Essential Elton John Songs

Elton is one of the first artists I can ever recall hearing, along with Billy Joel, Phil Collins, and Fleetwood Mac. Other than Phil, it took me years to really appreciate the rest, with Elton John being the most recent. I really dove into his work after falling in love with the Rocketman bio-pic upon its release in the summer of 2019. I quickly picked up the soundtrack, along with a few others like Honky Chateau.

10. "Dark Diamond"(Songs From The West Coast)
One of my favorite songs by Jimmy Eat World is "Diamond", which feels like it describes me, in that a diamond grows over time and you can't rush your personal growth. This song from Elton is almost the antithesis of that song-- in which too many walls have been built around someone and they can't break through. It's boosted by an appearance from Stevie Wonder who provided harmonica and some funky clavinet.

9. "Saturday's Alright For Fighting" (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road)
Maybe the most pure "rock song" from Elton.

8. "Love Her Like Me"(Songs From The West Coast)
I love the guitar tone as much as the lyrics. It's hard to not put this higher among my favorites.

7. "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" (Too Low For Zero)
This song features another appearance from Stevie Wonder. It was included on his mid-1980's album, Too Low For Zero, which was a return to form as he worked with Bernie Taupin and his classic line-up from the 70's.

6. "Rocket Man"(Honky Chateau)
This song was totally put over the top by William Shatner, which to me is the definitive version of the song. But I guess there wouldn't be Shatner's version if we never had the original.

5. "I'm Still Standing" (Too Low For Zero)
I was happy to see this song featured in the Rocketman movie, and it surprisingly worked as the finale, with the music video featured as well. In an interesting note, they didn't actually recreate the video for the movie, they just seamlessly inserted Taron Egerton into the remastered footage. The song is such a great anthem, that it works whether it's overcoming an obstacle like an ex-lover or a rival who always tried to keep you down; and in Elton's case, both of those examples and more!

4. "I Want Love" (Songs From The West Coast)
I first heard this song in the context of the movie Rocketman, and with each character reciting a line or two from the song at time, I thought it was a song created specifically for that scene. I was wrong... it's a song going all the way back to 2001, featuring Robert Downey Jr in the music video. The song received a Grammy nomination in 2002 and also was recorded by Chris Stapleton in 2018.

3. "The Bitch Is Back" (Caribou)
This is a song I'd never turn off it came on the radio but I guess I never paid any attention to the lyrics. I wrongly assumed it might've been about an ex-girlfriend coming back, "the bitch." Nope. It's just about being a bit "savage" as the kids would say these days- rejecting all your social norms while getting high. If this could be labeled an angry teen anthem, then is this the first example of emo music?

2. "Your Song" (Elton John)
This song gets my vote as the greatest love song ever. Elton says that I can't give you money, make potions, or even buy you a big house... but I can write you this song! What a tearjerker, man, that's love!

1. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road)
Sounds like a song directed squarely at record labels. The singers and songwriters do all the work, whether its writing or performing or both, while the labels just reap the benefits. I always wondered why so many bands pumped out albums non-stop in the 1970's but their output was so infrequent after that decade. It's because they were in a constant state of write, record, tour, repeat. Other artists from this same period released similar songs firing back at their labels or managers, with Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar" and Queen's "Death on Two Legs" coming to mind.