Elton John's Greatest Hits
Volume II
is the sixteenth
official album release
for British musician
and the
second compilation.
The original
1977 US version
features one song
from 1971
and two songs
from 1974
that were not on
the first greatest hits album.
It also features several
hit songs from 1975
and two
hit singles
from John's past year
of performing in 1976.
The cover photograph
was taken by
Gered Mankowitz.
Release
There are
several versions
of the album.
There were two original versions,
one in the United States
and Canada
and another for
Great Britain
and the
rest of the world,
both released in 1977.
The British version,
released on DJM Records,
included
"Bennie and the Jets",
a song that had appeared
on the 1973 album
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
but had only recently
been released as a single
(1976)
in Elton John's
home country.
In North America,
where the album was released
by MCA Records,
this song had already appeared
on the first volume of
Greatest Hits.
It was replaced with
"Levon",
an even older song
(from 1971's Madman Across the Water album)
that had not yet
been collected.
The album also contained
two songs
that would later be replaced,
"Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word"
and
"Don't Go Breaking My Heart"
(with Kiki Dee)
both from 1976.
These were the newest songs
on the collection,
and the only two
not owned by
DJM/This Record Company.
They had been released on
Elton John's own label
named
The Rocket Record Company
and were owned by
his own royalty collection company,
Sackville Productions.
They appeared on this
DJM album
by mutual agreement.
In North America,
all his records were
released by MCA
the singles from 1976
as well as the
Blue Moves album
also carried the Rocket logo
so, at that time,
no agreement was necessary.
In 1992,
a new version
was released worldwide.
Elton John had moved to
PolyGram Records,
who got the rights to all
of his DJM recordings
(pre-1976).
MCA now controlled
his post-DJM recordings,
including his later work
on Geffen Records
which had been taken over
by MCA.
Geffen's Greatest Hits Volume III
was deleted and replaced
with
Greatest Hits 1976–1986,
which also contained
"Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word"
and
"Don't Go Breaking My Heart"
from the original version of
Greatest Hits – Volume 2.
On the new edition,
those two songs were replaced
with two singles
not on the original version,
1971's
"Tiny Dancer"
and 1975's
"I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)".
Meanwhile,
since the
1992 edition of
Greatest Hits
included
"Bennie and the Jets"
worldwide,
Volume II
then included
"Levon"
worldwide.
In the US,
it was certified gold
in
September 1977,
platinum in
November 1977,
3× platinum in
March 1993,
4× platinum in
September 1995,
and 5× platinum
in August 1998
by the RIAA.
All of these versions contain
"The Bitch Is Back",
"Someone Saved My Life Tonight",
"Philadelphia Freedom",
"Island Girl",
"Grow Some Funk of Your Own"
and John's covers of
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
and
"Pinball Wizard".
---------------
NOTES :
With All The
Different Versions
I Just Put Them All
On One CD ..
The Changes I Made Was
Adding
The Full Length Version
Of
The Bitch is Back
instead of The
Fade Out Version
and Added
The Songs
Tonight
and
We All Fall In Love Sometimes
and A
Remix of
Bennie and The Jets
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