Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (40th Anniversary Celebration) [LP]

This was the album that created a true superstar. Although he was already known in 1973 due to the growing success of his previous albums- including Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player, Elton John and Honky Chateau- it was the release of this double album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, that made Elton John a household name. It went on to sell 31 million copies. Goodbye… perfectly marries the various elements of Elton’s craft – classic songwriting, glam stomp, R&B, gospel, jaw-dropping performances, soul and a large helping of brilliant showmanship.

The album spent eight weeks at No.1 and went platinum seven times over in the US. It also contains Elton and co-writer Bernie Taupin’s most successful song, ‘Candle In The Wind’ – a worldwide hit three times, in three different versions, in three successive decades, ultimately becoming the biggest-selling single of all time. It also features dynamite standards such as ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’, and ‘Bennie And The Jets’, the latter being the song that led to Elton being the first white performer to appear on influential American R&B TV show Soul Train. The album is also ranked in Rolling Stone Magazine’s Top 100 Great Albums Of All Time. In a career littered with highlights that other artists can only dream of, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road stands as a towering achievement, a defining moment in the most exciting era in rock history.