You Wanted It (I Think), So Here It Is ... Elton John's "Greatest Hits, Vol. 2"

I opened this thread expecting to vote for "I'm Still Standing". Forgot about all of these others.

i will be esp. curious if "island girl" gets any votes at all -- it's one of the most prototypically 70s songs in existence AFAIC (not just the music, but also those bernie taupin lyrics that probably weren't all that PC back then but nowadays kinda REALLY stick out like a sore thumb -- not to mention that it blows my mind that anyone would be "turning tricks for the dudes in the big city" on lexington & 47th street at any point -- NYC must've been RADICALLY different then, or bernie was totally ignorant of manhattan's street geography [??]).

"I'm Still Standing" is the next volume, I think.

TINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCERTINYDANCER

I feel strongly about this.

BLUE JEAN BABY...

I can bitch, I can bitch
`Cause I'm better than you
It's the way that I move
The things that I do

great cover art! never seen that before.

oh my god, 'tiny dancer' by such a long way

PF. Gene Page is an unsung minor hero.

"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is his best ever song, so that's the obvious pick here.

it blows my mind that anyone would be "turning tricks for the dudes in the big city" on lexington & 47th street at any point

well a few blocks away 53rd & 3rd was still the youngmale hustling spot when I worked around there in 82, you'd see obvious activity in the middle of the workday. and the year after that I was working down on Park Avenue South and every AM the hookers would taunt and tempt the businessmen on their way to work.

new york city has changed a lot just in the time I've lived here. it's hard to imagine sometimes.

"I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)"

I always loved this song and think it would be better remembered if it had a better title. at the time I thought it was about Squeaky Fromme trying to assasinate Gerald Ford *arcane 70s reference

Philadelphia Freedom is ALWAYS piping out of the office of the copy editor. And thus ALWAYS in my fucking head.

(Seriously, the guy had to count that he actually had 13 albums in the office, and yet I hear that song probably about twice a day).

my vote shall be "Levon," and it shall be a good song.

"Someone Saved My Life Tonight", Elton plays Nilsson

"Funk"!

Hmm...tough one. I think Philadelphia Freedom is "the best" song on here, all things considered, but I have been kind of obsessed with Levon lately; plus the latter seems more like an archetypal Bernie/Elton creation. Nonsensical lyrics nonetheless delivered with genuine-seeming passion through a great melody...

"The Bitch Is Back", because Elton is singing about himself, and that's one of the things I like about him - he's a git sometimes, but he knows he's a git. "Pinball Wizard" comes a close second.

"I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)" is my favorite of his ballads (was this really a hit?). There's something fervid and Technicolor about it that makes it spiritually closer to "The Bitch is Back" or "Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n' Roll)" than "Daniel" or "Tiny Dancer."

I always took it as a coming out song. But I rarely know what his songs are about.

But I rarely know what his songs are about.

-- Kevin John Bozelka, Monday, 10 December 2007 20:32 (Yesterday) Link

This is the essence of Bernie Taupin.

I must have picked this record up fifteen times, always expecting to see "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" -- instead we get "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds."

I've always loved Someone Saved My Life Tonight

Levon, though Philly Freedom is close.

Man, this is tough. I could go with any of six choices...

...can't decide.

"sweet freedom whispered in my ear...
you're a butterfly"

I always vote for songs about prostitutes

I'm Still Standing!@ yeah yeah yeah

I voted for the someone shaved my wife tonight.

you nearly had me roped and tiiiiiiiiiiiied

Love "Grow Some Funk of Your Own" (his best [only?] Stones rip) and "Philadelphia Freedom," but "...Robert Ford" is weird and beautiful like Bowie's "Quicksand."

I must have picked this record up fifteen times, always expecting to see "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" -- instead we get "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds."

wikipedia informs us that "don't go breaking my heart" was in fact on the original version of this album, along with the amazing "sorry seems to be the hardest word," but both were pulled in the '90s because of rights issues, and replaced with future ILM fave "i feel like a bullet (in the gun of robert ford)" and future cameron crowe fave "tiny dancer." coincidentally, "breaking my heart" and "sorry seems" are also two of the clearest, most straightforward lyrics bernie taupin ever wrote.

wikipedia informs us that "don't go breaking my heart" was in fact on the original version of this album, along with the amazing "sorry seems to be the hardest word,"

I thought there was something fishy about that track listing! I used to have the original vinyl (lol I'm old etc) and I thought I was just having an alzheimers moment.

