For instance, he sang a version of "Young, Gifted, and Black," which is silly when you know he isn't black. (On many of the songs I rejected, he shared lead vocals with others, or double tracked himself to make his voice sound more generic.) I also rejected a few songs that were just weird. Generally speaking, I picked the songs where his lead vocals are the most clear and distinctive. He did a couple of lead vocals in late 1969, but those didn't make the cut. They're presented in the order they were recorded. So I've cut these songs about in half to the ones I think are the best. But on some of the songs, Elton John's talent and individual style shines through. Often they sound like the anonymous copies that they are. I think these recordings deserve more attention. But this generally has remained little more than a curiosity for his die-hard fans. Over the years, there have been various collections of these performances. It was only after he became a superstar that some listeners realized that some of these anonymous copycat versions of hits were actually sung by him. I guess the royalty checks for his own songs hadn't started coming in yet. He did most of these in early to mid-1970, at a time when he was already starting to break out as a star. Elton John made some extra money playing keyboards on some of these songs, and sometimes singing lead vocals on them. So instead, it was common practice to make compilation albums filled with nearly exact copies of hits done by anonymous musicians. He'd also been writing songs for other artists, but hadn't had much success with that either.Īt the time, it was very rare for record companies to put out compilations featuring recent hits from different artists, due to the difficulty of securing to rights from other companies and then splitting the profits. But none of them made the charts anywhere, and he needed money to live on while he waited for more success. He put out a single in 1968, and two more singles and an album in 1969. In 1969, Elton John was already starting to make it in the music business. Here's a very strange album that needs some explanation.
0 kommentar(er)
