Elton John

It was designed to be a blockbuster and it was. Prior to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John had hits – his second album, Elton John, went Top Ten in the U.S. and U.K., and he had smash singles in "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel" – but this 1973 album was a statement of purpose spilling over two LPs, which was all the better to showcase every element of John's spangled personality…

The quality of his records may fluctuate over the decades, but there has never been any doubt that Elton John retains a keen ear for fashionable pop. So it is no surprise that he handed over tapes from his purple patch of the early '70s – roughly Elton John through Blue Moves – to the Australian dance duo Pnau, giving them full reign to sample, interpolate, splice and dice familiar tunes into new dance tracks…

An Elton John collaborations album made during lockdown featuring a collection of 16 songs, with some of the biggest, most exciting artists in the world today. The lead single 'Cold Heart' featuring Dua Lipa is a mashup of 'Sacrifice' & 'Rocketman', and the album features artists such Brandi Carlile, Charlie Puth, Dua Lipa, Eddie Vedder, Gorillaz, Lil Nas X, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Rina Sawayama, SG Lewis, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, Surfaces, Years & Years, Young Thug, and more.

By 1972, Elton John was already a rising star in America, although most casual listeners still identified him as part of the singer/songwriter explosion, thanks to the success of "Your Song" and "Levon." Honky Château changed all that, beginning with the success of "Honky Cat," a rousing New Orleans-ish R&B powerhouse that kicks off this terrific collection of songs. This was the album that first revealed John as a pure-pop craftsman, and he's all over the musical map on this set, moving from country-ish rock to blues-based rockers…