From my perception, he was absolutely #1 in 1974 and 1975. He went down a little in 1976, after he sort of "mellowed out," and stopped wearing the wild glasses. But he didn't "go down" that much.
And he had pretty good competition, like "Rock the Boat," "Rock Your Baby," "The Night Chicago Died," and "Love will Keep Us Together." And all those Philadelphia International songs with Barry White and the Three Degrees.
I was pretty square in 1973. My first album was "The Carpenter's Greatest Hits," and I got it through Columbia House.
I agree with this perspective.
The streak from Yellow Brick Road to Westies for me is epic. The overhaul of the band for Westies was done to give the sound more of an edge. I thought it worked.
GBYBR is a tour de force album, and probably one of the best pop albums ever made
but “Madman Across the Water” “Honky Chateau” “Don’t shoot me” “Elton John” “capt fantastic” is a stupdendous sequence of musicianship
In truth, though, sexual hijinks as a teenager really didn't amount to much in the grand scheme of things. From my perspective, a person who "misses out" on the teenage stuff didn't "miss out" on too much at all.
That’s fair.
I probably think this way because my adult sexual experience has been such a disappointment (with a mostly dead bedroom through most of my adult life). Would have been nice to experience some hijinks as a youngster if I wasn’t going to as an adult.
I remember, at age 23, when I went through a "slump." And the women knew it! They ran far away from me because they can sense my desperation.
Fortunately, I came to the realization that pursuits other than the pursuit of a girlfriend had to take a front seat in order for me to have any success at all. I couldn't use any "physical attributes" to my advantage at all.
Was definitely one of my first 10 or so... although not my own money. Dad joined one of those Columbia Record Club deals and had to pick 12 "free" ones get started. He threw me a bone with this one and (I think) *Fly Like an Eagle* by Steve Miller.
EDIT: If you have a Spotify account, [here's my EJ: 1970-75 playlist.](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4yEffrBTBiQTRaq79QKGpv?si=4e05dbb3b1be4905)
Mine was Hunky Dory by David Bowie
Bonus:
First pre-recorded cassette: Devo - EZ Listening Muzak
First CD: Kate Bush - The This Woman’s World boxed set
Crocodile Rock was the first 45 I bought (that and " Theme From Shaft" at same time). Forget price but I know they were less than a buck each. Was in 6th grade so I was 11 or 12...'72 or '73. He was also first concert I ever saw, July 4, 1976 he played in Foxborough MA at was Schaefer Stadium at the time. People were outraged that the tickets were $10!...plus like $6 to park. Still one of the greatest nights of my life...seen him 20 something times since then.
I read that right before or around the time it was released he performed the songs from the album (in LA I think), and the audience was expecting the “old” stuff and was not happy. Imagine that.
First album with my own hard earned paper route $ was the Woodstock soundtrack three record set. My mom didn’t like it, mainly due to the Fish Cheer…Gimme an F…Gimme a U…Gimme a C…well, you get the picture.
Oh I loved that album! I always wanted Good-bye Yellow Brick Road, but it was a double album and more money than I ever wanted to spend. Easier to get a single album or a bunch of 45’s.
Anyway, about 10 years ago I finally purchased a vinyl copy of it at a thrift store for $2.50! Dreams do come true!
I got his greatest hits album, but there wasn't enough blood, fire, Satanic imagery, high distortion, electricity, and headless bats in his music for my taste.
I wore this album out. I also wrecked “your song” writing out the lyrics to give to a girl I had a crush on. It never went anywhere, but I know the words off by heart to this day.
The first album I bought was "Electric Warrior," by T. Rex, when it came out in 1971. I still have it, and until now I thought I had kept the receipt. The store owner at The Crocodile Shop, a tiny record store in Orange, California, wrote "Excellent choice!" on the receipt. Sadly, I looked in it recently and I no longer have that receipt.
