Sleeping with the Past

Did You Know?

• Guy Babylon made his debut on this album and continued to play keyboards with John for the next 20 years.
• Fred Mandel left the Elton John Band shortly after the album's release.
• The version of "Durban Deep" on the 1998 remaster features a different vocal mix and is slightly extended from the original album version.

Background

After the release of Reg Strikes Back in 1988, Elton John and Bernie Taupin felt a fresh burst of energy and set out to make an album with a unified feel. Billy Joel’s 1983 record An Innocent Man gave them the idea to honor the R&B music from the 1960s and 1970s that had shaped them when they were younger. Taupin began digging through old soul records from that era, letting those tracks spark new lyrics. He kept a list of which songs or artists had guided him. John then took those lyrics and crafted soul-influenced tunes that matched the original inspirations. As Taupin explained to rock historian Steven P. Wheeler, he told John they needed to figure out what kind of record they wanted to make and produce something where all the songs felt like they belonged together. They revisited the music that had first inspired them to write, especially the Chess label, Stax Records, and the peak years of Motown. Taupin called the result a white-soul album for the late 1980s. This album marked the second time John used a Roland RD-1000 digital piano, playing it on nearly every track except “I Never Knew Her Name” and “Blue Avenue,” where he switched to a Bösendorfer acoustic piano at Puk Recording Studios. Davey Johnstone was the only member from the classic Elton John Band to appear; Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson did not play. Keyboardist Guy Babylon joined John’s music for the first time on this album and also became part of the touring band. A few months after finishing the record, John said its creative success came from knowing that difficult parts of his life, including his legal fight with The Sun, were coming to an end. In 1989 he stated this was the first album he made without any heavy pressures, feeling sure his personal situation would work out. He later mentioned he was sober while recording Sleeping with the Past, but only just, and that he fell apart during the tour that followed, collapsing onstage within the first week.

Reception

Sleeping with the Past received lukewarm reviews upon its 1989 release. It peaked at number 6 on the UK Albums Chart in October 1989, but after the re-release of "Sacrifice" as a double A-side with "Healing Hands" in June 1990 and that single reaching number one, the album returned to number one on the UK Albums Chart, giving John his first number one album in his home country since 1977. The album became his highest-selling studio album in the UK, certified 3× Platinum, and spawned his first solo number one hit in the UK.