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Five decades ago, an aspiring singer/songwriter named Reginald Dwight, frontman for a band named Bluesology, answered an ad in the New Musical Express placed by an A&R man for Liberty Records. At the ensuing meeting, Dwight was given a stack of lyrics written by someone who'd answered the same ad: an up and coming lyricist named Bernie Taupin. Dwight wrote a melody to Taupin's lyrics, placed the ensuing song in the post--and thus started a partnership that continues to this day, with scores of chart-topping albums and beloved singles coming from Dwight--who, it turns out, changed his name to Elton John.
To celebrate their partnership, John and UMe are issuing a new compilation of the British pop legend's work. Diamonds, the first Elton collection since Rocket Man: The Definitive Hits a decade ago, will be offered as a 2CD set, 2LP offering, or 3CD deluxe box.
As with many of Elton's career overviews, Diamonds begins in 1970 with the breakthrough ballad "Your Song," continuing through the '70s on the first disc as John became a world conquering piano popsmith--releasing albums at an unthinkably fast clip and becoming the first artist in Billboard history to have an album debut atop the magazine's main LP chart. (In point of fact, Elton did it twice in 1975, when Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy and Rock Of The Westies reached the summit.) Favorites from "Rocket Man" to "Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)," "Philadelphia Freedom" to "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," are all here--a capsule of a career's worth of success in less than a decade.
On Disc 2, Elton weathers changing styles in the 1980s, triumphing with hits like "I'm Still Standing," "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" and "Sacrifice," before reclaiming his crown in the 1990s thanks to a brace of songs written with Tim Rice for the animated Disney classic The Lion King in 1994 and favorites like "Something About The Way You Look Tonight" and "I Want Love." The disc closes with some of Elton's latter-day songs off critically acclaimed albums like The Diving Board (2013) and Wonderful Crazy Night (2016) before summing up beautifully with The Lion King's "Circle Of Life."
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The deluxe box set adds another 17 tracks on disc, curated by Elton himself and filling in the gaps of his incredible career. There's "Skyline Pigeon," a beautiful early John-Taupin track; hit covers of The Beatles ("Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds") and The Who ("Pinball Wizard"); favorites like "Mama Can't Buy You Love," "Kiss The Bride," "The One" and "Believe"; and collaborations with Dionne Warwick ("That's What Friends Are For"), Luciano Pavarotti ("Live Like Horses") and even dance group PNAU (who assembled a cool electronic album, 2012's Good Morning To The Night, from snippets and samples of his early catalogue).
Both the box set and the vinyl include exclusive annotations and 7" single sleeve artwork from around the world; the box set offers the notes in a 72-page hardback book and also includes five illustrations of John from across his career. All products are available November 10; track lists and pre-order links can be seen below!
Diamonds (UMe, 2017)
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada (TBD)
3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada (TBD)
2LP (tracks noted with *): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada (TBD)
Disc 1
- Your Song *
- Tiny Dancer *
- Rocket Man (I Think It's Gonna Be A Long Long Time) *
- Honky Cat
- Crocodile Rock *
- Daniel *
- Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting) *
- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road *
- Candle In The Wind *
- Bennie And The Jets *
- The Bitch Is Back
- Philadelphia Freedom
- Island Girl
- Someone Saved My Life Tonight *
- Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Duet with Kiki Dee) *
- Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word *
- Little Jeannie
Disc 2
- Song For Guy *
- Blue Eyes *
- I'm Still Standing *
- I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues *
- Sad Songs (Say So Much)
- Nikita *
- I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That
- Sacrifice *
- Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (Duet with George Michael) *
- Something About The Way You Look Tonight
- I Want Love
- Can You Feel The Love Tonight? *
- Are You Ready For Love? (2003 Remix) *
- Electricity
- Home Again
- Looking Up
- Circle Of Life
Disc 3
- Skyline Pigeon (Piano Version)
- Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
- Pinball Wizard
- Mama Can't Buy You Love
- Part-Time Love
- Victim Of Love
- Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)
- Kiss The Bride
- That's What Friends Are For - Dionne Warwick & Friends feat. Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder
- The One
- True Love (Duet with Kiki Dee)
- Believe
- Live Like Horses (Duet with Luciano Pavarotti)
- Written In The Stars (Duet with LeAnn Rimes)
- This Train Don't Stop There Anymore
- Good Morning To The Night - Elton John vs. PNAU
- Step Into Christmas
Disc 1, Track 1 from Elton John (DJM, 1970)
Disc 1, Track 2 from Madman Across The Water (DJM, 1971)
Disc 1, Tracks 3-4 from Honky Château (DJM, 1972)
Disc 1, Tracks 5-6 from Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player (DJM, 1973)
Disc 1, Tracks 7-10 from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (DJM, 1973)
Disc 1, Track 11 from Caribou (DJM, 1974)
Disc 1, Track 12 from DJM single, 1975
Disc 1, Track 13 from Rock Of The Westies (DJM, 1975)
Disc 1, Track 14 from Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy (DJM, 1975)
Disc 1, Track 15 from Rocket single, 1976
Disc 1, Track 16 from Blue Moves (Rocket, 1978)
Disc 1, Track 17 from 21 At 33 (Rocket, 1980)
Disc 2, Track 1 and Disc 3, Track 5 from A Single Man (Rocket, 1978)