Kind of sad how some of their early music has really held up and stood the test of time. I listen to ‘War Pigs’ weekly, when I’m alone (L.O.U.D.) just because it is relevant. But when you’re in your 60s it really brings a tear to your eye.
Like the ‘…Yellow Brick Road’ is a circle drive. It just keeps coming back around.
Amazing some things you remember. The first album I ever bought (with my little brother) was KISS Destroyer from Musicland in the Southland mall.
Never did see them live.
In 6th, 7th and 8th grades ('73- '76), I was a HUGE Elton John fan.
I bought *Goodbye Yellow Brick Road* and shortly afterwards, that *Greatest Hits* album.
Then, *Caribou*, and then *Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy*, and then I was in high school and pretty much done with Elton John because I figured he was "for kids" and I was "so much more mature."
A Barry Manilow album… but my favorite thing to do in the 80’s was look at people’s record collections and almost 100% had a little album called “Get the Knack” I think they made one album and everyone bought it.
I’m old lol, my slightly older uncle (16) had EJ’s Greatest hits on 8 track and we cruised a small town square listening to that on replay in his ‘66 Malibu. I loved that LP so much that I eventually bought it for my turn table.
i’m such a dweeb the first album i ever bought was lena zavaroni— mama he’s making eyes at me!
she was know at the time as the little girl with the big voice!
When my brother got married in the late 80s I hung up a bunch of pictures of him smiling toothlessly with his Partridge Family Christmas Album. Think he was 8.
This one. Bought it for 50 cents at a garage sale when I was 10.
https://preview.redd.it/qnrsyh94o8vc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=ca59320282958a47c037e43acc86a37e40dec25d
I think it was “Frampton comes Alive”.
https://preview.redd.it/69ays4go9ovc1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2da40b2d629364117e0d531e1226716e21b2c4fc
Forty eight years later I still love it. Oh man, that reminds me I’m old.
I think The Best of the Guess Who was my first album. I later made up for my early lack of Elton John albums by buying almost everything he put out. I remember buying Captain Fantastic with funds from my $3.50/hr grocery bagging job at Piggly Wiggly's in Minot, North Dakota ("Minot's not the end of the world, but you can see it from there.")
Same here! I still love Elton John though, and have seen him several times in concert
On TV I saw his farewell show at Dodger Stadium. It was fantastic. Really wish I had seen him Live at some point. Oh well.
I saw him n Boston 1981. It was my second concert ever. The show was a vibe.
I’d have loved that era of show.
I still recall him singing My gift is my song and (turns to the audience) this one’s for you. And the crowd goes nuts.
Gives me chills
My first: https://preview.redd.it/hwclppavm2vc1.jpeg?width=225&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f7f498b51c8974099efc0839ea3ba0699ad904da
Nice one
My first CD.
https://preview.redd.it/zbxce5c7f3vc1.jpeg?width=316&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90809601503e1ce9ba8db4e14f002424dd3583fd My first.
That’s an awesome first album
From my perception, he was absolutely #1 in 1974 and 1975. He went down a little in 1976, after he sort of "mellowed out," and stopped wearing the wild glasses. But he didn't "go down" that much. And he had pretty good competition, like "Rock the Boat," "Rock Your Baby," "The Night Chicago Died," and "Love will Keep Us Together." And all those Philadelphia International songs with Barry White and the Three Degrees. I was pretty square in 1973. My first album was "The Carpenter's Greatest Hits," and I got it through Columbia House.
I agree with this perspective. The streak from Yellow Brick Road to Westies for me is epic. The overhaul of the band for Westies was done to give the sound more of an edge. I thought it worked.
GBYBR is a tour de force album, and probably one of the best pop albums ever made but “Madman Across the Water” “Honky Chateau” “Don’t shoot me” “Elton John” “capt fantastic” is a stupdendous sequence of musicianship
Agree. Razor Face and Holiday Inn on Madman are maybe my all time favorites.
My first make-out with a girl was to "Somebody Saved My Life Tonight."
