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Elton John · S4 E6
Caribou & Captain Fantastic
Two albums in twelve months. 'The Bitch Is Back,' 'Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me,' and the pace that would break most artists
In May 1975, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy enters the Billboard 200 at number one. No album in the history of the chart has ever done that before.
Elton John -- Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (1974). A towering ballad from the Caribou album with the Beach Boys' Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston singing backing vocals. The biggest song from an album the critics dismissed.
The Pace
Between October 1973 and May 1975, Elton releases three studio albums: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou, and Captain Fantastic. That is a double album and two single albums in nineteen months. The pace is inhuman, and neither the quality nor the sales show any sign of slowing.
Caribou Ranch, Nederland, Colorado
James William Guercio's remote recording studio in the Rocky Mountains where Elton recorded the Caribou album.
TAP TO REVEAL: What is Captain Fantastic actually about?
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (1974)
The arrangement builds from a sparse piano opening into a wall of sound, with layered backing vocals courtesy of Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys. Listen for the moment the full choir enters on the final chorus: the song doubles in size. Elton's vocal is raw and pleading, one of his most emotionally exposed performances on record.
(Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket -- Elton John
From Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975). A driving, restless rocker about the hunger for success in the early years. The frantic energy mirrors the pace Elton keeps in real life: always moving, always recording, never stopping long enough to ask why.
Who sang backing vocals on "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"?
Ten albums, seven number ones, biggest pop star on the planet. Next: Dodger Stadium, 55,000 fans, and the most spectacular live show of the decade.
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