music was very lame, and it would have been a lot worse without Elton John.
Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player was another masterpiece. Paul Buckmaster came back to put down strings on the epics “Have Mercy on the Criminal” and “Blues for My Baby and Me,” while “Daniel” and “Crocodile Rock” were made for the radio. It was a perfect balance between light and heavy.
