Leather Jackets (album)
Elton John's twentieth studio album, a critical and commercial low point.
Leather Jackets is the twentieth studio album by British musician Elton John, released on 27 October 1986 through Geffen Records in the US and The Rocket Record Company elsewhere. It was the last of John's albums produced by Gus Dudgeon and includes both newly recorded material and outtakes from the previous album Ice on Fire (1985). The album was a critical and commercial failure, stalling at number 91 in the US—the lowest-charting studio album of John's career—and was his first since Tumbleweed Connection (1970) to lack a top 40 hit.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Elton John
- Released
- 27 October 1986
- Recorded
- January 1985
- January – February
- May – September 1986
- Studio
- Wisseloord (Hilversum)
- CTS (London)
- The SOL (Cookham)
- Genre
- Pop rock
- Length
- 45:11
- Label
- Geffen (US), Rocket (UK)
- Producer
- Gus Dudgeon
Facts from the source article.
Background
Elton John has repeatedly expressed disdain for Leather Jackets. In 2001 he called the track "Heartache All Over the World" the worst song he had ever recorded, describing it as "pretty insubstantial"; in 2006 he declared the album his least favourite, stating "Gus Dudgeon did his best but you can't work with a loony. He also criticized its biker-inspired cover as "very butch but a total disaster," adding "I was not a well budgie, I was married and it was just one bag of coke after another. Lyricist Bernie Taupin, however, believes 1997's The Big Picture deserves the honour of John's worst album. He'd go out and do some coke and it'd be all over his mouth, his nose would be running and I'd go: 'Oh God, this is just awful'. In his 2019 autobiography Me, John wrote that the album "was about as close to an unmitigated disaster than anything I've ever released" and that "overall, Leather Jackets had four legs, a tail, and barked if a postman came to the door. The only single to achieve chart success in the US was "Heartache All Over the World," though it failed to crack the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100. "Slow Rivers" was a collaboration with Cliff Richard released as a single in the UK. Cher collaborated with "Lady Choc Ice" (actually John himself) to write "Don't Trust That Woman. Roger Taylor and John Deacon of Queen played drums and bass guitar respectively on "Angeline"; songwriting credit was shared with backing singer Alan Carvell, who composed the "oh-oh-oh's" heard at the beginning and end of the track. John performed "Paris" during the 1986 leg of his Ice on Fire Tour; the song later became a minor FM hit for some jazz radio stations and reached number 37 on the Belgium charts. He included "Heartache All Over the World" and "Slow Rivers" on his 1986 Australian Tour De Force tour with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, which yielded the 1987 live album Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. "Heartache" was played in the band portion of the show (John did not play piano for that number), while "Slow Rivers" was performed with the orchestra but, due to contractual constraints, was not included on Live in Australia.
Critical reception
The album received negative reviews. Matt Springer of Ultimate Classic Rock ranked it number 31 among John's studio albums, criticizing it as "the worst of the '80s – awful songs with equally awful production." In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Lindsay Planer found the material "half-hearted," performances "less than inspired," and John's voice "beginning to show signs of extreme fatigue and strain," though they noted "bright moments" including "Heartache All Over the World" and John's collaborations with Cliff Richard and Cher.
Track listing
When the album was reissued on CD, the original LP's side one and side two were merged into a single sequence of eleven tracks. On the vinyl record, the compilation Greatest Hits Vol. 3, and certain singles, "Heartache All Over the World" runs 4:01 (though the sleeve incorrectly says 3:52). The CD version, including the 1992 American re-release, adds a short a cappella section to the final chorus, making it 4:17. "Angeline" lasts 3:24 on the LP but was lengthened to 3:55 for the CD.
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