Disc 2, Track 2 and Disc 3, Track 7 from Jump Up! (Rocket, 1982)
Disc 2, Tracks 3-4 and Disc 3, Track 8 from Too Low For Zero (Rocket, 1983)
Disc 2, Track 5 from Breaking Hearts (Rocket, 1984)
Disc 2, Track 6 from Ice On Fire (Rocket, 1985)
Disc 2, Track 7 from Reg Strikes Back (Rocket, 1987)
Disc 2, Track 8 from Sleeping WIth The Past (Rocket, 1989)
Disc 2, Track 9 from Columbia single, 1991
Disc 2, Track 10 from The Big Picture (Rocket/Mercury, 1997)
Disc 2, Track 11 and Disc 3, Track 15 from Songs From The West Coast (Rocket/Mercury, 2001)
Disc 2, Tracks 12 and 17 from The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Walt Disney Records, 1994)
Disc 2, Track 13 from Rocket/Universal single, 2003
Disc 2, Track 14 from reissue of Peachtree Road (Rocket/Universal, 2005)
Disc 2, Track 15 from The Diving Board (Mercury, 2013)
Disc 2, Track 16 from Wonderful Crazy Night (Mercury/Virgin EMI, 2016)
Disc 3, Track 1 from "Daniel" single (DJM, 1973)
Disc 3, Track 2 from DJM single, 1974
Disc 3, Track 3 from Tommy: Original Soundtrack Recording (Polydor, 1975)
Disc 3, Track 4 from The Thom Bell Sessions (Rocket, 1979)
Disc 3, Track 6 from Victim Of Love (Rocket, 1979)
Disc 3, Track 9 from Friends (Arista, 1985)
Disc 3, Track 10 from The One (Rocket, 1990)
Disc 3, Track 11 from Duets (Rocket, 1993)
Disc 3, Track 12 from Made In England (Rocket, 1995)
Disc 3, Track 13 from Rocket single, 1996
Disc 3, Track 14 from Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida (Rocket, 1999)
Disc 3, Track 16 from Good Morning To The Night (Mercury/Casablanca, 2012)
Disc 3, Track 17 from DJM single, 1973
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As with any career that is as long and far-reaching as Elton John's, there are always those special cuts to a fan that never make the anthologies and retrospectives. In my mind, cuts like "Idol," "Ego," "Friends," "Roy Rogers," and "Lady Samantha" are worthy tracks sadly left behind. But that's quibbling. Congrats to EJ for a solid item that will, no doubt, find its way under many a Christmas Tree and Holiday Gift pile. To that end, with the Ho-Ho-Ho holiday almost upon us, I had hoped that they had remixed the "Step Into Christmas" track. The first 5-10 seconds of that side has always sounded wonky to me.....as if the napping tape operator turned the machine on "almost" in the nick of time. Warble or whatever, it's still one of the best rock era holiday songs around. With this whole collection this winter, we can listen and "we can watch the snow fall forever and ever."
This is a pretty amazing collection but when is Elton's finest album (IMHO), Tumbleweed Connection, going to get some love?
Tumbleweed Connection received the Deluxe Edition treatment several years ago with a second disc of unreleased demos and live recordings. It's a great set!
Elton has vinyl B-sides that never got a CD/digital release, B-sides that were scattered across various CD singles in the 90s and early 2000s, assorted soundtrack/non-album tracks, demos for his Broadway shows, plus a lot of other confirmed unreleased material in the vault. But we're getting yet another greatest hits compilation with zero new material? Great. Rare Masters and To Be Continued were released 25 and 27 years ago, respectively. Elton's long overdue for a follow-up.
Amen. I have all his albums, so I yawn at this collection. Give us "Rare Masters Volume 2."
I suppose it's worthwhile for someone who has no Elton in their collection. But otherwise, what's the point. Possibly it might sound better than "To Be Continued" but that's not much of a ringing endorsement.
Roll on the release (finally) of the 'missing' albums (Don't Shoot Me, Caribou, Rock Of The Westies and Blue Moves) from the 70's that Greg Penny remixed into SACD 5.1 surround sound but have never materialised.
I live in hope that all the series will be released in Bluray at some point but I am aware that Elton John prefers to look forward, not back.
There are so many EJ-related items that remain unreleased, including a ton of the 'Dick James Demos'. Given the current technology, even though they can find the masters on those they could easily be mastered in a way that would make them thoroughly listenable to the EJ "fan who has everything" while still making them curios worth buying in a nice box for the average listener. And as other folks have mentioned there are stiol a ton of non-CD B-sides.
Yes, the hits absolutely deserve 2 CDs, and it's nice to have Elton's picks ... but since discs cost pennies to manufacture AND Elton owns most of his own publishing at this point, why not include a fourth disc of rarities for the true fans? The reality is that no major fan would buy a comp like this as a gift for someone who is being introduced to this man's incredible catalog. I, for one, would get that person 'Captain Fantastic', 'Elton John', and one other ('Tumbleweed ...' maybe?). So, I guess it's all back down to "When I'm asked to run the UMI catalog division ...!"
This may make a good introduction to Elton's music, but i would note that one-third of Elton's albums have never received the expanded/remastered treatment. Producer/engineer (the late) Gus Dudgeon once said that he would not remaster or expand those Elton John albums that he didn't produce or engineer...unless producers Clive Franks or Chris Thomas were to give their permission. Tragically, Dudgeon and his wife were killed in a car crash before he could ask for that permission.
No one at Universal Music ever had the idea to expand the albums produced by Chris Thomas & Clive Franks. This left many non-L.P. B-sides and 12" single mixes unavailable on CD. And Elton has a substantial archive of concert videos that have played on Cable T.V., but have never appeared on DVD. Elton John's audio & video archive could produce some superb products for his long-time fans, but no one (not even Elton himself) seems to care.
Many lesser artists release substantial quantities of archival product...but not Elton.