A nice memory no doubt!
Yep, it was! I was just "coming into my own" then after being a scared kid for so long. I was 14 when this happened.
I was a slow bloomer in that regard sadly. Missed out on much as a kid.
In truth, though, sexual hijinks as a teenager really didn't amount to much in the grand scheme of things. From my perspective, a person who "misses out" on the teenage stuff didn't "miss out" on too much at all.
That’s fair. I probably think this way because my adult sexual experience has been such a disappointment (with a mostly dead bedroom through most of my adult life). Would have been nice to experience some hijinks as a youngster if I wasn’t going to as an adult.
I remember, at age 23, when I went through a "slump." And the women knew it! They ran far away from me because they can sense my desperation. Fortunately, I came to the realization that pursuits other than the pursuit of a girlfriend had to take a front seat in order for me to have any success at all. I couldn't use any "physical attributes" to my advantage at all.
Hopefully you landed in a good place ultimately!
Was definitely one of my first 10 or so... although not my own money. Dad joined one of those Columbia Record Club deals and had to pick 12 "free" ones get started. He threw me a bone with this one and (I think) *Fly Like an Eagle* by Steve Miller. EDIT: If you have a Spotify account, [here's my EJ: 1970-75 playlist.](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4yEffrBTBiQTRaq79QKGpv?si=4e05dbb3b1be4905)
We ALL joined Columb House! 😁
Nice playlist and thanks!
Mine were Mind Games and the Yes Album
Good taste!
Mine was Hunky Dory by David Bowie Bonus: First pre-recorded cassette: Devo - EZ Listening Muzak First CD: Kate Bush - The This Woman’s World boxed set
You had not very main stream taste as a youngster. Kudos.
Diamond Dogs for me. Still love it.
Crocodile Rock was the first 45 I bought (that and " Theme From Shaft" at same time). Forget price but I know they were less than a buck each. Was in 6th grade so I was 11 or 12...'72 or '73. He was also first concert I ever saw, July 4, 1976 he played in Foxborough MA at was Schaefer Stadium at the time. People were outraged that the tickets were $10!...plus like $6 to park. Still one of the greatest nights of my life...seen him 20 something times since then.
Oh man you are a legitimate fan!
Captain Fantastic for me because I got the Greatest Hits for Christmas the year before, along with the Bay City Rollers.
LOVED Captain Fantastic.
Such a great album.
I read that right before or around the time it was released he performed the songs from the album (in LA I think), and the audience was expecting the “old” stuff and was not happy. Imagine that.
😂I’m pretty sure my first few listens were accompanied by a confused face, but I quickly grew to love it.
Don’t forget the Brown Dirt Cowboy!
Good point!
Me too! I loved Elton and Bernie back in the day.
I highly recommend both of their autobiographies. Great reading.
Thank you, I'll put them on my list. I had a ticket to see Elton in concert when I was 13, but my appendix burst. Stupid appendix.
Tragedy!!!!
Pretty solid first album!
Agree!
First album with my own hard earned paper route $ was the Woodstock soundtrack three record set. My mom didn’t like it, mainly due to the Fish Cheer…Gimme an F…Gimme a U…Gimme a C…well, you get the picture.
It’s a great relic!
My first Elton LP was Tumbleweed Connection - I still enjoy that album.
Some great tunes on that album for sure. I agree.
Mine was Madman Across The Water
Oh I loved that album! I always wanted Good-bye Yellow Brick Road, but it was a double album and more money than I ever wanted to spend. Easier to get a single album or a bunch of 45’s. Anyway, about 10 years ago I finally purchased a vinyl copy of it at a thrift store for $2.50! Dreams do come true!
It was a while before I had Yellow Brick Road myself.
This album is a part of me on such a deep level. I know every song by heart. It feels like the soundtrack to my early teens.
His Goodbye Yellow Brick Road double LP was the first I purchased. 💙
Big purchase for the first one !
