Of all Elton John's albums, none defined his career quite like Yellow Brick Road (somewhat surprising because double albums were not very popular then). There were the hits, of course, including the album title "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", "Candle in the Wind", "Bennie and the Jets", and "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting". There were also quite a few songs that should have been hits but didn't make it either because of lack of release as a 45 single (remember those?) of lack of radio play, and, to be fair, there were a small number of forgettable tracks, but of all the albums Elton released in the early days, this was the one that launched him to stardom and sell-out stadium gigs. I bought this on LP (what else?) on release, later I bought the yellow vinyl release (well, you had to, didn't you...) which suffered from degraded sonics, and as soon as CDs started to make a splash in the very early 80s, I bought CDs of all these albums (at the time we thought LPs would disappear!). So, I think this is actually the fourth or fifth release of Goodbye I've paid for.
This box is a bit different than the other releases, though. To begin with, there's the remastered tracks from the double album now on one CDs The engineers went back to the original analog tapes and reengineered the sound using oversampling bit rates, resulting in a sound that is much better than the earlier CD reissues. For that alone, this box is worth the money. There's also a CD of other stars performing songs from the LPs, and these vary between good and great )(and the stylistic differences are interesting to note). I happily went through both CDs, both bringing back memories of been much, much younger the first time I heard those songs, and also being impressed with how good the remastering is, especially through a decent high-end system. But then there's the extras which round out this anniversary release. The two-CD release of their Christmas 1973 performance live on the BBC shows how Elton could rock in a live environment, and while the recording isn't up to par with the studio tracks, it's not bad at all. There's also a DVD of a documentary produced back in the same era about Elton and Taupin and the hits they were generating. Again, the quality is not great, but as a historical video it is worth watching. Having seen Elton on his tour this year, it's amusing to see how some things have changed, and some haven't!
The box contains four CDs, one DVD, and a nice book that covers the star and the era in his musical life. The hard-cover digest-size book is quite interesting, and contained some information I wasn't aware of despite reading most of the content released over the years about Elton. In truth, I found the CD and DVD slip covers in the box to be a bit tacky in appearance, but this is a minor quibble.
In the end, what do we have? A superbly engineered remastering of probably the most important album Elton put out in the early years (and perhaps even his entire career). The remastered CDs are worth the box price themselves; they are that good! The accompanying two live performance CDs and DVDs are nice filler, something most people will listen to or watch once, but for collectors they provide previously hard-to-get content. There's a lovely book with lots of information and photos. And there's the feeling that when you work through this box, you're celebrating the anniversary of one of rock's masterpieces, done by a man who defined rock music at the time (and for years to come), and who has had a remarkable career through the decades. A worthy investment all the way around.
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This item: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Remastered)
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watch out for same album in both sleeves
purchased this for a christmas present in may 2021 and did open it till then. same album -side 3and 4 in both sleeves! 鶹 said this is not their problem. Totally pissed about this!!
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- Reviewed in Canada on May 8, 2014Verified Purchase
- Reviewed in Canada on March 25, 2014Verified Purchase
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Top reviews from other countries
- Alejandro MillaresReviewed in the United States on June 26, 2025
A classic
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Cliente 鶹Reviewed in Italy on September 17, 2022
Ottimo acquisto
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B. PhilippeReviewed in France on May 31, 2014
SUPER !!!!!!!!
Verified Purchase - Milind C.Reviewed in India on March 29, 2021
Condition of CD
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Jordi Rodelas BernalReviewed in Spain on July 13, 2025
Original
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