Even those who customarily dismiss Elton John as a somewhat bland and sentimental balladeer would find much to admire in Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, the best album he has ever made. The track listing reads like an early Greatest Hits collection; it contains not only the original version of "Candle In The Wind" but such raucous and gleeful songs as "Bennie And The Jets", "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" and "Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n' Roll)". From the impassioned opening medley of "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" to the gentle closer, "Harmony", there are few duff moments among these 17 tracks. "All The Young Girls Love Alice" is a savage but wry tale of lesbian exploitation, and the title song is just short of lovely. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is both a joy for fans and a genuine surprise for the uninitiated. --David Bennun

GYBR is usually referred to as a classic album and routinely appears on "Greatest Albums Of All Time" lists. The truth is, it is a terrible album that happens to contain a few classic `70s Pop tunes - namely, the title track, "Candle In The Wind", "Harmony" and "Roy Rogers". There are a couple of half-decent album fillers - the melodic "Sweet Painted Lady" and the rather overblown "I've Seen That Movie Too" - but the rest of the album is abysmal: the falsetto caterwauling of "Bennie And The Jets", the annoying lilt of "Danny Bailey", the horrid `50s pastiche of "Your Sister Can't Twist". Some of the other tracks are actually rather unpleasant and leave a bad taste in the mouth. What is more, the album is very poorly produced. A case in point is "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" on which the volume levels of various instruments appear to vary significantly throughout the mix. In fact, the overall volume levels jump about right through the album, giving it a patchy and rather shoddy feel. One might have thought that this kind of thing would have been fixed during the so-called "Re-mastering" process. But apparently not.

Definitely one of the best albums that Elton and Bernie have ever done. This was the first really cohesive album, though it covered a fantastic range of styles so well that most other artists couldn't even come close to the breadth of this album. From the out and out prog rock of "Funeral For A Friend" to the absolutely beautiful closing ballad "Harmony", you feel as if you are going on a journey with Elton, Bernie and the band. And this line up was without doubt the best band that Elton has ever had behind him. The rhythm section of Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson was truly magical, and suited Elton's music so well. Not to mention Davey Johnstone who is still an Elton John fixture.

Basically, there are so many truly classic songs on here, that to single out one or two would be just plain wrong. Yes, the album has it's weaker tracks (All The Young Girls Love Alice being a good example),but the quality of the other songs more than makes up. Even though this album is now more than 30 years old, it puts a lot of others made in the meantime to shame - in such ways as lyrics, songwriting craft, and musicianship.

To my way of thinking, this album was only bettered by Elton et al once - on the absolutely sublime masterpice that is Captain Fantastic.

While it is possible to argue that there are perhaps a couple of Elton John albums which may rival (or even better) 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' in terms of song quality, there aren't any that have managed to match it in stylistic range. In other words 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' successfully manages to encompass every facet of Elton's musical styles in a double album package that is sharp and bright in tone with enough variety to never seem boring. It also makes a strong case against those who feel Elton's forte is in being a bland balladeer.
Rock 'n' roll - ' Your Sister Can't Twist ..', 'Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting', reggae - 'Jamaica Jerk Off', and soul - 'Bennie And The Jets', sits perfectly alongside Elton's more traditional ballads such as the well known 'Candle In The Wind' and 'Harmony' in an album that works on every level.
Bernie Taupin's lyrics are also varied in terms of theme ranging from his tribute to Marilyn Monroe - 'Candle In The Wind', prostitution - 'Sweet Painted Lady', cowboys - 'Roy Rogers', the film 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' and the unusual, futuristic 'Bennie And The Jets'.
Not every song is prime Elton though - 'Social Disease' and 'All The Girls Love Alice' aren't particularly striking but to be fair they're not exactly bad either.
Versitility is the key to the greatness of 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road', whether musically, lyrically and also in Elton's vocal performance. In fact it's refreshing to hear what a really fine and versitile voice Elton had in his youth and it's an album like this that blows away any hint of the personality driven Elton in more recent years who's forte when he does record tends to be more often than not, boring and overblown ballads. On 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' he has greater scope which, whatever he does in the future he'll never be able to match. Elton's range had diminished with age to such an extent that there's no way he could ever record an album so diverse and varied as 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' again - that's why it's an album that deserves to be cherished.

Rightly this album is rated as the greatest album Elton John ever made. In fact its not my favourite but thats a different story.

The breadth of material on this is amazing. It opens with 'Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding' which is a stunning prog-rock overture followed seamlessly by a hard rock song. Remember before he became Elton John the young Reg Dwight auditioned for both King Crimson and Gentle Giant!
Following track 1 is the original and best version of Candle in the Wind. Sadly this tune has been overplayed... Bennie and the Jets is track 3. A great crowd pleaser (with artificial live feel on the track). This track was huge in the U.S. and it went to the top of the R&B charts. It also best displays Elton's Piano playing and has a completely unique feel to it.

The title track Goodbye Yellow Brick Road sounds like a standard that was written in the 40's or 50's. This is one of those songs that Elton will be remembered for in the decades to come.

On these opening tracks you can hear (but not see!) everything that made Elton such a huge star:
Primarily great song-writing, but also high quality musicianship - listen to Nigel Olsson's drumming or Davey Johnstone's guitar playing on this album.

With one exception the rest of the album maintains a similar high standard. Jamaica Jerk-Off is the one track I really don't like but there's 16 others so I'm not complaining!

One of the very first albums I ever purchased, when still a young whippersnapper ! And still a regular on my playlist.Elton really rocked back then, his voice could comfortably hit those high notes that are so familiar to him.The singer/songwriter partnership with Bernie Taupin is one of the all time great combos in my opinion.Elton seems to be able to go from pulsey rock to slow, melodic tunes with ease. This album has them all, from the outstanding "Funeral for a friend/Love lies bleeding that kicks the album off to beautiful slowies such as "Candle in the wind " and "I've seen that movie too".If you've never heard this album (which I doubt !),then do yourself a favour and go buy it !