‘Sleeping With The Past’ and ‘One Night Only’ Conclude Elton’s 2017 Vinyl Reissues

September 25, 1973

Stevie makes a surprise appearance during Elton’s concert in Boston, Massachusetts…after making a surprise appearance on Elton’s tour jet earlier in the day.

Joining the entourage traveling north from New York City, Stevie sits down as the Starship’s “cocktail organist” and plays a medley of Elton hits, including Crocodile Rock, much to Elton’s astonishment.

Later that evening, Elton pauses his show at Boston Garden to say, “A friend of mine is here tonight, he was badly hurt in an accident some time ago…”, but before he can continue, the 15,500 in attendance catch on and drown out the rest of the introduction. An electric keyboard is wheeled out on stage to a standing ovation and the pair jam on the Rolling Stones’ Honky Tonk Women and Stevie’s own Superstition. This impromptu performance is later noted by Stevie as the beginning of his public recovery from a near-fatal automobile accident in August.

Sleeping With The Past was released in the US on August 29, 1989 and stayed on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart for an astonishing 53 weeks – more than any other Elton studio album since (The One matched it in 1992). In the UK, it stayed at #1 for five weeks (the most recent Elton studio album to reach that position) and remained on the UK Album Chart for over nine months. It currently holds a 3x Platinum sales status in Great Britain.

All of this came on the strength of its songs. The album, produced by Chris Thomas, was written and recorded at Puk Studios in Denmark during the winter of 1988. Each of Bernie’s lyrics provided a template, evoking many of his and Elton’s early musical inspirations in their style and subject matter. The Four Tops’ Reach Out, I’ll Be There influenced Healing Hands. Bernie was thinking of Ray Charles when he wrote Amazes Me and Aretha Franklin’s Do Right Woman, Do Right Man during Sacrifice. Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye are mentioned in Club At The End Of The Street.

September 30, 2021

Finish Line, the first true duet between Elton John and Stevie Wonder, is issued as a pre-release from Elton’s album The Lockdown Sessions.

Elton sings and plays keyboards while Stevie sings and plays piano and harmonica on the song, written by Elton, Andrew Wotman, Ali Tamposi, and Roman Campolo.

Elton notes that “(After All) and the Stevie Wonder track were written melody first, all the way through straightaway like this one. God knows how it happened. I don’t question how it happened.”

‘Elton John – One Night Only: The Greatest Hits’ is Elton’s fourth live album and was recorded on October 21, 2000, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

After rehearsals in California and Atlanta, and a warm-up show in Wilkes-Barre, PA (Kiki Dee did not perform at that concert so Elton sang both parts of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart – a true rarity), Elton and his nine-piece band held court at 4 Pennsylvania Plaza for two nights, with the second evening appearing on the final release.

The album came out just a month after the concert and marked the return to record of Elton’s primary drummer. “We tried, when we did this show, to stick to the original arrangements. That’s why we got Nigel Olsson to come back and play drums,” Elton explained in 2000. “And he adds his voice. He was one of the main singers on my records and that meant we could do the harmonies on Candle In The Wind and make it sound like the original record.”

Elton John – One Night Only: The Greatest Hits is one of Elton’s more colourful live albums, due in no small part to the assorted guest duets from some of Elton’s favourite artists of the day:

★  Don’t Go Breaking My Heart – Kiki Dee
★  Your Song – Ronan Keating
★  Sad Songs (Say So Much) – Bryan Adams
★  Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting) – Anastacia
★  I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues – Mary J. Blige

One Night Only was produced by the legendary Phil Ramone and has been certified Gold in the US and Platinum in the UK, where it reached #7 on the album charts.