Elton John - - Rocket Man - - Number Ones CD review

Yes, it's another Elton repackaging and yet another "Number Ones" CD in a market glutted with them -- but if you only want those big hits, especially from his magic early years, and you only want to pony up enough money for a single CD, head here first. The accompanying DVD may even make this a must-buy for serious Elton fans, but that's no doubt why it was included.

One good side-effect of the latest "Number Ones" craze -- created by the Beatles, tested by Elvis -- is that it forces artists to get at least somewhat real with their back catalog, focusing on their period of greatest artistic (and, usually, commercial) success and relinquishing the hope of pimping their later, more ordinary product. So all the soccer moms who actually enjoy Elton 90's sidetrip into Disney dreariness are, for once, not pandered to here. No, this is the Elton most of us fell in love with, the expert singer-songwriter who somehow transformed himself into the Seventies' biggest, gaudiest, and all around most fun superstar. And since Elton really did hit the top an inordinate number of times, Rocket Man: Number Ones (released as Rocket Man: Definitive Hits in the UK, and with a slightly different tracklist) doesn't have to engage in the sort of historical fudging most of these packages succumb to. These really are his biggest hits, and for Eltonophiles, that also means some of his best work.

If you want to pick nits, you can point to the inclusion of "Sacrifice" and "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" to th exclusion of Adult Contemporary #1s like "Mama Can't Buy You Love" and "Little Jeannie" (especially since "Sacrifice" didn't even make it to the top). But that still leaves this the definitive Elton greatest hits CD if you only want one -- and even major Captain Fantastic fans may want the limited edition, since its accompanying DVD features several classic Elton videos and five songs from his legendary "Red Piano" NBC broadcast concert from Vegas, not to mention his latest video, "Tinderbox." The rest of you should stick to this disc, the two-CD Greatest Hits 1970-2003 if you like his Nineties stuff too, or the reissued four-CD To Be Continued box set for all his big hits of the Seventies and Eighties. Confused yet?