Elton John - Greatest Hits

I was eleven when my aunt and uncle got me this for Christmas in 1974. I didn't have many albums and I played this album over and over. For me this was where Elton John started and ended. I never bought anything else, and while occasionally I'd hear songs on the radio this was the only album I needed.

Elton's run from 1970 through 1974 was pretty amazing, and the songs selected here managed to touch on most of the big songs from this period. Of course there were omissions and substitutions depending on whether you were in the UK or North America, but at this time I had no idea. This was called Greatest Hits, so my young brain took this at face value.

I have an indelible memory of me in the basement singing along to the radio when "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" was playing and I had my parents little wedge tape recorder beside the radio. As I sang along I thought I sounded so much Elton John I needed to record myself ... um, I recall hearing what I sounded like and thinking, "Man, that is not Elton John."

The other memory is me cranking "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" and then trying to call a girl I liked in school while it was blaring in the background. She'd think I was cool. She couldn't hear me, and just asked me to turn it down.

Anyway, I lost my copy years ago and recently was gifted the UK release and I was pretty excited to hear it again. From the opening moments of "Your Song" I was transported back in time and I was a kid lying on my stomach looking at the album while listening to the songs.

I was also flooded with memories about how much I didn't like some of the songs and waited impatiently for the album to get to the ones I liked. Songs like "Daniel" and "Honky Tank" were filler. I did want to like "Daniel" because that was my dad's name. However when it got to "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" I'd get excited because "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" was next, and the guitar work melted my face. Heck Davey Johnstone's guitar playing was awesome on the whole album. Of course I could have just picked up the needle and played the last song, but that always felt like cheating. Here I am decades later, and I'm really enjoying myself, and even the songs I wanted to skip had a certain charm. I love nostalgia.

The second side was good too. It opened with "Rocket Man" which was always one of my favourite songs. Then I expected to be annoyed by "Bennie and the Jets" instead I was treated to "Candle in the Wind" which was on the UK version as Bennie wasn't released as a single there. It's a wonderful song, and one I did not grow up with, so it feels fresh to me.

I did try to sing along with "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" and man it was not a George Michael moment ... even the dog lifted his head from his bed as if to say, "What the hell man, I'm trying to sleep here."

The album closes with "Crocodile Rock" a song I absolutely loved as a kid and I eventually got sick of to the point where it was hard to listen to without feeling like I wanted to turn off the stereo. The song got a bit of a respite when Elton and the Muppets did the song ... but it was short lived. It's actually playing now, and I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying listening to it, but I won't need to hear it again for a while. I've played the album several times over as I've been working away and puttering so I've heard it maybe a half dozen times over the last day or so. I don't need to hear it now for ... EVER.

Elton John's Greatest Hits remains one of the best selling albums in his catalogue and while it has been out of print for years and superseded by endless compilations, this was the one the majority of people had back in his heyday. It may not be the definitive collection but it's all I had and all I ever wanted.