John, Elton - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

40th anniversary edition featuring 180-gram gatefold double LP

2014 remaster by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering from the original analogue tapes

Mastered for vinyl by Doug Sax & Robert Hadley at The Mastering Lab, Inc

Includes download card

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 91/500!
Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time - "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" - Rated 390/500, "Candle In The Wind" - Rated 356/500!

Almost certainly Elton John's biggest seller, save his first greatest hits collection, this was the album that created a true superstar.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 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 U.S. It also contains Elton and co-writer Bernie Taupin's most successful song, "Candle in the Wind;" a No.1 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 becoming the first white performer to appear on the influential American R&B TV show Soul Train. The album is also ranked No. 91 in Rolling Stone magazine's "Top 100 Greatest Albums Of All Time" chart. In a career filled 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.

Often referred to as the pinnacle of Elton and co-writer Bernie Taupin's creative powers and commercial success, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was the eighth studio album the pair had released in a three-year period. But the recording of the album wasn't the smoothest of experiences. After initial attempts at recording in Kingston, Jamaica, were derailed by the double whammy of industrial action at the studio and further disruption was caused by a world boxing title fight in the town, Elton and the band returned to the familiar settings of Chateau d'Herouville. The album was completed in a staggering seventeen days (including mixing!) and the result is a body of work of huge ambition-kicking off with the grandiose, epic prog rock sound of "Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding," and effortlessly segueing between pop, hard rock, soul, and stunning heart-wrenching ballads.

The album artwork was also a giant leap forward creatively for Elton. Whereas earlier album artwork either didn't feature Elton at all, or showed him as an earnest early 70's songwriter, here he can been seen resplendent in sparkling platform boots, a satin bomber jacket and, of course, his soon-to-be trademark flamboyant eyewear. The sight of him stepping from an unglamorous normal street into a magical fantasy world is not only a metaphor for the transition he was going through as an artist but is one of the most defining images of early 1970's rock music.

The lasting legacy of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road can still be seen with a wealth of emerging new talent quick to praise the influence it had on their own careers. Artists ranging from BRIT winner Ed Sheeran ("Candle in the Wind"), R&B sensation Miguel ("Bennie and the Jets"), rock band Fall Out Boy ("Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting"), add their own interpretations to the classic originals on a sensational bonus disc. Recorded with producer Peter Asher at the helm, Elton and Bernie's influence on modern day Americana, R&B and soul, and rock singers continues to shine through.