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Elton John’s classic discography has been reissued in style of late, even if some of the methodology is confusing. Following deluxe editions of his self-titled sophomore album and Tumbleweed Connection (both 1970 releases) in 2008 and a belated 40th anniversary box set for 1973’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in 2014, just about every album he put out in the ’70s got a 50th anniversary issue relatively on time. But confusingly, while Madman Across the Water, Honky Chateau and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy were all wide releases, the expansions of Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player and Caribou were double vinyl sets released exclusively to Record Store Day retailers.

With this unpredictability in mind, the next album in the chain is up for reissue: 1975’s Rock of the Westies, due in deluxe formats on November 20. Although the U.K. singer-songwriter-pianist’s 10th album can be argued as an inflection point where his immensely prolific output was starting to dry up somewhat, it’s not without a few favorite tracks, and the bonus material – a stripped-back remix of the album featuring Elton’s vocals and piano – sure sounds intriguing off the strength of its focus track, the album cut “Street Kids.” The set will be available on two CDs or two LPs (the latter pressed on sea blue and electric blue vinyl) with a booklet of new liner notes and archival imagery (16 pages for the vinyl and 24 for the CD). A single-disc, 180-gram edition of the original album will be available as well, pressed on tri-color vinyl in blue jay, baby blue and sunshine yellow patterns.

Recorded west of the Rockies (get it?) at Caribou Ranch in Colorado – where the aptly-named Caribou and Captain Fantastic were cut – Rock of the Westies trailed the release of Captain Fantastic by only six months. But things were quite different this time around: the rhythm section of his road-tested band, bassist Dee Murray and drummer Nigel Olsson, had been let go. Joining bandmates Davey Johnstone on guitar and Ray Cooper on percussion were second guitarist Caleb Quaye (who’d worked extensively with Elton earlier in the decade), bassist Kenny Passarelli, drummer Roger Pope, and keyboardist James Newton Howard (a session legend who’d later turn to film and television scoring). Incredibly, this line-up had only played live for about a month when they convened to make Rock of the Westies, an album whose most riveting songs were admittedly derivative of past sonic glories, like the rockers “Island Girl” (saddled with truly bizarre, racially charged lyrics) and “Grow Some Funk of Your Own” or the downcast “I Feel Like a Bullet (in the Gun of Robert Ford).” And Elton’s personal life remained a mess: the week the album was released – only days before taking the stage for a triumphant run from Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles – Elton attempted to take his own life through drugs.

Elton-mania certainly hadn’t died down when Westies was released. Having attained the impossible feat of seeing Captain Fantastic debut atop the Billboard album chart (an arc that otherwise never happened, thanks to the way chart data was tabulated at the time), Elton and his team were assuredly gobsmacked to see its follow-up do the exact same thing. While the rest of his decade offered tests, triumphs and unique periods of music apart from this winding-down imperial phase, Rock of the Westies was an intriguing chapter in Elton John’s hitmaking story – and the deluxe edition gets more than just a limited vinyl release, which we certainly appreciate. The expanded album is due November 20 and can be pre-ordered at the links below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Rock of the Westies (50th Anniversary Edition) (Rocket/EMI/UMR, 2026)

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP (sea blue/electric blue): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
1LP (blue jay/baby blue/sunshine yellow): Official Store / uDiscover Music

CD/LP 1: Remastered album (released as DJM Records DJLPH 464 (U.K.)/MCA Records 2163 (U.S.), 1975)

CD/LP 2: Piano/vocal versions (previously unreleased – same track list as original album)

1. Medley: Yell Help/Wednesday Night/Ugly
2. Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future)
3. Island Girl
4. Grow Some Funk of Your Own
5. I Feel Like a Bullet (in the Gun of Robert Ford)
6. Street Kids
7. Hard Luck Story
8. Feed Me
9. Billy Bones and the White Bird