The Week UK 19 September 2020

One of the greatest stars of the rock & roll era, Elton John exploded like a supernova in the early 1970s and sustained a career that kept him at the top of the charts for the next five decades. He had a Billboard Top 40 hit single every year between 1970 and 1996, a sign that he knew how to both change with the times and mold the times to fit him. John's earliest records were part of the moody, introspective post-'60s singer/songwriter movement, but once he had a hit with "Your Song," the pianist revealed he could also craft Beatles-like pop and pound out rockers with equal aplomb. As "Rocket Man," "Crocodile Rock," "Daniel," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and "Bennie and the Jets" – songs John wrote with his lifelong collaborator Bernie Taupin – climbed into the Top Ten on either side of the Atlantic, John was inescapable during the first half of the '70s. His versatility, combined with his effortless melodic skills, and flamboyant stage shows, became his calling cards, sustaining him through shifts in fame and fortune. Eventually, John reached outside of pop music, writing songs for Disney's The Lion King and collaborating with Tim Rice on Aida, yet he never abandoned the form: during the 2010s and 2020s, he balanced fashionable collaborations with emerging stars with albums that hearkened back to his moody records of the early '70s. In 2024, he joined the elite group of EGOT winners after earning an Emmy Award for his concert special Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium.

"The Circus" is the 5th studio album by British pop band Take That. It was released in the United Kingdom on 1 December 2008. The album was their second, and also their last, as a four-piece, as founding member Robbie Williams returned for their sixth studio album "Progress" (2010), before both Williams and Jason Orange departed prior to the release of 2014's "III". "The Circus" debuted at #1 on the UK Albums Chart and was the 2nd best-selling album of 2008 in the UK, selling over 1.5 million copies. The album's lead single "Greatest Day" became Take That's 11th #1. Four further singles were released which failed to match the success of "Greatest Day": "Up All Night", "The Garden", "Said It All" and "Hold Up a Light".

As adjuncts to our highly popular “America’s Greatest Hits” series of collections for each calendar year in the 50s and early ‘60s, we have already produced collections based on landmark moments in the Billboard charts – “The First Top 100 Nov. 1955” (ACQCD7062), “The First Hot 100 Aug. 1958” (ACQCD7083), “The First Hot 100 of the '60s” (ACQCD7097), “The 'Heartbreak Hotel' Top 100” (ACQCD7122)and “The Day The Music Died - Feb 3rd 1959 Hot 100” (ACQCD7134) and “The 'Telstar' Hot 100 December 22nd 1962” (ACQCD7144) each comprising the records in the Top 100 for the date in question. This collection celebrates a notable chart event of January 1962, namely when Chubby Checker’s record “The Twist” topped the US pop charts for the second time, signalling the approaching peak of the worldwide Twist dance craze – he had first made No.1 well over a year earlier, in September 1960, since which time the dance had started to catch on all round the world.

"Walls" is the 36th studio album by American singer and songwriter Barbra Streisand, released on November 2, 2018 by Columbia Records. The lead single "Don't Lie to Me" was written as a criticism of America's political climate amid the presidency of Donald Trump, while the title track alludes to Trump's frequent calls for a wall at the Mexico border. "Walls" debuted at #12 on the US Billboard 200, and opened at #6 on the UK Albums Chart, selling 15,604 copies and giving Streisand her 36th Top 75 album and 15th Top 10 entry in the United Kingdom. In Australia, "Walls" debuted at #7 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy is the ninth studio album by Elton John. The album is an autobiographical account of the early musical careers of Elton John (Captain Fantastic) and his long-term lyricist Bernie Taupin (the Brown Dirt Cowboy). It was released in May 1975 by MCA in America and DJM in the UK and was an instant commercial success. The album reached number 1 in its first week of release on the US Billboard 200, the first ever album to do so, reportedly selling 1.4 million copies within 4 days of release, and it stayed in that position in the chart for seven weeks. In 2003, the album was ranked number 158 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list.

25 years since its original release, Sparks’ 16th studio album ‘Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins’ is reissued with remastered and bonus material. The original, remastered album is accompanied by a further two CDs of eclectic bonus tracks and rarities and, in a rare move, Sparks have opened the vaults to share previously unreleased demos and recordings. After a few years working on the as-yet-unrealised Mai The Psychic Girl film project - with both Tsui Hark (whose vocals appear on this record) and Tim Burton -, collaborating with Scottish band Finitribe on 1993’s ‘National Crime Awareness Week’, and producing demos for Star Trek regular and future Sparks drummer Christi Haydon, Ron and Russell Mael returned to the pop forum and the charts in 1994 with ‘Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins’.