Elton John’s classic ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ album will be reissued with a bonus disc featuring covers of songs by Ed Sheeran, Fall Out Boy and Zac Brown Band.
Ed Sheeran will sing ‘Candle In The Wind;, Zac Brown Band will perform ‘Harmony’ and Fall Out Boy’ will tackle ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’ on box set and deluxe edition of the album.
Other guests on the covers disc include Miguel featuring Wale, Hunter Hayes, The Band Perry, John Grant, Emeli Sande and Imelda May.
Complete list of the cover versions suite on the Box Set and Deluxe Edition
1. Ed Sheeran – Candle In The Wind
2. Miguel featuring Wale – Bennie And The Jets
3. Hunter Hayes – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
4. The Band Perry – Grey Seal
5. John Grant – Sweet Painted Lady
6. Emeli Sandé – All The Girls Love Alice
7. Imelda May – Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock And Roll)
8. Fall Out Boy – Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
9. Zac Brown Band – Harmony
‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ was released in May, 1973. It was Elton John’s seventh studio album. The album was recorded at the famed Chateau d’Herouville in Paris were he also recorded and named the previous album ‘Honky Chateau’.
According to Universal Music:
The album spent three weeks at #1 in Australia – and eight weeks at No.1 and went platinum seven times over in the US. It also contains Elton and co-writer Bernie Taupin’s most successful song, ‘Candle In The Wind’ – a worldwide hit three times, in three different versions, in three successive decades, ultimately becoming the biggest-selling single of all time. It also features dynamite standards such as ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’, and ‘Bennie And The Jets’, the latter being the song that led to Elton being the first white performer to appear on influential American R&B TV show Soul Train. The album is also ranked in Rolling Stone Magazine’s Top 100 Great Albums Of All Time. In a career littered with highlights that other artists can only dream of, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road stands as a towering achievement, a defining moment in the most exciting era in rock history.
Often referred to as the pinnacle of Elton and co-writer Bernie Taupin’s creative powers and commercial success, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was the eighth studio album the pair had released in a three-year period. The recording of the album wasn’t the smoothest of experiences. After an initial attempt at recording in Kingston, Jamaica, was derailed by the double whammy of industrial action at the studio and further disruption was caused by a world boxing title fight in the town, Elton and the band returned to the familiar settings of Chateau d’Herouville. The album was completed in a staggering seventeen days (including mixing!) and the result is a body of work of huge ambition – kicking off with the grandiose, epic prog rock sound of ‘Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding’, and effortlessly segueing between pop, hard rock, soul and stunning, heart-wrenching ballads.
The album artwork was also a giant leap forward creatively for Elton; whereas earlier album artwork either didn’t feature Elton at all, or showed him as an earnest early 70’s songwriter, here he can been seen resplendent in sparkling platform boots, a satin bomber jacket and, of course, his soon-to-be trademark flamboyant eyewear. The sight of him stepping from an unglamorous normal street into a magical fantasy world, is not only a metaphor for the transition he was going through as an artist but is one of the most defining images of early 1970’s rock music.
Complete list of formats of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
1. 1-CD set: 2014 CD remaster of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering from the original analogue tapes. Digital equivalent editions: Remaster, Mastered For iTunes, HD Edition
2. 2-CD set: 2014 CD remaster of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road as above, 9 cover versions, best of Live At Hammersmith CD
Digital equivalent editions: Remaster, Mastered For iTunes
3. Five Disc CD/DVD box set: containing standard album, 9 cover version disc, single B-sides and bonus tracks, complete live At Hammersmith CD, DVD of Bryan Forbes’ 1973 film Elton John And Bernie Taupin Say Goodbye To Norma Jean and Other Things, and 100-page illustrated hardback book packed with rare photos, memorabilia and a new essay containing interviews with Elton John and Bernie Taupin). Digital editions for audio: Remaster, Mastered For iTunes
4. Standard 12” vinyl album. Mastered for vinyl by Doug Sax and Robert Hadley at The Mastering Lab, California. 180GM audiophile quality vinyl with download card
5. Limited edition yellow vinyl
6. HD Pure Audio Blu-Ray album
Track List
Disc 1
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 Love Alice
Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock’n’Roll)
Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
Roy Rogers
Social Disease
Harmony
Disc 2
Candle In The Wind – Ed Sheeran
Bennie and the Jets – Miguel
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Hunter Hayes
Grey Seal – The Band Perry
Sweet Painted Lady – John Grant
All The Girls Love Alice – Emili Sande
Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock And Roll) – Imelda May
Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting – Fall Out Boy
Harmony – Zac Brown Band
Grey Seal (piano demo) – Elton John
Grey Seal (1970 Original) – Elton John
Jack Rabbit – Elton John
Whenever You’re Ready (We’ll Go Steady) – Elton John
Screw You (Young Man Blues) – Elton John
Candle In The Wind (Acoustic) – Elton John
Step Into Christmas – Elton John
Ho Ho Ho (Who’d Be A Turkey At Christmas?) – Elton John
Philadelphia Freedom – Elton John
Pinball Wizard – Elton John
Disc 3 – BBC Elton John Hammersmith Odeon – December 22, 1973
Funeral For A Friend
Love Lies Bleeding
Candle In The Wind
Hercules
Rocket Man
Bennie And The Jets
Daniel
This Song Has No Title
Honky Cat
Disc 4 – BBC Elton John Hammersmith Odeon – December 22, 1973
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
The Ballad Of Danny Bailey
Elderberry Wine
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
I’ve Seen That Movie Too
All The Girls Love Alice
Crocodile Rock
Your Song
Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
DVD
Bryan Forbes’ 1973 film Elton John and Bernie Taupin Say Goodbye To Norma Jean and Other Things (45 minutes)
Elton John ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ box set and deluxe edition will be released on March 21 through Universal Music.
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