MCA 10003
Producer: Gus Dudgeon
Track listing: Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding / Candle in the Wind / Bennie and the Jets / Goodbye Yellow Brick Road / This Song Has No Title / Grey Seal /Jamaica Jerk-Off / I’ve Seen That Movie Too / Sweet Painted Lady / The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-34) / Dirty Little Girl / All the Girls / Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n’ Roll) / Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting / Roy Rogers / Social Disease / Harmony
November 10, 1973
8 weeks
“We had decided years before that we would never even attempt to make a double album,” says producer Gus Dudgeon, “because we could count the number of double albums we thought were worth diddly-shit on one hand. We more or less felt it was kind of an ego trip that very seldom paid off. You’re asking people to pay more money and if you are going to do that, you really have to justify it.”
Yet that vow never to release a double album would soon be broken due to an unusual set of circumstances. Initially, Elton John and company began work on their new album in Jamaica, where the Rolling Stones had just completed their Goats Head Soup album, but things didn’t go as planned. “When we went to Jamaica, Elton wrote the songs he needed for what became Yellow Brick Road, including the song ‘Yellow Brick Road,”‘ says Dudgeon. But then, due to severe technical problems in the studio, the Jamaican sessions were aborted.
It was decided that the session would resume at Strawberry Studios in France, where Elton had recorded his two previous albums. “At the Chateau he sat down and wrote some more songs, because that was what he was used to doing. It was like, ‘Blimey, I’m here. It’s five days before we start recording, we’ll do some rehearsals, and I’ll write some songs.’ So all of a sudden, we actually had a bunch more songs, which made it more than a single album and there was no way we wanted to throw anything away. We thought everything was good. If the Jamaican sessions hadn’t cancelled out, it would have been a single like all of the others.”
The two-record set included a diverse selection of material, ranging from the all-out rocker “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” and the R&B-styled “Bennie and the Jets” to the epic title ballad and Marilyn Monroe-inspired “Candle in the Wind.” “Saturday Night’s Alright” was particularly difficult to cut. “The biggest problem was that Dee [Murray, the bassist] and Nigel [Olsson, the drummer] hated playing rock ‘n’ roll. They loved playing ballads, so they really weren’t playing very well,” says Dudgeon. Elton, who was frustrated with their performance, decided to cut his vocal standing up, without playing piano, to get his sidemen into the groove. “We actually got a good take as a result,” Dudgeon says. “And then we just put a bit of piano in afterwards.”
“Bennie and the Jets” was a pseudo-live recording. “But I did use audience reaction from an Elton concert, which he had done in London,” says Dudgeon. The producer was inspired to add the crowd noise while mixing the record. “That opening chord, that ‘chink,’ it reminded me of something someone would do in concert, to remind the band what comes next.”
The song was never intended to be released as a single until it started picking up airplay at an R&B station in Detroit. Dudgeon still recalls when Elton received a phone call from the female DJ, who had a knack for picking hits. “She insisted on telling Elton that if he put out ‘Bennie and the Jets’ as a single, he would have a Number One black hit.” Although the single stalled at number 15 on the R&B chart, it did go on to top the Hot 100 on April 13, 1974. By that time, however, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road had already completed its two-month stay atop the album chart, and Elton had already recorded his next album, Caribou.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of November 10, 1973
1. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John
2. Goats Head Soup, Rolling Stones
3. Brothers and Sisters, Allman Brothers Band
4. Los Cochinos, Cheech & Chong
5. Angel Care, Art Garfunkel