Honky Château
Elton John's first US number one album, recorded at a French chateau.
Honky Château, Elton John's fifth studio album, came out on 19 May 1972 and took its name from the 18th-century French chateau where it was recorded. It was his first of seven consecutive US number one albums on the Billboard 200.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Elton John
- Released
- 19 May 1972
- Recorded
- 15–23 January 1972
- Studio
- Château d'Hérouville
- Hérouville
- France; Trident
- London
- UK (mixing)
- Genre
- Rock; pop
- Length
- 45:12
- Label
- Uni (US); DJM (UK)
- Producer
- Gus Dudgeon
Facts from the source article.
Music
Honky Château marked the first studio album to feature Elton John's road band as the core group: Dee Murray on bass, Nigel Olsson on drums, and new member Davey Johnstone on electric and acoustic guitars and other fretted instruments. Previously, the record label had limited John to using them for only one track each on Tumbleweed Connection and Madman Across the Water, with session players handling the rest. Johnstone, who had played acoustic guitar, mandolin and sitar on Madman Across the Water, was invited to join permanently for Honky Château, expanding his contributions to electric guitar, banjo, slide guitar and backing vocals. The opening track, "Honky Cat", is a New Orleans funk piece reminiscent of Dr. John and Allen Toussaint, featuring a four-piece horn section arranged by producer Gus Dudgeon. The backing vocal combination of Johnstone, Murray and Olsson made its on-record debut on "Rocket Man", establishing a trademark sound that would appear on John's singles and albums for several years. In 1995, Dudgeon remastered the album, adding an uptempo, piano-based rock and roll version of "Slave" that had been sidelined in favor of the slower, guitar-based original. This alternate version was originally intended as the B-side to the unreleased "Hercules" single and first appeared on the 1992 compilation Rare Masters. In February 2023, John announced a 50th-anniversary edition, released on 24 March 2023, on LP (double-LP set and single LP on gold vinyl) and 2 CDs, with the double LP and 2-CD configurations including outtakes from the original session tapes and the 2-CD format adding eight live recordings from the 1972 Royal Festival Hall show.
Reception
Honky Château is critically regarded as one of Elton John's finest records. Jon Landau of Rolling Stone described the original LP as "a rich, warm, satisfying album that stands head and shoulders above the morass of current releases." Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times praised the music as innovative and Bernie Taupin's lyrics as humorous, ironic and satirical. Retrospective reviews have been mostly positive. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that the album "plays as the most focused and accomplished set of songs Elton John and Bernie Taupin ever wrote," characterizing it as an eclectic collection of ballads, rockers, blues, country-rock, and soul songs. Chris Roberts of BBC praised the album as "one of [John's] most eclectic, durable collections." In Canada, the album peaked at number 3 on the RPM 100 Top Albums Chart, reaching that position on 29 July 1972, then dropping to number 5 before returning to number 3 for twelve consecutive weeks, and falling to number 9 on 4 November of the same year.
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