The First Album I Ever Bought Just Turned 50 and I Still Love It
Joel posing in front of inside cover of Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album
Do you remember the first album you bought?
At six years old, I was shopping with my parents at “Two Guys,” a department store that went out of business in the early eighties. I clearly remember where the record department was and would always go straight there whenever we visited the store.
I had gotten a record player and was shopping for something to play on it. My older brother had quite a vinyl collection but wouldn’t let me borrow any of them. While perusing the record racks I pulled out an Elton record. I don’t remember why I chose Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” but I spent my own money and raced home to play it. And I played it over and over and over again. It’s probably my favorite album, I like every song on it.
Not only is it considered one of the greatest albums of all time, but it’s also got some awesome artwork. It’s a double album and when you open it you find some really cool artwork along with the lyrics. Now that I think about it, that album probably had a lot to do with helping me learn to read.
So, as a six-year-old, I listened to songs about death, alcoholics, murder, and prostitutes. I had no idea what it all meant, but I loved it. 50 years later, I still do. Years later, I remember being really excited when it was released as a single CD. Then I could listen to it straight through without having to flip or change records.
Happy Anniversary!
It was 50 years ago that Elton John released Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It features future classics “Candle in the Wind,” “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting,” “Bennie and the Jets” and the title track. His bestselling studio album at the time, but Elton didn’t expect that kind of success.
In Elton’s autobiography “Me!” He wrote, “It took off in a way that none of us expected. It’s quite a dark record in a lot of ways. Songs about sadness and disillusion…a song about a 16-year-old lesbian who ends up dead in a subway. But it just kept selling and selling and selling, until I couldn’t work out who was buying it.”
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road went to #1 and stayed there for eight weeks. It’s since gone on to sell 20 million copies.
Happy golden anniversary to Elton and his album which had a big influence and created many great memories for me.
Elton John: His 40 Greatest Songs
Elton John has some absolutely iconic hit singles, but one of the great pleasures of being a big Elton John fan is finding the lesser-known gems.
We’re partial to his hit-free album Tumbleweed Connection from 1970 (as you’ll see), as well as his criminally underrated Songs From The West Coast from 2001, and a few of the diamonds in the rough from albums that you may have overlooked.
For this list, we’re going with the best version of each song, which sometimes means a live version. And in one case, an alternate studio version that you may not have heard before. Enjoy!
Elton John and His Latest Accolades
In 2024, Sir Elton has earned two major honors. In January, he became an EGOT winner.
John achieved the entertainment milestone thanks to winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) for Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger’s Stadium. The special streamed live on November 20, 2022 on Disney+. It was John’s final show in North America. It was also the first time Disney+ presented a live global event.
Before his Emmy win, John won five Grammy Awards in his career. In 2000, he won a Tony Award for Best Original Score for Aida. Additionally, John has won two Oscars. The first came in 1994 for Best Original Song for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King. The second Oscar came in 2020 for “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” from Rocketman.
In March, just before his 77th birthday, John and his longtime songwriting partner Bernie Taupin were honored with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
Per the Library of Congress’s website, “The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song celebrates the work of an artist whose career reflects the influence, impact and achievement in promoting song as a vehicle of musical expression and cultural understanding.”
Past Gershwin Prize recipients include Joni Mitchell (2023), Lionel Richie (2022), Garth Brooks (2020), Gloria and Emilio Estefan (2019), Tony Bennett (2017), Smokey Robinson (2016) and many more iconic musicians.
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement, “Elton John and Bernie Taupin have written some of the most memorable songs of our lives. Their careers stand out for the quality and broad appeal of their music and their influence on their fellow artists.”
Joel Katz is the Morning Show Personality, Assistant Program Director, Podcast Host, Voiceover artist, audio producer, and Digital Content Writer for Magic 98.3. Joel has been working in New Jersey radio since college and started at Magic in 2002 as the Morning Show Host, “I can’t think of another place where I’d fit more perfectly; it’s just a great company with awesome people.” Joel is married to Kathleen, his elementary school sweetheart (they were each other’s first dates at age 9), shares a birthday with his oldest son, Ty, and has twins, Kiera and Liam. Joel runs at least 3.1 miles every day and enjoys playing basketball, doing laundry, saving his turn signal for when he really needs it, kissing dogs through a fence, using coasters, making that cool noise by rubbing his fingers on balloons, and chasing after ping pong balls on a windy cruise ship.