2017 Remaster Pressed on 180g Vinyl!

He'd done it for the first time in July 1972, and just eight months later, Elton John proved it was no fluke that he'd hit No. 1 on the American album chart with Honky Chateau. In March 1973, he was sitting proudly at the summit again with Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player.

The album had been given a huge kick-start when its lead single, the nostalgic rock ‘n' roll tribute "Crocodile Rock," became Elton's first US No. 1 single only a month before. The perfect follow-up was all set to go as soon as it started its descent, in the form of the winning ballad "Daniel." What's more, Honky Chateau was such a big seller over a period of more than a year that it was still in the Billboard chart, at No. 73, as Don't Shoot Me made its move to the top.

It did so by ending the two-week reign of The World Is A Ghetto, the latest by one of the biggest R&B-jazz-funk collectives of the 1970s, the ever-underrated War. That fell to No. 3, trading places with the Elton album as Carly Simon's No Secrets, which had enjoyed a five-week run at No. 1 before War, held at No. 3. "The latest adventures of Reg and Bernie in France," ran the text in an apt advertisement for several new MCA releases in that week's Billboard. "'Crocodile Rock,' ‘Elderberry Wine' and eight more stunners."

Remastered in 2017 and available on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl in celebration of Elton John's 50th anniversary in music.