Released on 22 October 1976, Elton John’s ambitious double album broke from the commercial formula of his biggest years, bringing together gospel, orchestral pop, jazz and dance rhythms. Fifty years later, Blue Moves remains one of the records John has singled out as a personal favourite.
At the height of his commercial success, Elton John made a double album that refused to follow the formula that had taken him to the top. Released on 22 October 1976, Blue Moves stretched across two records, moved between contrasting musical styles and marked a turning point for an artist whose extraordinary run of 1970s releases had established him as one of the biggest names in popular music.
Fifty years later, Blue Moves remains a fascinating entry in John’s catalogue. Its length, shifting moods and willingness to experiment made it a divisive release, but John has repeatedly identified the album among his personal favourites.
The timing was significant. John had followed Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy with Rock Of The Westies, extending a run of American number-one studio albums. His duet with Kiki Dee, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”, had also become an international hit in 1976. Yet as the decade progressed, the demands of recording, touring and maintaining an extraordinary release schedule were beginning to take their toll.
Blue Moves reflected an artist prepared to move beyond the tightly constructed pop albums that had defined his breakthrough years. Rather than concentrating on a succession of potential singles, John and his collaborators created a sprawling collection that allowed instrumental passages, orchestral arrangements and gospel performances to occupy considerable space.
The album was also the first studio release issued through John’s own Rocket Record Company, giving the project an additional significance in the development of his career.
The relationship between John and lyricist Bernie Taupin remained central to the album. Their songwriting partnership had produced the defining songs of John’s rise, while producer Gus Dudgeon had helped translate their work into the expansive studio recordings that became a hallmark of the period.
Blue Moves would be their last full studio collaboration for several years. Its release therefore captured the partnership at a point of transition, before John and Taupin eventually resumed their familiar creative relationship in the 1980s.
The recording sessions were spread across Toronto, London and California between March and June 1976. Basic tracks were recorded at Eastern Sound in Toronto, with subsequent work undertaken at Abbey Road in London, Brother Studios in Santa Monica and Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. Mixing was completed at Marquee Studios in London.
The personnel reflected both continuity and change. Guitarist Davey Johnstone, percussionist Ray Cooper and keyboard player James Newton Howard contributed to the sessions. For drummer Roger Pope and guitarist Caleb Quaye, the album marked the end of their studio association with John during this phase of his career.
The guest musicians added further dimensions to the record. David Crosby and Graham Nash supplied backing vocals on “Cage The Songbird”, a song conceived during the Rock Of The Westies period and written as a tribute to French singer Édith Piaf.
Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys and Toni Tennille also contributed vocals to the album, including “Chameleon”. Their involvement helped give the record a broader vocal palette than a conventional Elton John release.
Orchestral arrangements by Paul Buckmaster brought additional weight to the music, with contributions from the Martyn Ford Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. Gospel singers from the Cornerstone Institutional Baptist Church and the Southern California Community Choir, directed by Rev. James Cleveland, gave three tracks a different scale and energy: “Boogie Pilgrim”, “Where’s The Shoorah?” and the closing “Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance!)”.
The range of Blue Moves is apparent from its opening stretch. “Your Starter For…” leads into “Tonight”, an extended orchestral ballad that builds gradually rather than rushing towards a conventional pop chorus. Its arrangement gives John’s piano and vocal performance room to develop, establishing a reflective tone that returns throughout the album.
Elsewhere, “One Horse Town” and “Boogie Pilgrim” explore more rhythm-driven territory. Gospel influences, brass and danceable grooves sit alongside melancholy ballads, while the album’s instrumental passages make it feel less like a collection assembled around radio singles than a broad survey of John’s musical interests.
“Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word” became the album’s most enduring song. Its restrained arrangement and direct expression of emotional uncertainty offered a contrast to the exuberance of John’s earlier hits. The single reached the American top ten and the British top 20, becoming one of the defining ballads of his career.
“Idol” provided another of the album’s most affecting moments. Its portrait of a fading star took on additional resonance decades later when George Michael performed the song during his Symphonica period. At a Royal Albert Hall benefit, Michael introduced it as a song about an ageing star, with John present in the audience.
“Out Of The Blue”, meanwhile, found an unexpected second life as the closing theme of the original Top Gear television format, giving the instrumental a cultural association far removed from the album’s original context.
The final track, “Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance!)”, brings the album to a gospel-inflected conclusion. Its extended arrangement captures the record’s willingness to let a performance unfold beyond the conventional limits of a three-minute single.
Despite its experimental character, Blue Moves was hardly a commercial failure. It reached number three on both the American and British album charts, although its position in the United States ended John’s sequence of consecutive number-one studio albums.
Following “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word”, the title “Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance!)” became a single, while “Crazy Water” was released as a single in the United Kingdom. Both follow-ups reached the top 30 in their respective markets.
The album’s reception was more complicated. Some contemporary critics considered the double-album format excessive, arguing that a shorter selection would have made a stronger statement. Others found its prevailing melancholy less immediately appealing than the exuberance of John’s earlier work.
Those reservations remain part of the album’s reputation. Blue Moves does not offer the same concentrated run of instantly recognisable hits as some of John’s best-known records. Its rewards instead lie in the contrast between its songs, the depth of its arrangements and the sense of an artist exploring possibilities while still operating at the height of his commercial powers.
That freedom is central to its lasting appeal. The album was not an attempt to reproduce the sound of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy. It was a different kind of statement, one that allowed John, Taupin and Dudgeon to pursue musical ideas that did not necessarily need to fit a familiar commercial template.
The release of Blue Moves preceded a significant change in John’s professional life. He would step back from the relentless pace of his earlier years, and his working relationship with Taupin and Dudgeon would enter a different phase. The album consequently stands at the end of one particularly productive period and the beginning of a less predictable chapter.
Its place in the catalogue is not defined by chart performance alone. Blue Moves captures the ambition and contradictions of an artist who could command the singles charts while making room for long-form arrangements, unusual song structures and performances that resisted easy categorisation.
Fifty years after its release, the album still invites debate about whether its sprawling format is a strength or a weakness. But that is also what makes it an important part of John’s history. At a time when he could have relied on an established formula, he chose to make a record that was broader, moodier and less predictable.
For an artist whose 1970s catalogue is often remembered for its extraordinary run of hits, Blue Moves remains a reminder that Elton John’s ambitions extended well beyond the singles chart. Its standing among his own favourites suggests that the freedom to experiment was as important to him as commercial success.
Tracklisting
Disc 1 / Side One & Two
• Your Starter for…
• Tonight
• One Horse Town
• Chameleon
• Boogie Pilgrim
• Cage the Songbird
• Crazy Water
• Shoulder Holster
Disc 2 / Side Three & Four
• Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
• Out of the Blue
• Between Seventeen and Twenty
• The Wide-Eyed and Laughing
• Someone’s Final Song
• Where’s the Shoorah?
• If There’s a God in Heaven (What’s He Waiting For?)
• Idol
• Theme from a Non-Existent TV Series
• Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)
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