ELTON JOHN'S GREATEST HITS VOLUME II

13.09.1977 – Великобритания. 01.10.1977 – США.

THE BITCH IS BACK

I was justified when I was five
Raising cane, I spit in your eye
Times are changing, now the poor get fat
But the fever's gonna catch you when the bitch gets back

Eat meat on Friday that's alright
Even like steak on a Saturday night
I can bitch the best at your social do's
I get high in the evening sniffing pots of glue

I'm a bitch, I'm a bitch
Oh the bitch is back
Stone cold sober as a matter of fact
I can bitch, I can bitch
`Cause I'm better than you
It's the way that I move
The things that I do

I entertain by picking brains
Sell my soul by dropping names
I don't like those, my God, what's that
Oh it's full of nasty habits when the bitch gets backI was justified when I was five
Raising cane, I spit in your eye
Times are changing, now the poor get fat
But the fever's gonna catch you when the bitch gets back

Eat meat on Friday that's alright
Even like steak on a Saturday night
I can bitch the best at your social do's
I get high in the evening sniffing pots of glue

I'm a bitch, I'm a bitch
Oh the bitch is back
Stone cold sober as a matter of fact
I can bitch, I can bitch
`Cause I'm better than you
It's the way that I move
The things that I do

I entertain by picking brains
Sell my soul by dropping names
I don't like those, my God, what's that
Oh it's full of nasty habits when the bitch gets back

Музыка: Элтон Джон

Стихи: Берни Топин

LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS

Picture yourself in a boat on a river

With tangerine trees and marmalade skies

Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly

A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green

Towering over your head

Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes

And she's gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain

Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies

Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers

That grow so incredibly high

Newspaper taxis appear on the shore

Waiting to take you away

Climb in the back with you head in the clouds

And you're gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Picture yourself on a train in a station

With plasticine porters with looking glass ties

Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile

The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Авторы: Джон Леннон, Пол Маккартни

DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART  (ДУЭТ С КИКИ ДИ)

Don't go breaking my heart
I couldn't if I tried
Honey if I get restless
Baby you're not that kind

Don't go breaking my heart
You take the weight off me
Honey when you knock on my door
I gave you my key

Nobody knows it
When I was down
I was your clown
Nobody knows it
Right from the start
I gave you my heart
I gave you my heart

So don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart

And nobody told us
`Cause nobody showed us
And now it's up to us babe
I think we can make it

So don't misunderstand me
You put the light in my life
You put the sparks to the flame
I've got your heart in my sights

Музыка: Энн Орсон (Элтон Джон)

Стихи: Карт Бланш (Берни Топин)

SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT

When I think of those East End lights, muggy nights

The curtains drawn in the little room downstairs

Prima Donna lord you really should have been there

Sitting like a princess perched in her electric chair

And it's one more beer and I don't hear you anymore

We've all gone crazy lately

My friends out there rolling round the basement floor

And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear

You almost had your hooks in me didn't you dear

You nearly had me roped and tied

Altar-bound, hypnotized

Sweet freedom whispered in my ear

You're a butterfly

And butterflies are free to fly

Fly away, high away, bye bye

I never realised the passing hours of evening showers

A slip noose hanging in my darkest dreams

I'm strangled by your haunted social scene

Just a pawn out-played by a dominating queen

It's four o'clock in the morning

Damn it listen to me good

I'm sleeping with myself tonight

Saved in time, thank God my music's still alive

And I would have walked head on into the deep end of the river

Clinging to your stocks and bonds

Paying your H.P. demands forever

They're coming in the morning with a truck to take me home

Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight

Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight

Someone saved my life tonight

So save your strength and run the field you play alone

Музыка: Элтон Джон

Стихи: Берни Топин

PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM

I used to be a rolling stone

You know if the cause was right

I'd leave to find the answer on the road

I used to be a heart beating for someone

But the times have changed

The less I say the more my work gets done

`Cause I live and breathe this Philadelphia freedom

From the day that I was born I've waved the flag

Philadelphia freedom took me knee-high to a man

Yeah gave me peace of mind my daddy never had

Oh Philadelphia freedom shine on me, I love you

Shine a light through the eyes of the ones left behind

Shine a light shine a light

Shine a light won't you shine a light

Philadelphia freedom I love you, yes I do

If you choose to you can live your life alone

Some people choose the city

Some others choose the good old family home

I like living easy without family ties

Till the whippoorwill of freedom zapped me

Right between the eyes

Музыка: Элтон Джон

Стихи: Берни Топин

ISLAND GIRL

I see your teeth flash, Jamaican honey so sweet
Down where Lexington cross 47th Street
She's a big girl, she's standing six foot three
Turning tricks for the dudes in the big city

