Elton John is the second[a] studio album by English singer-songwriter
Elton John. It was released on 10 April 1970 through
DJM Records. Including John's breakthrough single "
Your Song", the album helped establish his career during the rise of the singer-songwriter era of popular music.
This was the first of a string of John albums produced by
Gus Dudgeon. As Dudgeon recalled in a Mix magazine interview, the album was not actually intended to launch John as an artist, but rather as a collection of polished demos for other artists to consider recording his and co-writer
Bernie Taupin's songs.[2] Two songs from the album did find their way into the repertoire of other artists in 1970: "Your Song" was recorded by
Three Dog Night as an album track on their LP It Ain't Easy, while
Aretha Franklin released a cover of "
Border Song" as a single that reached number 37 in the US pop charts and number 5 on the R&B chart, later included on her 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black.
The song "No Shoe Strings on Louise" was intended (as homage or parody) to sound like a
Rolling Stones song.[3][4]
John Mendelsohn in a contemporary (1970) review for Rolling Stone felt that the album was over-produced and over-orchestrated, comparing it unfavourably with the less mannered and orchestrated Empty Sky; though he felt that John had "so immense a talent" that "he'll delight you senseless despite it all".[6]Robert Christgau in his weekly "Consumer Guide" column for The Village Voice also felt the album was overdone ("overweening", "histrionic overload", "semi-classical ponderousness"), but that it had "a surprising complement of memorable tracks", including "Your Song" which, despite its "affected offhandedness", he considered "an instant standard".[7]
^J (18 April 2015).
"Won't you please excuse my frankness but it's not my cup of tea: Elton John – Elton John (1970)". www.resurrectionsongs.com. Archived from
the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2016. The side is rounded off with the 'Rolling Stones country' tinged 'No Shoe Strings on Louise' (even Elton's phrasing is similar to Jagger's at times – "All those city women want to make us poor men and this land's got the worse for the worrying")...