Post by dougs on Jan 23, 2023 6:23:57 GMT
Elton & Bernie's DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER is 50 years old this week (January, 2023)!
What follows is some information about the album, the singles ("Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel"), the recording of the album, and other facts:
DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER is Elton's sixth proper studio album, coming after the #1 success of HONKY CHATEAU in 1972. The new album outshone the exciting success of HONKY CHATEAU which had become Elton's most successful album to that time. DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER hit #1 on national charts around the world. It reached #1 in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Italy, Norway, and Spain as well as #2 in the Netherlands and Finland as well as #4 in Japan and Denmark. An extraordinary chart result was that DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER was the #1 album for the entire year (1973) in the UK - scoring higher than so many other landmark albums such as Pink Floyd's DARK SIDE OF THE MOON.
Here are some facts about the album:
* It was Elton's 2nd album to be recorded in France (Strawberry Studios at Chateau d'Herouville); HONKY CHATEAU had been the first.
* It was an album that kept the "rock n' roll" feel established on HONKY CHATEAU.
* Legendary arranger Paul Buckmaster provided his magic touch on two tracks; "Blues For Baby and Me" and "Have Mercy On The Criminal."
* Paul Buckmaster would not appear on an Elton album again until 1978's A SINGLE MAN.
* The horn trio of Jean-Louis Chautemps, Alain Hatot, and Jacques Bolognesi played on "Midnight Creeper" and "Elderberry Wine" and "I'm Gonna Be A Teenage Idol."
* These same three horn-laden songs had originally been written for HONKY CHATEAU but were eventually outtakes for that album.
* This was the first album of Elton's to score #1 with two singles; "Daniel" in Canada and "Crocodile Rock" almost everywhere!
* The B-side of the single "Daniel" was a re-worked piano & band version of "Skyline Pidgeon" which had first appeared on EJ's 1969 debut album EMPTY SKY.
* The song "Blues For Baby and Me" featured Davey Johnstone on sitar; the only previous EJ song to feature sitar was Davey on "Holiday Inn" from MADMAN ACROSS THE WATER.
* Other than "Skyline Pidgeon" the only other outtake from the recordings is the yet to be released "Tell Me What The Doctor Said."
* "Daniel" was the first new song written for the album and only required a quick 2 or 3 takes (sources vary) to complete!
* The record company did not want to release "Daniel" as the single but Elton insisted and initially had to pay the promotions costs himself - the record company paid him back!
* It apparently took only 4 days to write all of the songs for the album.
The extraordinary success of DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER" resulted in ever-growing concert crowds in larger and larger concert venues. Elton called DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER as his discotheque album! It was far more accessible and commercial than his earlier albums such as ELTON JOHN and TUMBLEWEED CONNECTION and it outsold all his previous albums - hands down. Some of Elton's early "serious" music fans ran screaming into the night with the release of the AM hit radio single "Crocodile Rock"! Elton had entered and began to conquer the pop-rock world. Most, but not all, were happy. He was now, both, an "album" artist and a "singles" artist.
As mentioned, DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER had two hit singles; "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel." Here are their respective chart positions:
* "Crocodile Rock" reached #1 in the US, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, and Switzerland, #2 in Australia, #3 in Germany, Belgium and Norway, and #5 in the UK.
* "Daniel" reached #1 in Canada, #2 in the US, Zimbabwe and New Zealand, #4 in Ireland, #5 in Switzerland, and #7 in Australia.
* "Daniel" received a keyboard workout; Elton on Fender Rhodes electric piano and flute mellotron and engineer Ken Scott on ARP synthesizer.
* "Teacher I Need You" was released a single but only in Norway - March of 1973 ("High Flying Bird" was the B-side).
Here are some interesting facts and quotes taken from the recording of DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER during and after the sessions:
* Producer: Gus Dudgeon. Engineer: Ken Scott.
* The cover features on the far right side a poster for a fictitious Elton John film and a poster for a real Marx Brothers film "Go West."
* Elton arrived at the the studio ill; he said to producer Gus Dudgeon that he was "quite slow" and "I can't make this album..." Two days later he was set to give it a go.
