Elton John (album)
Elton John is the eponymous second studio album by English singer-songwriter Elton John, released on 10 April 1970 by DJM Records. It was released by Uni Records. The album was the first release by John in the United States because "Empty Sky" was not released in that country until 1975. The album includes John's breakthrough single "Your Song", and helped to establish his career during what was considered the "singer-songwriter" era of popular music. In the US, it was certified gold in February 1971 by the RIAA. In the same year, it was nominated  for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 2003, the album was ranked number 468 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. On 27 November 2012, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as an album cited as exhibiting "qualitative or historical significance". Background. This was the first of a string of John albums produced by Gus Dudgeon. As Dudgeon recalled in a "Mix" magazine interview, the album was not actually intended to launch John as an artist, but rather as a collection of polished demos for other artists  to consider recording his and co-writer Bernie Taupin's songs. Two songs from the album did find their way into the repertoire of other artists in 1970: "Your Song" was recorded by Three Dog Night as an album track on their LP "It Ain't Easy", while Aretha Franklin released a cover of "Border Song" as a single that reached number 37 in the US pop charts and number 5 on the R&B chart, later included on her 1972 album "Young, Gifted and Black". The song "No Shoe Strings on Louise" was intended (as homage or parody) to sound  like a Rolling Stones song. Live recordings. John performed many of these songs live, and included six of these ten songs on his 1987 album "Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra". Personnel. Track numbers refer to CD and digital releases of the album. Accolades. Grammy Awards