Forty years after its release, Elton John’s *Leather Jackets* remains one of the most troubled chapters in his recording career. Despite contributions from Cliff Richard, Cher and two members of Queen, the 1986 album became a commercial disappointment and a record Elton has repeatedly described as the worst he ever made.
Elton John released Leather Jackets on 27 October 1986, at a particularly difficult point in his personal and professional life. Forty years later, the twentieth studio album in his catalogue remains notable less for its songs than for the circumstances surrounding its creation and the extraordinary honesty with which Elton has subsequently dismissed it.
Released through Geffen Records in the United States and The Rocket Record Company internationally, Leather Jackets was the final Elton John studio album produced by Gus Dudgeon. The producer had been responsible for some of the most successful recordings of Elton’s career, including Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou and Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy.
By 1986, however, their working relationship was operating under very different circumstances.
Elton was struggling with a serious cocaine addiction. His personal life was unsettled and his voice was beginning to show the effects of polyps on his vocal cords. Those polyps would eventually require surgery in 1987, permanently lowering the register of his singing voice.
The album drew from newly recorded material as well as songs left over from the sessions for 1985’s Ice On Fire. The result was a collection that Elton would later regard as evidence of a recording period in which he was simply not functioning at his best.
In his 2019 autobiography Me, Elton delivered one of his most memorable assessments of the record.
He described Leather Jackets as being “about as close to an unmitigated disaster than anything I’ve ever released”. He then added a rather more colourful description of the finished album, writing that it “had four legs, a tail, and barked if a postman came to the door”.
His criticism had been building for years. In 2006, Elton identified Leather Jackets as his least favourite album, saying, “Gus Dudgeon did his best but you can’t work with a loony.”
He was equally unimpressed with the artwork, which presented him in a biker-inspired leather jacket image he later described as “very butch but a total disaster”.
Dudgeon also recalled the recording period in confronting terms. In a 2000 interview, the producer described Elton’s drug use during the sessions and the difficulty of working with an artist whose condition was deteriorating.
“There was a chance he could polish himself off,” Dudgeon recalled, describing how Elton would return from taking cocaine while visibly affected by the drug.
The album nevertheless assembled an impressive list of collaborators.
Cliff Richard joined Elton for the duet “Slow Rivers”, a melodic ballad that provided one of the record’s most recognisable moments. Cher also contributed to the writing of “Don’t Trust That Woman”, credited to Cher and Elton’s songwriting pseudonym, Lady Choc Ice.
Two members of Queen, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor, contributed to “Angeline”. The track also featured backing vocalist Alan Carvell, who received a songwriting credit for the distinctive vocal hooks.
The guest appearances were unusual combinations for an Elton John album, but they were not enough to turn Leather Jackets into a major commercial success.
The album reached number 91 on the US Billboard 200, making it one of the lowest-charting studio albums of Elton’s career in America. It also failed to produce a US Top 40 single. The lead single, “Heartache All Over The World”, subsequently became another target of Elton’s criticism. He later identified it as the worst song he had ever recorded.
The United Kingdom was more receptive, with the album reaching number 24.
Australia provided a considerably stronger result. Leather Jackets peaked at number four on the Kent Music Report album chart, while “Heartache All Over The World” reached number seven on the Australian singles chart. It was a reminder that the album’s fortunes were not quite as uniformly disappointing internationally as its reputation might suggest.
Elton also brought two songs from the album to Australian audiences during his 1986 Tour De Force concerts, performing “Heartache All Over The World” and “Slow Rivers” during his shows with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
The Australian tour ran from 5 November to 14 December 1986, bringing Elton’s band together with the 88-piece orchestra under conductor James Newton Howard. The concerts were subsequently documented on the 1987 album Live In Australia With The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. “Slow Rivers” was not included on the live release.
In later years, the album has continued to attract mostly unfavourable retrospective assessments. However, Elton’s own judgement is not entirely shared by everyone involved in his career. Bernie Taupin, his longtime songwriting partner, has previously suggested that there are worthwhile songs on Leather Jackets and has questioned whether it deserves to be considered Elton’s weakest album.
Two of its songs, “Hoop Of Fire” and “I Fall Apart”, were later included in the 2020 archival collection Elton: Jewel Box, giving them another opportunity to be heard outside the context of the original album.
There was also a renewed vinyl release in 2023, remastered at Lurssen Mastering and cut at Abbey Road Studios, preserving the original 11-track sequence.
Elton’s next studio album, Reg Strikes Back, followed in 1988. By then, he had undergone vocal surgery and was moving towards a new phase of his career.
Leather Jackets remains an uncomfortable listening experience for an artist who has spent decades reflecting openly on his personal struggles. Its guest list, Australian chart success and handful of worthwhile compositions provide some counterbalance to its reputation, but Elton has never attempted to rewrite history.
Four decades on, the album remains the record he would rather forget, and one of the rare occasions when the Rocket Man has been considerably more critical of his own work than almost any music critic could be.
Leather Jackets – Original Track Listing
Leather Jackets
Hoop Of Fire
Don’t Trust That Woman
Go It Alone
Gypsy Heart
Slow Rivers (with Cliff Richard)
Heartache All Over The World
Angeline
Memory Of Love
Paris
I Fall Apart
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