* Davey Johnstone was so impressed by the excitement of making the new record; regarding the final result, he stated "What you heard was all energy."
* Elton decided to remove the last verse from "Daniel" which better explained the song; about a soldier fighting in Vietnam who was wounded in the Tet Offensive.
* "I'm Gonna Be A Teenage Idol" was written for friend and T-Rex member Marc Bolan.
* Gus Dudgeon stated that in all of the years that he worked with Elton, he only asked for 1 instrument to be removed from a song; banjo from "Midnight Creeper." Gus agreed.
* It was Gus' wife Sheila who encouraged Elton to re-do "Skyline Pidgeon."
* Apparently Elton recorded a never-released version of Tommy Tucker's 1963 blues song called "Hi-Heel Sneakers." A bit more retro to go with "Crocodile Rock"?
* FM rock radio stations heavily playlisted "Have Mercy on the Criminal" and "Elderberry Wine" and "Teacher I Need You" and "High Flying Bird."
* When Elton brought guitarist Caleb Quaye back into the new band in 1975, Caleb stated that he would join ONLY if he didn't have to play "Crocodile Rock"! Elton agreed!
Live:
* "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel" have been played in most of Elton's tours since their release in 1973.
* "Have Mercy on the Criminal" has been played sporadically (eg. 21 AT 33 tour in 1980) but more often since 2016 and was added to the FAREWELL tour to enthusiastic response.
* "Teacher I Need You" was played a bit in 1973, became the show-closer in the JUMP UP! tour in 1982 and got a couple of performances in 1984 and has not been played since.
* "I'm Gonna Be A Teenage Idol" has received only a little live treatment; primarily in the last leg of the 1998 BIG PICTURE tour.
* "Elderberry Wine" opened several 1973 concerts but has received few live performances since.
We'll see if DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER gets any re-packaging (box set, 5.1 audio pressings, etc.) to celebrate its 50th year! It was one really popular album that hit both on FM rock album oriented stations and on AM hit radio and was a big seller worldwide. Additionally, the album has a great cover - back when album art was, indeed, an art form and key in helping to promote/sell an album. Books, in those days, were actually published featuring & celebrating album art and the cover of DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER could, understandably, be found within.
Doug
What follows is some information about the album, the singles ("Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel"), the recording of the album, and other facts:
DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER is Elton's sixth proper studio album, coming after the #1 success of HONKY CHATEAU in 1972. The new album outshone the exciting success of HONKY CHATEAU which had become Elton's most successful album to that time. DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER hit #1 on national charts around the world. It reached #1 in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Italy, Norway, and Spain as well as #2 in the Netherlands and Finland as well as #4 in Japan and Denmark. An extraordinary chart result was that DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER was the #1 album for the entire year (1973) in the UK - scoring higher than so many other landmark albums such as Pink Floyd's DARK SIDE OF THE MOON.
Here are some facts about the album:
* It was Elton's 2nd album to be recorded in France (Strawberry Studios at Chateau d'Herouville); HONKY CHATEAU had been the first.
* It was an album that kept the "rock n' roll" feel established on HONKY CHATEAU.
* Legendary arranger Paul Buckmaster provided his magic touch on two tracks; "Blues For Baby and Me" and "Have Mercy On The Criminal."
* Paul Buckmaster would not appear on an Elton album again until 1978's A SINGLE MAN.
* The horn trio of Jean-Louis Chautemps, Alain Hatot, and Jacques Bolognesi played on "Midnight Creeper" and "Elderberry Wine" and "I'm Gonna Be A Teenage Idol."
* These same three horn-laden songs had originally been written for HONKY CHATEAU but were eventually outtakes for that album.
* This was the first album of Elton's to score #1 with two singles; "Daniel" in Canada and "Crocodile Rock" almost everywhere!
* The B-side of the single "Daniel" was a re-worked piano & band version of "Skyline Pidgeon" which had first appeared on EJ's 1969 debut album EMPTY SKY.
* The song "Blues For Baby and Me" featured Davey Johnstone on sitar; the only previous EJ song to feature sitar was Davey on "Holiday Inn" from MADMAN ACROSS THE WATER.
* Other than "Skyline Pidgeon" the only other outtake from the recordings is the yet to be released "Tell Me What The Doctor Said."
