''A Single Man'' is the twelfth studio album by English musician

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

. Released in 1978, it is the first album for which

Gary Osborne Gary Osborne (born 1949 in London) is an English singer and songwriter. He chaired The Songwriters Executive of the British Academy Of Songwriters Composers and Authors for 12 years during which time he was also chairman of The Ivor Novello Awar ...

replaced Bernie Taupin as lyricist. It is also the first of two (the second being '' Victim of Love'') John albums that, on the original cut, have no tracks co-written by Taupin.

Production

''A Single Man'' is the first of Elton John's albums to not include work by lyricist Bernie Taupin, and the first since his debut ''

Empty Sky ''Empty Sky'' is the debut studio album by British singer-songwriter Elton John, released on 6 June 1969. It was not issued in the United States until January 1975 (on MCA), with different cover art, well after John's fame had been established ...

'' without producer

Gus Dudgeon Angus Boyd "Gus" Dudgeon (30 September 1942 – 21 July 2002) was an English record producer, who oversaw many of Elton John's most acclaimed recordings, including his commercial breakthrough, " Your Song". Their collaboration led to seven US N ...

. The returning members of his band are percussionist Ray Cooper and guitarist

Davey Johnstone David William Logan Johnstone (born 6 May 1951) is a British rock guitarist and vocalist, best known for his long-time collaboration with Elton John as a member of the Elton John Band. Career Johnstone's first work was with Noel Murphy in ...

; the latter played on only one song on the album. Paul Buckmaster would not appear on another Elton John album until '' Made in England''. Unlike previous compositions in which lyrics came first, John started writing melodies at a piano, and an album unintentionally came about from this. This is also John's first album on which he sings in a lower

register Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...

. "

Song for Guy "Song for Guy" is a mainly instrumental piece of music by English musician Elton John. It is the closing track of his 1978 album, ''A Single Man''. Musical structure The song opens with an octaved solo piano, which is then accompanied by a l ...

" was written as a tribute to Guy Burchett, a young messenger employed by John's record label Rocket Records, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. The staff and players of

Watford Football Club Watford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. They play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club’s original foundation is 1881, aligned with that of its antecede ...

, of which John was chairman at the time, provide backing vocals on "Big Dipper" and "Georgia". Also featured on these tracks are the backing vocals of the female staff from Rocket Records, credited as 'The South Audley Street Girls' Choir'. The photo for the front cover was taken in the Long Walk, which is part of

Windsor Great Park Windsor Great Park is a Royal Park of , including a deer park, to the south of the town of Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. It is adjacent to the private Home Park, which is nearer the castle. The park was, for man ...

in Berkshire. The inside cover shows John in a

Jaguar XK140 The Jaguar XK140 is a sports car manufactured by Jaguar between 1954 and 1957 as the successor to the XK120. Upgrades included more interior space, improved brakes, rack and pinion steering, increased suspension travel, and telescopic shock a ...

FHC. John stopped wearing his trademark glasses in public for a period during the late 1970s, and the album photo reflects this.

Release

The album was released on 16 October 1978 by MCA in America, and by

Rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

in the UK. Singles from the album were "Part-Time Love", October 1978; "Song for Guy", November 1978; and "Return to Paradise", 1979. "Song for Guy" was a near-global success, charting high everywhere except the US and Canada, where John's label, MCA Records, initially refused to release it until March 1979. ''A Single Man'' was John's first album ever to be officially released in the former USSR, though his previous releases had been smuggled into the country in various forms. It was released following the success of his ''A Single Man in Concert'' shows in Moscow and

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, though it differed in two ways from its release elsewhere. Firstly, the album was re-titled ''Poyot Elton John'' Elton John sings" in Russian Secondly, on some prints, both "Big Dipper" and "Part-Time Love" were removed, due to the subject matter of the songs. Curiously, John had performed "Part-Time Love" at the USSR shows without objection from Soviet officials.

Reception

In the US, ''A Single Man'' was certified gold in October 1978 and platinum in November of the same year by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. As with many of John's releases of the late 1970s and the 1980s, it received generally mixed reviews from critics.

Later releases

The 1998 reissue has five bonus tracks, the first two being the 1978 flop single " Ego" and its B-side "Flinstone Boy". The next two tracks are the B-sides of "Part-Time Love" and "Song for Guy" ("I Cry at Night" and "Lovesick" respectively), and the last track, "Strangers", originally B-side of his 1979 disco-album title track, "Victim of Love". Some releases of his 1980 album, '' 21 at 33'', also have "Strangers" as a bonus track.

Promotion and live performances

At the time of release, John performed some songs from the album on shows such as '' Bruce Forsyth's Big Night'' (performing "Part-Time Love"), ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' (miming "Georgia" and "Madness"), ''

The Old Grey Whistle Test ''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''Whistle Test'' or ''OGWT'') is a British television music show. The show was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers, commissioned by David Attenborough and aired on BBC2 from 1971 to 1988. ...

