The Long Play with Al Neff" is a continuing Sunday evening Feature on The
GOAT. This year, Every Sunday Evening, Album Rock WXYG, The GOAT will
feature a full album at 8:00 PM from the halcyon musical days of 1972
1972 was another amazing year in Album Rock history. Another year of tough
choices every week. So many great ones to choose from.
We hope you’ll tune in next Sunday evening, May 15, 2022 at 8:00 PM for
“Honky Château“, the fifth studio album by Elton John. It was released in
1972, and was titled after the 18th century French chateau where it was
recorded, Château d'Hérouville. The album reached number one in the US,
the first of John's seven consecutive US number one albums.
Two
singles were released worldwide from Honky Château, "Rocket Man" and
"Honky Cat". A third single, "Hercules", was prepared for release, but
this never materialized. This was the final Elton John album on the Uni
label in the US and Canada before MCA consolidated all of its various
labels under the MCA brand. This and John's earlier Uni albums were later
reissued on MCA Records.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 357 on Rolling Stone magazine's list
of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was revised to number 359 in
2012, and raised to number 251 in a 2020 list. It was certified gold in
July 1972 and platinum in October 1995 by the RIAA.
Honky Château was the first in Elton John's streak of chart-topping albums
in the US, which culminated with 1975's Rock of the Westies. Writer
Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the album as an eclectic collection of
"ballads, rockers, blues, country-rock, and soul songs."
It was also the first studio album to feature John's road band of Dee
Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums, along with new member Davey
Johnstone on electric and acoustic guitars and other fretted instruments,
as the core group of musicians. Previously, the record label insisted that
John use them for only one track each on Tumbleweed Connection and Madman
Across the Water; the rest of the songs on those two albums were performed
by session players. Johnstone had played acoustic guitar, mandolin and
sitar on Madman Across the Water, but on Honky Chateau, he would be
invited to join permanently as a full-band member and he extended his
contributions to electric guitar, banjo, slide guitar and backing vocals.
The opening track "Honky Cat" is a New Orleans funk track reminiscent of
Dr. John and Allen Toussaint, and features a four-piece horn section
arranged by producer Gus Dudgeon. Also of note is the on-record debut of
the backing vocal combination of Johnstone, Murray and Olsson, who first
added what would soon become their "trademark" sound to "Rocket Man". The
trio's unique approach to arranging their backing vocal tracks would be a
fixture on John's singles and albums for the next several years.
In 1995, Dudgeon remastered the album, adding only an uptempo,
piano-based, rock and roll version of "Slave", that was originally
sidelined in favor of the slower, guitar-based version on the original LP.
This alternate version was originally due to be released as the B-Side to
the ultimately unreleased "Hercules" single.
Critically, Honky Château is regarded as one of John's finest records. Jon
Landau of Rolling Stone approved the original LP as "a rich, warm,
satisfying album that stands head and shoulders above the morass of
current releases". In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Hilburn hailed the
music as innovative and Taupin's lyrics as humorous, ironic and satirical.
In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic has written
that "it plays as the most focused and accomplished set of songs Elton
John and Bernie Taupin ever wrote".
Honky Château became the first of a string of albums by Elton John to hit
No. 1 in the Billboard Charts in the US. In Canada, the album peaked at
No. 3 on the RPM 100 Top Albums Chart, reaching this position on 29 July
1972, dropping two places to No. 5, then returning to No. 3 for a further
twelve consecutive weeks before falling to No. 9 on 4 November of the same
year.
Tune In and Turn On next Sunday Evening, May 15th, and every Sunday
evening at 8:00 PM for The GOAT'S "The Long Play with Al Neff.”
Don’t forget, right after the “Long Play”, we do a “Replay” of this week’s
GOAT GUEST DJ SHOW.
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