Island girl
What you wanting with the white man's world
Island girl
Black boy want you in his island world
He want to take you from the racket boss
He want to save you but the cause is lost
Island girl, island girl, island girl
Tell me what you wanting with the white man's world

She's black as coal but she burn like a fire
And she wrap herself around you like a well worn tire
You feel her nail scratch your back just like a rake
He one more gone, he one more John who make the mistake

Музыка: Элтон Джон

Стихи: Берни Топин

GROW SOME FUNK OF FUNK OWN

Yeah I looked at my watch and it said a quarter to five
The headlines screamed that I was still alive
I couldn't understand it
I thought I died last night

Oh I dreamed I'd been in a border town
In a little cantina that the boys had found
I was desperate to dance
Just to dig the local sounds

When along came a seсorita
She looked so good that I had to meet her
I was ready to approach her with my English charm
When her brass knuckled boyfriend grabbed me by the arm

And he said grow some funk of your own amigo
Grow some funk of your own
We no like to with the gringo fight
But there might be a death in Mexico tonight
If you can't grow some funk of your own amigo
Grow some funk of your own
Take my advice, take the next flight
And grow your funk, grow your funk at home

Well I looked for support from the rest of my friends
For their vanishing trick they get ten out of ten
I knelt to pray
Just to see if he would comprehend

Музыка: Элтон Джон

Стихи: Берни Топин

BENNIE AND THE JETS

Hey kids, shake it loose together
The spotlight's hitting something
That's been known to change the weather
We'll kill the fatted calf tonight
So stick around
You're gonna hear electric music
Solid walls of sound

Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
But they're so spaced out, Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they're weird and they're wonderful
Oh Bennie she's really keen
She's got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine
Bennie and the Jets

Hey kids, plug into the faithless
Maybe they're blinded
But Bennie makes them ageless
We shall survive, let us take ourselves along
Where we fight our parents out in the streets
To find who's right and who's wrong

Музыка: Элтон Джон

Стихи: Берни Топин

PINBALL WIZARD

Ever since I was a young boy I played the silver ball

From Soho down to Brighton I must have played them all

But I ain't seen nothing like him in any amusement hall

That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball

He stands like a statue, becomes part of the machine

Feeling all the bumpers, always playing clean

He plays by intuition, the digit counters fall

That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball

He's a pinball wizard, there has to be a twist

A pinball wizard's got such a supple wrist

How do you think he does it, I don't know

What makes him so good

He ain't got no distractions, can't hear no buzzes and bells

Don't see lights a-flashing, he plays by sense of smell

Always has a replay, never tilts at all

That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball

He can't beat me now I've always been the champ

I know every trick, no freak's gonna beat my hand

Even on my usual table, he can beat the best

His disciples lead him in and he just does the rest

He's got crazy flipper fingers, I've never seen him fall

That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball

He's a pinball wizard, there has to be a twist

A pinball wizard's got such a supple wrist

He's a pinball wizard, he's scored a trillion more

A pinball wizard, the world's new pinball lord

He's scoring more, he's scoring more

I thought I was the Bally table king

But I just handed my pinball crown to him, to him, to him

Автор: Пит Таунсенд

LEVON

 (вошла в американскую версию вместо BENNIE AND THE JETS)