'' (performing "Shooting Star" and "Song for Guy"), '' The Morecambe & Wise Show'' (performing "Shine on Through"), '' Parkinson'' (performing "Song for Guy"), ''Rockpop'' (miming "Return to Paradise" and "Part-Time Love") and ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...

'' (miming "Part-Time Love" and performing "Song for Guy"). He performed two solo sets: one for MCA personnel at the

Century Plaza Hotel The Fairmont Century Plaza is a landmark 19-story luxury hotel in Los Angeles. Located in Century City, the hotel forms a sweeping crescent design fronting the Avenue of the Stars, adjacent to the twin Century Plaza Towers and the 2000 Avenue o ...

on 14 October 1978 (performing "Shine on Through", "Return to Paradise" and "Song for Guy") and the other at a RTL studio on 20 October 1978 (performing "Part-Time Love", "Shooting Star" and "Song for Guy"). John's tour in 1979 included songs from the album ("Part-Time Love" and "Song for Guy"). Since that period, songs other than "Song for Guy" have not been performed.

Track listing

* Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–11 on CD reissues.

Personnel

Track numbering refers to CD and digital releases of the album. *

– lead vocals, backing vocals (1, 2, 8), pianos (1, 4, 11), acoustic piano (2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10), clavinet (3),

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. Th ...

(7),

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(7), Fender Rhodes (8), Mellotron (11), synthesizer (11),

ARP synthesizer ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the 1970s before de ...

(11), Solina String Synthesizer (11) *

Tim Renwick Timothy John Pearson Renwick (born 7 August 1949) is an English guitarist. He is best known for his association with Al Stewart in his early career and for his long-standing role as lead guitarist for the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver. His single ...

– acoustic guitar (2, 3), electric guitar (4, 5, 6, 9), Leslie guitar (7),

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

(7) *

– lead guitar (6), backing vocals (6) *

B.J. Cole Brian John Cole is an English pedal steel guitarist, who has long been active as a session and solo musician. Coming to prominence in the early 1970s with the band Cochise, Cole has played in many styles, ranging from mainstream pop and rock t ...

– pedal steel guitar (7) * Clive Franks – bass (1-7, 9, 11) *

Herbie Flowers Brian Keith "Herbie" Flowers (born 19 May 1938) is an English musician specialising in electric bass, double bass and tuba. He is noted as a member of Blue Mink, T. Rex and Sky. Flowers has contributed to recordings by Elton John (''Tumblewe ...

– bass (8) * Steve Holley – drums (1-9), motor horn (4) * Ray Cooper –

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

(1, 3–7, 9),

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

(2), shaker (2, 8, 11),

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

(5), congas (6, 9),

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

(9),

wind chimes Wind chimes are a type of percussion instrument constructed from suspended tubes, rods, bells or other objects that are often made of metal or wood. The tubes or rods are suspended along with some type of weight or surface which the tubes or rods ...

(11), rhythm box (11) * John Crocker – clarinet (4),

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

(8) * Jim Shepherd –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

(4) * Henry Lowther –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

(2) * Patrick Halcox – trumpet (4) * Paul Buckmaster – orchestra arrangements (1, 3, 5, 6, 9), arrangements (2), ARP synthesizer (10) *

– backing vocals (1, 2, 3, 6) *

Vicki Brown Vicki Brown (23 August 1940 – 16 June 1991) was an English pop, rock and contemporary classical singer. She was a member of both The Vernons Girls and The Breakaways and was the first wife of fellow singer and musician Joe Brown and mother o ...

– backing vocals (3, 6) * Stevie Lange – backing vocals (3, 6) * Joanne Stone – backing vocals (3, 6) * Chris Thompson – backing vocals (3, 6) * The South Audley Street Girl's Choir – backing vocals (4, 7) *

– backing vocals (4, 7)

Production

* Producers – Clive Franks and Elton John * Supervising Producer – Mike Gill * Engineers – Phil Dunne, Stuart Epps, Clive Franks and

Peter Mew Peter Mew is a retired British music audio engineer. He worked at Abbey Road Studios, where he was the senior mastering engineer. He came to Abbey Road in 1965 as a tape operator and has since worked with many artists at the studio. Kevin Ayers of ...

. * Mixing – Phil Dunne, Stuart Epps and Clive Franks. * Mastered by Ian Cooper at Utopia Studios (London, UK). * Digital Remastering –

* Coordination – David Croker and Alex Foster * Sleeve Design – David Costa * Graphic Design – Mike Storey * Photography – Terry O'Neill * Liner Editor –

John Tobler John Hugen Tobler (born 9 May 1943) is a British rock music journalist, writer, occasional broadcaster, and record company executive. With Pete Frame, he was one of the founders of ZigZag magazine in April 1969. The magazine focused on the " un ...

* Liner Notes – Chris White * Management – John Reid

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Single Man, A Elton John albums Albums arranged by Paul Buckmaster Albums produced by Elton John 1978 albums The Rocket Record Company albums