It’s not comprehensive—ten tracks come from five albums, including three from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” from only six months before. But it’s solid, running the gamut from pretty (“Your Song”, “Daniel”) to rocking (“Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting”, “Bennie And The Jets”) to silly (“Honky Cat”, “Crocodile Rock”). The one head-scratcher is “Border Song”, which wasn’t really a hit, but it’s a good tune, so we’ll take it. To these ears it evokes both Tumbleweed Connection and Madman Across The Water, neither of which are represented here, but both albums are so good fans should have had them anyway. (Fun fact: outside the U.S. and Canada, “Bennie In The Jets” was replaced by “Candle In The Wind”; both appear on the CD today.)
Greatest Hits soon became one of those ‘70s albums everybody had, alongside Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and the Eagles’ own hits album, easily and often obtainable from those 12-records-or-tapes-for-a-penny outfits. In the decades since, other collections have added essentials from the same era, so this particular set may seem a little brief today. Yet, the arc of his career was still rising.
Elton John Greatest Hits (1974)—4
1992 CD reissue: same as 1974, plus 1 extra track
“Captain Fantastic..” had been recorded in time for Christmas, but it’s possible that the elaborate artwork was still being worked on. MCA and DJM needed a stocking stuffer, so here it was. Although my brother had bought a copy of “Caribou”, it wasn’t the best introduction to Elton. So, this was my first purchase. For me, like a lot of people, this was Elton 101. All these songs had been all over AM Top 40, of course, except for “Border Song”. I had never heard of it before this. I suspect that it was included for sentimental reasons, since it wasn’t a Top 40 single (at least for Elton) anywhere. While I’m sure some fans were content to just have this, this opened the door to all things Elton for others. Like myself.
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