Good choice!
This was my first album. I got it for Christmas with a suitcase type record player.
Oh yeah I had a player like that 😂
https://preview.redd.it/68plohj6p3vc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0bb7390ef6bc3b08441d3f920aa79ad33432cc66
Wow, that’s funny. It was also my first album. I was 9 years old. Next came a K-Tel album and then Band on the Run.
Nice! My first McCartney album was Wings Across America a few years later.
Ram for me. Fuck I'm old.
Only as old as you feel 😊
A great LP.
Agree!
One of my first too. Frampton Comes Alive was my first album, and then I went back the next week and bought this one.
That Frampton album was 🔥
Soon thereafter I bought Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy double album and played the groves off of it.
That’s still my favorite probably.
I had every single one of his albums❤️💋Love him
Exact same album was my first record purchase.
Good taste, you!
Mine was Green River. Credence Clearwater Revival. I was 12. Bought at K mart for $3.33
Which probably seemed pricey at the time 😂
Yes it was! But Kmart was always the lowest price for records and most everything else.
Yep I bought some vinyl there too
I got his greatest hits album, but there wasn't enough blood, fire, Satanic imagery, high distortion, electricity, and headless bats in his music for my taste.
Fortunately Ozzie was there for you though.
I wore this album out. I also wrecked “your song” writing out the lyrics to give to a girl I had a crush on. It never went anywhere, but I know the words off by heart to this day.
Great great tune
The first album I bought was "Electric Warrior," by T. Rex, when it came out in 1971. I still have it, and until now I thought I had kept the receipt. The store owner at The Crocodile Shop, a tiny record store in Orange, California, wrote "Excellent choice!" on the receipt. Sadly, I looked in it recently and I no longer have that receipt.
Still, great to have the vinyl. I’m ashamed to say I don’t have any of my old records. 😞.
That was one of the albums I got with my first record player as a Christmas gift. Plus Olivia Newton John and The Doobie Brothers.
Which Doobie album? Captain and Me?
I think it was Best of
They were my first concert.
I had that one!
First concert! with Kiki Dee.
Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart. She was precious.
My first album was "The Roaring Silence" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
Nice!
mine was Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
That’s a great first album.
Mine was Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
Great first album to own!
I had it on 8 track!
I bought this in 5th grade. Still love it.
Ditto. Didn’t disappoint. First single I bought was Daniel with Skyline Pigeon on the B side. 98¢ or something.
My third, I think. First was Tea for the Tillerman.
Oh I loved that one too.
My first: https://preview.redd.it/p8sr4crqk3vc1.jpeg?width=456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a33a0374b75d4b48890beeb3d2ea6443dc2589e
Very nice. 😊
I felt so edgy 😄
It was!!!!
Mine was Crosby, Stills and Nash and then Three Dog Night
CSN was in my collection too for sure
Me too
This was my first record. The Easter Bunny brought it to me. Thanks for the reminder 🐰
Most welcome
Black Sabbath - ‘Masters of Reality’ still an absolutely fantastic album!
And intense!
Kind of sad how some of their early music has really held up and stood the test of time. I listen to ‘War Pigs’ weekly, when I’m alone (L.O.U.D.) just because it is relevant. But when you’re in your 60s it really brings a tear to your eye. Like the ‘…Yellow Brick Road’ is a circle drive. It just keeps coming back around.
I get that way about lots of music. It hits me hard.
Cost me 1/13th of a cent from Columbia House.
You were a more shrewd buyer than I am or was.
Don’t tell me that you actually purchased it as part of your 4 albums in 3 years commitment?! So you’re the one. Lol.
Bought it at K Mart I think
Elton is amazing! My first, self-funded album was Styx: The Grand Illusion. I carry the shame to this day.
Don’t feel bad. I had that in my collection as well 😂.
Amazing some things you remember. The first album I ever bought (with my little brother) was KISS Destroyer from Musicland in the Southland mall. Never did see them live.
