Customer Reviews

Classic Elton John

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This has all the early Elton songs you already know by heart (thank you Mr. Buffett). As such:
Take Me To The Pilot
Burn Down The Mission
Friends
Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)
Madman Across The Water
Tiny Dancer
Honky Cat
Crocodile Rock
Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters
Levon

Personally I had to have this one for Madman, Tiny Dancer and the wonderful Mona Lisas. All the tracks show the mind-bending greatness of the John/Taupin teamup - they do NOT make songwriters like THAT anymore, and that's just sad. The "special treat" is the nearly 9-minute "alternate" version of Madman with a wailing, smokey blues guitar by Caleb Quaye. Apparently this version was intended for the album Tumbleweed Connection but ended up being scratched, so it was re-edited and made the title track of the next LP. I like this version better!!

If you don't already have all these tracks on Elton's other releases, you should definitely add this to your collection; it's very much worth having.

This compilation includes some rarely played songs from Elton John's early albums. In my opinion, this era (early to mid-1970's) was his best. Along with "Burn Down the Mission" and "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" there is also an interesting alternate version of "Madman Across the Water". It's especially good to hear the rarely played "Friends" again. I'd have liked a couple of more cuts from "Tumbleweed Connection" in place of the bigger hits that are here (e.g. "Crocodile Rock" and "Saturday Night") since most fans already have those on "Greatest Hits". For me, that would make this a perfect 10, but it's still an overall great collection and works well as a supplement to Greatest Hits.

No joke. It was a promotion back in 1995. Free with the purchase of any sandwich. Garth Brooks did the T.V. commercial.

Great songs, but there are better compilations.