* "Daniel" was the first new song written for the album and only required a quick 2 or 3 takes (sources vary) to complete!
* The record company did not want to release "Daniel" as the single but Elton insisted and initially had to pay the promotions costs himself - the record company paid him back!
* It apparently took only 4 days to write all of the songs for the album.
The extraordinary success of DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER" resulted in ever-growing concert crowds in larger and larger concert venues. Elton called DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER as his discotheque album! It was far more accessible and commercial than his earlier albums such as ELTON JOHN and TUMBLEWEED CONNECTION and it outsold all his previous albums - hands down. Some of Elton's early "serious" music fans ran screaming into the night with the release of the AM hit radio single "Crocodile Rock"! Elton had entered and began to conquer the pop-rock world. Most, but not all, were happy. He was now, both, an "album" artist and a "singles" artist.
As mentioned, DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER had two hit singles; "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel." Here are their respective chart positions:
* "Crocodile Rock" reached #1 in the US, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, and Switzerland, #2 in Australia, #3 in Germany, Belgium and Norway, and #5 in the UK.
* "Daniel" reached #1 in Canada, #2 in the US, Zimbabwe and New Zealand, #4 in Ireland, #5 in Switzerland, and #7 in Australia.
* "Daniel" received a keyboard workout; Elton on Fender Rhodes electric piano and flute mellotron and engineer Ken Scott on ARP synthesizer.
* "Teacher I Need You" was released a single but only in Norway - March of 1973 ("High Flying Bird" was the B-side).
Here are some interesting facts and quotes taken from the recording of DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER during and after the sessions:
* Producer: Gus Dudgeon. Engineer: Ken Scott.
* The cover features on the far right side a poster for a fictitious Elton John film and a poster for a real Marx Brothers film "Go West."
* Elton arrived at the the studio ill; he said to producer Gus Dudgeon that he was "quite slow" and "I can't make this album..." Two days later he was set to give it a go.
* Davey Johnstone was so impressed by the excitement of making the new record; regarding the final result, he stated "What you heard was all energy."
* Elton decided to remove the last verse from "Daniel" which better explained the song; about a soldier fighting in Vietnam who was wounded in the Tet Offensive.
* "I'm Gonna Be A Teenage Idol" was written for friend and T-Rex member Marc Bolan.
* Gus Dudgeon stated that in all of the years that he worked with Elton, he only asked for 1 instrument to be removed from a song; banjo from "Midnight Creeper." Gus agreed.
* It was Gus' wife Sheila who encouraged Elton to re-do "Skyline Pidgeon."
* Apparently Elton recorded a never-released version of Tommy Tucker's 1963 blues song called "Hi-Heel Sneakers." A bit more retro to go with "Crocodile Rock"?
* FM rock radio stations heavily playlisted "Have Mercy on the Criminal" and "Elderberry Wine" and "Teacher I Need You" and "High Flying Bird."
* When Elton brought guitarist Caleb Quaye back into the new band in 1975, Caleb stated that he would join ONLY if he didn't have to play "Crocodile Rock"! Elton agreed!
Live:
* "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel" have been played in most of Elton's tours since their release in 1973.
* "Have Mercy on the Criminal" has been played sporadically (eg. 21 AT 33 tour in 1980) but more often since 2016 and was added to the FAREWELL tour to enthusiastic response.
* "Teacher I Need You" was played a bit in 1973, became the show-closer in the JUMP UP! tour in 1982 and got a couple of performances in 1984 and has not been played since.
* "I'm Gonna Be A Teenage Idol" has received only a little live treatment; primarily in the last leg of the 1998 BIG PICTURE tour.
* "Elderberry Wine" opened several 1973 concerts but has received few live performances since.
We'll see if DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER gets any re-packaging (box set, 5.1 audio pressings, etc.) to celebrate its 50th year! It was one really popular album that hit both on FM rock album oriented stations and on AM hit radio and was a big seller worldwide. Additionally, the album has a great cover - back when album art was, indeed, an art form and key in helping to promote/sell an album. Books, in those days, were actually published featuring & celebrating album art and the cover of DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER could, understandably, be found within.
Doug
