Posted on: September 3, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Individuals know who exactly Elton John is. There is no use describing eir career or the trials and tribulations that marked the music or the style that created the music. Rather, individuals need to know that there are seventeen of John’s hits on the CD, with “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Bennie and the Jets”, and “Crocodile Rock” as three of the first four songs that individuals hear. There are other songs that were hit sin their own right but may not be as immediately known as the others; “Daniel” and “Philadelphia Freedom” fill out the first segment of the CD. There have been a number of greatest hits compilations released under John’s name in the last twenty years, but it is really the additional material present on “Rocket Man” that makes this a must-buy. In this limited edition CD, there is a DVD present that captures 5 of the live performances of John during the “Red Piano” concert era.

The most interesting piece of music present on “Rocket Man” has to be John’s duet with Robert Downey, Jr; the resulting track is “I Want Love”. For the Elton John completists, the set includes the video for “Tinderbox”. The disc is the only legitimate place to get this video. The aforementioned completists will already have all of the album tracks from the original albums, but the live footage is something that is considerably harder to find. Chances are good that any Elton John fan will have a slightly different tracklist for a “greatest hits” compilation, but “Rocket Man” provides the casual fan with John’s biggest hits throughout eir’s storied career. The normal price of this compilation is quite a value when one considers the sheer amount of information that is present on the album.

Pick this greatest hits up, and pick up John’s next album, whenever that may be released. Island created this album with both casual and completist fans alike; the casual fans do not have to go and listen through live versions of tracks that they cannot sing easily along with, while the rare, live footage is present on the DVD. This multi-method way to create a greatest hits compilation should be done more often by record labels. That way, no one will be left out of the loop, and more copies can fly off of the shelves. Here’s to hoping that Elton John can stick around for another twenty years and craft a whole new greatest hits containing these later efforts.

Top Tracks: Philadelphia Freedom, Tinderbox

Rating: 6.3/10

Elton John – Rocket Man: Number Ones / 2007 Island / 17 Tracks / http://www.eltonjohn.com / http://www.islandrecords.com / Reviewed 15 June 2007

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