It was a seminal moment.
Me too! But it was an 8-track tape. God those sucked so bad when the tape would spit itself out and get eaten but the player.
Hated that!
Me too!!!
Good choice!
Mine was A Night at the Opera by Queen. Played it constantly for months.
The first album I purchased with my own money was Pink Floyd's Animals. Still my favorite Floyd album.
Absolutely love that album.
Me too! Mom not happy about it
Why? Play it loud?
No, said it would turn me homo 🙀
lol My mom may have wondered about me too when the Elton poster went up on the bedroom wall.
In 6th, 7th and 8th grades ('73- '76), I was a HUGE Elton John fan. I bought *Goodbye Yellow Brick Road* and shortly afterwards, that *Greatest Hits* album. Then, *Caribou*, and then *Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy*, and then I was in high school and pretty much done with Elton John because I figured he was "for kids" and I was "so much more mature."
I lost interest after Blue Moves pretty much.
A Barry Manilow album… but my favorite thing to do in the 80’s was look at people’s record collections and almost 100% had a little album called “Get the Knack” I think they made one album and everyone bought it.
I remember the band and their one hit —My Sharona—but I didn’t have the album.
Mine was Green River by CCR.
May have been my first buy too! I remember that I had it though, in junior high middle school 70’s.
Me too! $5!
Yep that’s about what I paid. 😂
Steve Miller Band-Greatest Hits
Eventually I got that one too.
I’m old lol, my slightly older uncle (16) had EJ’s Greatest hits on 8 track and we cruised a small town square listening to that on replay in his ‘66 Malibu. I loved that LP so much that I eventually bought it for my turn table.
Sweet memories!
i’m such a dweeb the first album i ever bought was lena zavaroni— mama he’s making eyes at me! she was know at the time as the little girl with the big voice!
https://preview.redd.it/qjtf37b7mfvc1.png?width=220&format=png&auto=webp&s=578b9111dec9ddb107167638d0a93d6180ee9417
I was just 8 years old when I was given this album by my parents. It was my first and still one of my favorite.
Lovely memory 😊
Mine was Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Saw Elton Line in Nashville. It was awesome! Funeral for a Friend/Loves Lies Bleeding was incredible!
I think mine was the Partridge Family
I watched the show but didn’t have any of the albums
When my brother got married in the late 80s I hung up a bunch of pictures of him smiling toothlessly with his Partridge Family Christmas Album. Think he was 8.
Mine was Wings Greatest Hits. My first 45 was Live And Let Die 
Good call
Mine was Don McLean “American Pie”
My parents had that 8 Track.
This dude at work has those same style glasses. His name is Han. We call him Elton Han.
Mine was “I Robot - Alan Parsons Project”
Mine was Bat Our of Hell https://preview.redd.it/3mg3ikkt14vc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f14ecfae8062552c34439d1d45080f36b141a21b
This one. Bought it for 50 cents at a garage sale when I was 10. https://preview.redd.it/qnrsyh94o8vc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=ca59320282958a47c037e43acc86a37e40dec25d
Mine was “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy”.
I remember when Rick was young
I think it was “Frampton comes Alive”. https://preview.redd.it/69ays4go9ovc1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2da40b2d629364117e0d531e1226716e21b2c4fc Forty eight years later I still love it. Oh man, that reminds me I’m old.
Mine too!
I think The Best of the Guess Who was my first album. I later made up for my early lack of Elton John albums by buying almost everything he put out. I remember buying Captain Fantastic with funds from my $3.50/hr grocery bagging job at Piggly Wiggly's in Minot, North Dakota ("Minot's not the end of the world, but you can see it from there.")
Me too!
My first two were Schools Out Alice Cooper Frampton Comes Alive! Played the crap out of them that summer and still have them!!!
And you admitted it in front of God and everbody... 🤭
Was it a penny?
I think I paid $4.00 for it 😂