Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (2LP) [MERCURY]

Why you'll love it

This 180g 2LP set uses Bob Ludwig's 2014 remaster from the original analog tapes, cut for vinyl by Doug Sax, in a six-panel gatefold. The album topped the charts in the US, UK, Australia and Canada and has sold more than 20 million copies.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Six-panel gatefold jacket
• Download card included
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

The plan was Jamaica. Elton John wanted to record in Kingston, where the Rolling Stones had just made Goats Head Soup, and Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics there in two and a half weeks while Elton composed most of the melodies in three days at the Pink Flamingo Hotel. A temperamental studio piano and the chaos of the Frazier versus Foreman fight soon sent everyone back to the Château d'Hérouville in France, where the album was recorded in two weeks.

With 22 songs written, it grew into a double almost by accident. "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" is an 11-minute overture, "Candle in the Wind" is Taupin's tender ode to Marilyn Monroe, "Bennie and the Jets" became a US No. 1, and the title track is one of Elton's loveliest melodies. "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" rocks hard, and "Harmony" closes it beautifully. Gus Dudgeon produced, with Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson in the band.

It went into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003, and in 2025 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry. Not bad going for an album that was never meant to be a double in the first place.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On DJM / Mercury (cat# 375 349-5), a reissue of the 1973 album.