Elton John: Elton John [MERCURY]

Why you'll love it

This EU pressing is remastered from the original analogue tapes and cut on 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket. The album reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and No. 5 in the UK, and earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.

This edition

• Remastered from the original analogue tapes
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in the EU
• Download card included
• Stereo mix

About the album

Here's an album that started life as a very elegant sales pitch. Elton John and Bernie Taupin cut these songs at Trident Studios in London in January 1970 as a set of polished demos for other artists to consider recording. Instead it became the record that launched Elton himself, and the first of a long run of albums with Gus Dudgeon producing.

"Your Song" was the breakthrough, Taupin's plain-spoken words set to one of the great piano melodies of its era. Paul Buckmaster's orchestral arrangements give "Sixty Years On" and "The King Must Die" their sweep, "Take Me to the Pilot" rocks along with Caleb Quaye on lead guitar, and "No Shoe Strings on Louise" tips its hat to The Rolling Stones. "Border Song" travelled furthest: Aretha Franklin's version reached No. 5 on the R&B chart.

The Grammy Hall of Fame inducted the album in 2012, and Three Dog Night were among the first to cover "Your Song." Not bad for a stack of demos; most of ours never made it off the cassette.

Also at Kops: more Elton John on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Mercury (cat# 5707094), a reissue of the 1970 album.