The Very Best of Elton John is a
greatest hitscompilation album by English musician
Elton John, released in October 1990. His first career-retrospective compilation album, and fourth official greatest-hits album overall, it was released in the
United Kingdom and throughout
Europe, and in other countries such as
Japan and
Australia, but not in the
United States, where the box set To Be Continued... was released the following month instead.
The compilation spans his second album Elton John in 1970 to Sleeping with the Past in 1989. After the
double A-sided "
Sacrifice/
Healing Hands" single became a hit and the third best-selling single of 1990 in the United Kingdom, the album became an instant smash in that country. It spent its first two weeks at #1 followed by nine weeks at #2, kept there by
Madonna's Immaculate Collection. In all, the compilation spent 145 weeks inside the UK top 200 album chart, making a total of 11 re-entries, and it was certified 9×
Platinum by the
BPI on 1 March 1995.[2]
It includes a total of 28 hit singles plus the new songs "
Easier to Walk Away" and "
You Gotta Love Someone", both of which also made the charts between 1990 and 1991. The release also spawned a
music video compilation, which was originally released on both
laserdisc and
VHS, and reissued on
DVD.
Track 25 is different on European version of the album. "Whispers" from Sleeping with the Past takes the place of "Passengers".
"Pinball Wizard", "The Bitch Is Back", "I Don't Wanna Go on With You Like That" and "Easier to Walk Away" are excised from the vinyl version of the compilation.
The timings are different on the back cover and the actual CD. On Disc 1, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" is listed as 6:12, while the actual song runs at 5:38 and "Philadelphia Freedom" runs at 5:42, rather at 5:19. On Disc 2, the back cover shows Song For Guy running at 5:02, but the actual track runs at 6:40 (the album length of the song). The same applies for "Nikita", which the back cover states for 4:53 but the actual song plays at 5:44. "I Don't Wanna Go on With You Like That" is the radio single edit on the CD (4:00) instead of the back cover's album cut listing of 4:33.
B-sides
Song
Format
"Medicine Man"
"You Gotta Love Someone" 7"/12"/CD (UK)
"Medicine Man" (with Adamski)
"You Gotta Love Someone" 12"/CD (UK)
"Made for Me"
"Easier to Walk Away" 12"/CD (UK)
"I Swear I Heard the Night Talkin'"
"Easier to Walk Away" 7"/12"/CD (UK) "You Gotta Love Someone" 7" (France)
^Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava.
ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
The Very Best of Elton John is a
greatest hitscompilation album by English musician
Elton John, released in October 1990. His first career-retrospective compilation album, and fourth official greatest-hits album overall, it was released in the
United Kingdom and throughout
Europe, and in other countries such as
Japan and
Australia, but not in the
United States, where the box set To Be Continued... was released the following month instead.
The compilation spans his second album Elton John in 1970 to Sleeping with the Past in 1989. After the
double A-sided "
Sacrifice/
Healing Hands" single became a hit and the third best-selling single of 1990 in the United Kingdom, the album became an instant smash in that country. It spent its first two weeks at #1 followed by nine weeks at #2, kept there by
Madonna's Immaculate Collection. In all, the compilation spent 145 weeks inside the UK top 200 album chart, making a total of 11 re-entries, and it was certified 9×
Platinum by the
BPI on 1 March 1995.[2]
It includes a total of 28 hit singles plus the new songs "
Easier to Walk Away" and "
You Gotta Love Someone", both of which also made the charts between 1990 and 1991. The release also spawned a
music video compilation, which was originally released on both
laserdisc and
VHS, and reissued on
DVD.
Track 25 is different on European version of the album. "Whispers" from Sleeping with the Past takes the place of "Passengers".
"Pinball Wizard", "The Bitch Is Back", "I Don't Wanna Go on With You Like That" and "Easier to Walk Away" are excised from the vinyl version of the compilation.
The timings are different on the back cover and the actual CD. On Disc 1, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" is listed as 6:12, while the actual song runs at 5:38 and "Philadelphia Freedom" runs at 5:42, rather at 5:19. On Disc 2, the back cover shows Song For Guy running at 5:02, but the actual track runs at 6:40 (the album length of the song). The same applies for "Nikita", which the back cover states for 4:53 but the actual song plays at 5:44. "I Don't Wanna Go on With You Like That" is the radio single edit on the CD (4:00) instead of the back cover's album cut listing of 4:33.
B-sides
Song
Format
"Medicine Man"
"You Gotta Love Someone" 7"/12"/CD (UK)
"Medicine Man" (with Adamski)
"You Gotta Love Someone" 12"/CD (UK)
"Made for Me"
"Easier to Walk Away" 12"/CD (UK)
"I Swear I Heard the Night Talkin'"
"Easier to Walk Away" 7"/12"/CD (UK) "You Gotta Love Someone" 7" (France)
^Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava.
ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.