Levon wears his war wound like a crown

He calls his child Jesus

'Cause he likes the name

And he sends him to the finest school in town

Levon, Levon likes his money

He makes a lot they say

Spend his days counting

In a garage by the motorway

He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day

When the New York Times said God is dead

And the war's begun

Alvin Tostig has a son today

And he shall be Levon

And he shall be a good man

And he shall be Levon

In tradition with the family plan

And he shall be Levon

And he shall be a good man

He shall be Levon

Levon sells cartoon balloons in town

His family business thrives

Jesus blows up balloons all day

Sits on the porch swing watching them fly

And Jesus, he wants to go to Venus

Leaving Levon far behind

Take a balloon and go sailing

While Levon, Levon slowly dies

He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day

When the New York Times said God is dead

And the war's begun

Alvin Tostig has a son today

Музыка: Элтон Джон

Стихи: Берни Топин

Пока Элтон был занят на студии в Сиэтле, вышел ещё один его альбом, не требовавший никаких новых записей. Это был «Elton John Greatest Hits Volume II», увидевший свет 13 сентября 1977 года в Британии и 1 октября этого же года в Соединенных Штатах. Его выпуску предшествовал спор относительно того, выполнены ли все условия контракт DJM. Кроме того, альбом снова привлек внимание к творчеству Элтона — даже при том, что в его поддержку не было выпущено ни одного сингла: у Элтона было достаточно хитов для второго сборника уже через три года после первого. Альбом должен был стать подарком к приближающемуся Рождеству.

Американский вариант отличался от того, что вышел в других странах, — в нем Benny and the Jets» с ошибкой в названии была заменена на «Levon». Другие пеcни альбома прелставляли период с 1974 по 1977 год. Первый сборник луч­ших хитов вышел в то время, когда музыкант выпускал хиты также быстро, как его почитатели раскупали альбомы. Песни «The Bitch is Back» и «Lucy in the Sky with Diamond», не по­павшие в первый сборник хитов, теперь заняли свое место во втором. Остальные песни — «Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word», «Don’t Go Breaking My Heard », «Someone Saved My Life Tonight», «Philadelphia Freedom», «Island Girl», «Grow Some Funk of Your Own» и «Pinball Wizard» — были напоминанием о былом доминировании Элтона в радиоэфире.

Покупатели пластинок в Соединенных Штатах не про­явили особого интереса к альбому. «Elton John Greatest Hits Volume II» стал платиновым, но при этом не поднялся выше 21-го места. Он провел в чарте «Top LP» журнала «Billboard» всего четверть времени по сравнению с ««Elton John Greatest Hits» и оказал наименьшее влияние на чарты со времени саундтрека «Friends». С учетом его содержания - основная песня, не входившая ни в один из предыдущих альбомов, в данном случае «Pinball Wizard», так часто звучала по радио, что могла стать номером один, если бы имелась в продаже, — невысокое место альбома в чарте стало неожиданностью. Рас­тущее неприятие американцами музыки Элтона и его самого теперь стало совершенно очевидным. В Британии сборник имел больший успех, поднявшись в национальном чарте до 6-го места. Несмотря на то что в Британии Элтону все еще приходилось нелегко, он был способен предложить слушателям альбом, вошедший в лучшую десятку.

Элизабет Розенталь. Rocket Man. Английский оригинал - His Songs

Элтон Джон – акустическое и электрическое фортепиано, синтезатор, вокал

Кенни Пассарелли – бас-гитара, бэк-вокал

Роджер Поуп – барабаны

Дейви Джонстон – акустическая и электрогитары, банджо, бэк-вокал

Калеб Куэй – электрогитара, акустическая гитара, бэк-вокал

Рей Купер – кастаньеты, бубен, вибрафон и другие перкуссии

 Джеймс Ньютон Ховард – синтезатор, мелотрон,  электрическое фортепиано и симфоническая аранжировка

Ди Мюррей – бас-гитара, бэк-вокал

Найджел Олссон – барабаны, бэк-вокал

Карл Фонтина – аккордеон

Ленни Пикетт – сольный тенор-саксофон 

Стефан Капка – баритон-саксофон 
Эмилио Кастилио – тенор-саксофон 
Майк Джиллет – труба и тромбон 
Грег Адамс – труба 

Пол Бакмастер – симфоническая аранжировка 
Лесли Дункан, Сью и Санни, Барри Сент Джон, Лиза Страйк , Слидл Кинг, Ширли Маттхаус, Джосси Мей Смит, Дасти Спрингсфилд, Кики Ди – бэк-вокалы 

Барри Морган – барабаны 
Брайан Оджерс – бас-гитара 
Брайан Ди – гармония 
Лес Татчер – акустическая гитара 

Label  DJM

Producer Gus Dudgeon