Elton John (album) explained
Elton John is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter Elton John. It was released on 10 April 1970 through DJM Records. Including John's breakthrough single "Your Song", the album helped establish his career during the rise of the singer-songwriter era of popular music.
In the US, Elton John was certified gold in February 1971 by the RIAA. In the same year, it was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 2003, the album was ranked number 468 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. On 27 November 2012, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as an album cited as exhibiting "qualitative or historical significance".[1]
Production
This was the first of a string of John albums produced by Gus Dudgeon. As Dudgeon recalled in a Mix magazine interview, the album was not actually intended to launch John as an artist, but rather as a collection of polished demos for other artists to consider recording his and co-writer Bernie Taupin's songs.[2] Two songs from the album did find their way into the repertoire of other artists in 1970: "Your Song" was recorded by Three Dog Night as an album track on their LP It Ain't Easy, while Aretha Franklin released a cover of "Border Song" as a single that reached number 37 in the US pop charts and number 5 on the R&B chart, later included on her 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black.
The song "No Shoe Strings on Louise" was intended (as homage or parody) to sound like a Rolling Stones song.[3] [4]
Reception
John Mendelsohn in a contemporary (1970) review for Rolling Stone felt that the album was over-produced and over-orchestrated, comparing it unfavourably with the less mannered and orchestrated Empty Sky; though he felt that John had "so immense a talent" that "he'll delight you senseless despite it all".[5] Robert Christgau in his weekly "Consumer Guide" column for The Village Voice also felt the album was overdone ("overweening", "histrionic overload", "semi-classical ponderousness"), but that it had "a surprising complement of memorable tracks", including "Your Song" which, despite its "affected offhandedness", he considered "an instant standard".[6]
B-sides
| Song | Format |
|---|
| "Bad Side of the Moon" | "Border Song" 7" (US) |
| "Into the Old Man's Shoes" | "Your Song" 7" (UK) | |
Live recordings
John performed many of these songs live,[7] and included six of these ten songs on his 1987 album Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Personnel
Track numbers refer to CD and digital releases of the album.
- Elton John – piano, vocals (all tracks), harpsichord (2)
- Diana Lewis – Moog synthesizer (5, 9)
- Brian Dee – organ (6, 7)
- Frank Clark – acoustic guitar (1), double bass (10)
- Colin Green – additional guitar (1, 7), Spanish guitar (6)
- Clive Hicks – twelve-string guitar (1), rhythm guitar (4), guitar (7, 8, 10), acoustic guitar (9)
- Roland Harker – guitar (2)
- Alan Parker – rhythm guitar (3)
- Caleb Quaye – lead guitar (3, 4, 5), additional guitar (9)
- Dave Richmond – bass guitar, double bass (1, 7, 8)
- Alan Weighall – bass guitar (3, 4, 9)
- Les Hurdle – bass guitar (10)
- Barry Morgan – drums (1, 3, 4, 7, 9)
- Terry Cox – drums (8, 10)
- Dennis Lopez – percussion (3, 4)
- Tex Navarra – percussion (9)
- Skaila Kanga – harp (2, 8)
- Paul Buckmaster – cello solo (8), orchestral arrangements and conductor
- David Katz – orchestra contractor
- Madeline Bell – backing vocals (3, 4, 7, 9)
- Tony Burrows – backing vocals (3, 4, 7, 9)
- Roger Cook – backing vocals (3, 4, 7, 9)
- Lesley Duncan – backing vocals (3, 4, 7, 9)
- Kay Garner – backing vocals (3, 4, 7, 9)
- Tony Hazzard – backing vocals (3, 4, 7, 9)
- Barbara Moore – backing vocals, choir leader (7)
- Technical
- Gus Dudgeon – producer, liner notes
- Robin Geoffrey Cable – engineer
- Gus Skinas – editing
- Alan Harris – original mastering
- Tony Cousins – remastering
- Ricky Graham – digital transfers
- Greg Penny – surround sound
- Steve Brown – production coordinator
- David Larkham – art direction
- Stowell Stanford – photography
- Jim Goff – artwork
- John Tobler – liner notes
Accolades
Grammy Awards|-| style="width:35px; text-align:center;" rowspan="2"|1971 || rowspan="2"| Elton John || Album of the Year[8] || |-| Best Pop Vocal Performance – Male[9] || |-
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Notes and References
- http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/awards/hall-of-fame#g "Grammy Hall of Fame Award
- Web site: Gus Dudgeon, 1942–2002. Rick. Clark. Mixonline. October 2002 .
- Web site: Won't you please excuse my frankness but it's not my cup of tea: Elton John – Elton John (1970) . J . 18 April 2015 . www.resurrectionsongs.com . 3 October 2016 . The side is rounded off with the 'Rolling Stones country' tinged 'No Shoe Strings on Louise' (even Elton's phrasing is similar to Jagger's at times – "All those city women want to make us poor men and this land's got the worse for the worrying")... . https://web.archive.org/web/20161003204206/http://www.resurrectionsongs.com/2015/04/18/wont-you-please-excuse-my-frankness-but-its-not-my-cup-of-tea-elton-john-elton-john-1970/ . 3 October 2016 .
- Book: Bernardin, Claude . Rocket Man: Elton John From A – Z . registration . Westport, Conn. . Greenwood/Praeger . 1995 . 186 . 0-275-95698-9 . He tried to impersonate Mick Jagger. The song is about loose women..
- Album Reviews Elton John. John Mendelsohn. Rolling Stone. 12 Nov 1970. https://web.archive.org/web/20071002034152/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/eltonjohn/albums/album/121562/review/5942220/elton_john. 2 October 2007.
- Web site: Consumer Guide Album Elton John: Elton John. robertchristgau.com. Robert Christgau. November 1970.
- Web site: Elton John Albums Statistics. setlist.fm.
- Web site: GRAMMYs' Best Albums 1970–1979 . grammy.org . 1 November 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140304111252/http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/news/grammys-best-albums-0 . 4 March 2014 .
- Web site: Grammy Awards: Best Pop Vocal Performance – Male. rockonthenet.com. 13 July 2015.
- Book: Kent, David. David Kent (historian). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. illustrated. Australian Chart Book. St Ives, N.S.W.. 1993. 0-646-11917-6.
- Book: Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005. Oricon Entertainment. Roppongi, Tokyo. 2006. 4-87131-077-9. ja.
- Book: Kent, David. Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. David Kent (historian). Australian Chart Book. St Ives, NSW. 1993. 0-646-11917-6.
- Web site: Dutch charts jaaroverzichten 1971 . ASP . nl . 2 April 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140512112218/http://dutchcharts.nl/jaaroverzichten.asp?year=1971&cat=a . 12 May 2014 .
