Elton John released his landmark double album\u00a0 on October 5, 1973: fifty years ago. Elton’s seventh album, the blockbuster LP was stuffed to the brim with top-quality songs, all from the pen of Elton John (music) and Bernie Taupin (lyrics). The pair churned out the songs \u2013 20 of which are featured on the album \u2013 in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road<\/em> would go multi-platinum in four countries (Australia, United Kingdom, U.S. and New Zealand) and would spawn no less than four hit singles. \u201cSaturday Night’s Alright for Fighting,\u201d the album’s title track, \u201cBennie and the Jets\u201d and \u201cCandle in the Wind\u201d all soared into the UK Top 40, and all but the last of those reached the upper number in the U.S. charts as well. (\u201cCandle in the Wind\u201d would eventually become a hit Stateside when Elton re-recorded it in 1987 as a tribute to Princess Diana.)<\/p>\n But Elton\u2019s and Bernie’s prolific nature was so remarkable that during the period in which they were writing for Goodbye Yellow Brick Road<\/em>, the duo came up with several more songs. Left off the album, three of those would be released as b-sides to singles form the album. The other two holiday-themed tunes would form two sides of a November 1973 single. Here are five relative obscurities from Elton John’s creatively fertile Goodbye Yellow Brick Road<\/em> era.<\/p>\n \u201cJack Rabbit\u201d<\/strong>
\nWhen MCA Records released a single of \u201cSaturday Night\u2019s Alright for Fighting\u201d \u2013 the first single off Goodbye Yellow Brick Road<\/em> \u2013 they placed not one but two songs on the flip. The first, \u201cJack Rabbit\u201d is a bouncy slice of pop country, similar to (but more upbeat than) many of the songs on the similarly-themed Tumbleweed Connection<\/em> album from 1970. The non-LP track would eventually resurface on an expanded CD version of 1973\u2019s Don\u2019t Shoot Me, I\u2019m Only the Piano Player<\/em>, released in 1995. \u201cJack Rabbit\u201d also played over the ending credits of the 2017 action film Kingsman: The Golden Circle<\/em>.<\/p>\n