"only Stones rip"? dude, "The Bitch Is Back" and "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting"

Many xposts:

Taupin is pretty opaque -- "I like livin' easy without family ties/'Til the whippoorwill of freedom zapped me right between the eyes" -- but his claim that "Levon" is pretty straightforward makes sense to me.

He is indeed. My favorite ever line of his comes from "Grey Seal": "The roots were formed by twisted roots, your roots were twisted then." What the hell? But "Solar Prestige a Gammon" just might be his quintessential lyric.

Has anyone ever made a Steely Dan-esque hoodwinking-the-masses argument for Taupin?

SOMEONE SAVED SOMEONE SAVED SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIIIGHT

...but only because I really only discovered it a year and a half ago, whereas I've been rocking "Levon" for the past seven and have gotten a little burnt out on it.

"only Stones rip"? dude, "The Bitch Is Back" and "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting"

I see those as glam more than Stone rips. "Saturday Night's..." always sounded like Mott the Hoople to me.

Did "Grow some funk" ever get compiled onto any other EJ hits compilation that wasn't "every single" styled? (or "Ego"?)

heh, like I care.

Taupin is pretty opaque -- "I like livin' easy without family ties/'Til the whippoorwill of freedom zapped me right between the eyes"

that one isn't opaque at all! it's kinda awful, but not opaque.

Did "Grow some funk" ever get compiled onto any other EJ hits compilation that wasn't "every single" styled? (or "Ego"?)

I'd love to see a poll of the singles from his underrepresented wilderness period (1977-1982).

granted, most of them suck (no one mention "Little Jeannie," please).

But it's nonsensical. He liked living easy without family ties UNTIL he had a dramatic encounter with the concept freedom?

Then again, not the first illogical Taupin lyric.

i think he's saying he liked living free and easy until he was zapped between the eyes by the downsides of that lifestyle. whippoorwill = loneliness.

Philadelphia Freedom for the bassline alone. Also, it makes me cry (with happiness).

whippoorwill = loudmouth who won't shut the fuck up at three in the morning.

(in my book, at least.)

I read in one of those Billboard #1 Hits! books that "Philadelphia Freedom" was written for Billie Jean King and that bass drum beat is supposed to be the sound of a tennis ball hitting the court.

loudmouth who won't shut the fuck up at three in the morning.

yet another downside to the free-and-easy lifestyle!

the philadelphia freedoms were the tennis team that billie jean king coached.

Once again, fcc living up to his username.

What's the Federal Communications Commission got to do with it?

Srsly, tho, that's interesting about those two missing songs - always thought they were kinda conspicuously absent. I never owned the original.

"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" for me, but another tough choice. Can't wait for Vol. 3.

wasn't a volume three released in the eighties and replaced with a new one in the nineties?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

one more time, cos i like the photo and the likeness:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/242/445423237_80aaadad2f.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Tiny Dancer is not even on this album.

That is factually incorrect.

Okay, well the version I had did not include this song.. And it had "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word."

Yeah, as fact checking cuz noted above, "Tiny Dancer" wasn't on the original 1977 pressing, but was added to the 1992. That song is kind of a revisionist hit -- missed the top 40 in the U.S. at the time and didn't even chart in the U.K., became popular later on largely because of Almost Famous. Now suddenly you hear it on classic rock radio as often as "Rocket Man" or anything else he did in that era.

Oh, my mistake. I should have continued reading the entire thread.

As a child in the late 80s, I always assumed "Tiny Dancer" was a decently well-known song since I heard it on my parents' adult contemporary stations a LOT. 10 years later, I was quite upset to see SPIN placing it in their "singles of the year," since everyone should have been appreciating it all along.

became popular later on largely because of WKRP in Cincinnati

hey I said "largely" not "solely"

It was at least well-known-enough that Friends used the "Tony Danza" joke...

"Hold my order, terrible dresser"

Suprising!

coincidentally, "breaking my heart" and "sorry seems" are also two of the clearest, most straightforward lyrics bernie taupin ever wrote.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 12 December 2007 04:53 (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Whoa, fact checking cuz.. I just saw the 7" in a charity shop (one big crack through the vinyl), Taupin's name isn't on the a-side!