This post originally appeared on my now defunct My Thermos blog on September 5, 2008 and is being reprinted here with my own permission.
I’ve been a fan of Elton John for a long time. His writing collaboration with Bernie Taupin has created some of the greatest music of my generation. He is an amazing live performer, one I’ve seen countless times over the years. His string of 7 albums from 1971′s Madman Across The Water through 1975′s Captain Fantastic is a staggeringly amazing collection of songs. This amazingly prolific period is surpassed probably only by The Beatles for sheer quantity of quality work in such a short period of time.
But Elton is also one of those artists that I occasionally despise. You see, for every Tumbleweed Connection there was a Leather Jackets. For every “Amoreena” there was a “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” A quick scan of ratings in my library shows a tremendous number of 3 and 4 star entries along with a boatload of “never play this again” – it seems I either love him or hate him.
But when he clicks, it really is magic.
So once again inspired by Nat (now at Another Aging Hipster) the idea is the same as always:
Pick one of your favorite bands / artists and list 10-15 songs by that band / artist to compile your own best of compilation.
So here goes – The Best of Elton John as compiled by me:
Dispense the rest of Build Your Own Best Of – Elton John
When preparing my BYOBOs, I start with the list of songs first (the fun part) and then I write this cursory introductory part. I usually think that I should add a bit of history or a biography of the artist or something to make things more interesting. Ultimately though, I figure that if people are familiar enough with the band to be interested in the list, they don’t need my background factoids – and there is so much information available elsewhere that I feel I’m just reinventing the wheel.
