Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
| Goodbye Yellow Brick Road | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Elton John | ||||
| Released | 5 October 1973 | |||
| Recorded | May 1973 using a 16 track tape recorder | |||
| Studio | Château d'Hérouville, Hérouville, France | |||
| Genre | Rock, pop rock | |||
| Length | 76:20 | |||
| Label |
MCA (US) DJM (UK) |
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| Producer | Gus Dudgeon | |||
| Elton John chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Robert Christgau | (B) |
| Rolling Stone | (unfavourable) |
| Rolling Stone | (2004)
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| Slant Magazine | |
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is the seventh studio album by Elton John, released in 1973. The album proved to be extremely popular, selling over 30 million copies worldwide, and is regarded as one of his best. It was recorded at the Château d'Hérouville in France after problems recording at the intended location of Jamaica. Among the 17 tracks, the album contains the hits "Candle in the Wind", "Bennie and the Jets", "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" plus "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" and "Harmony".
Originally intended as a regular single album, the experience in transferring from Jamaica to the château proved to be conducive to producing such quality material that it was released as a double album.
In 2003, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The album was ranked number 91 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and number 59 in Channel 4's 2009 list of 100 Greatest Albums.
Under the working titles of Vodka and Tonics and Silent Movies, Talking Pictures, Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics in two and a half weeks, with John composing most of the music in three days while staying at the Pink Flamingo Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica. He had wanted to go to Jamaica he has said, in part, because the Rolling Stones had just recorded Goats Head Soup there. Production on the album was started in Jamaica in January 1973, though after difficulties with the sound system and the studio piano, coupled with disturbance due to the Joe Frazier and George Foreman boxing match taking place in Kingston, and violent political tension due to the poor economic situation, the band decided to move before any productive work was done.Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was recorded in two weeks at the Château d'Hérouville in France, where John had previously recorded Honky Château and Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player. While a version of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" was recorded in Jamaica, that recording was discarded, and the released version of the song came from the sessions at the château.
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Wikipedia