collaboration
Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by singer-songwriters
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 ...
and
Leon Russell
Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and ...
, released on 19 October 2010 in the US and on 25 October in the UK. This is John's second collaboration album, after 1993's ''
Duets
A duet is a musical composition or piece for two performers.
Duets or The Duets may also refer to:
Films and television
* ''Duets'' (film), a 2000 film, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Giamatti and Huey Lewis
* "Duets" (''Glee''), a 2010 episod ...
''. This is the first studio release by John since 1979's '' Victim of Love'' without any of his regular band members. It is also his highest charting studio album on the ''Billboard'' 200 since 1976's ''
Blue Moves
''Blue Moves'' is the eleventh studio album by English musician Elton John. It was released in October 1976. It was John's second double album (after ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'') and the first to be released by his own label, Rocket Records ...
'', debuting at No. 3, as well as Russell's highest charting studio album since 1972's '' Carney''. ''The Union'' was No. 3 on ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' magazine's list of the 30 Best Albums of 2010.The 30 Best Albums of 2010 . ''Rolling Stone'' (25 December 2010). Retrieved 18 January 2011
The album features appearances by
Booker T. Jones
Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. (born November 12, 1944) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known art ...
(on Hammond B-3),
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and m ...
(vocal harmonies). This album was dedicated to
Guy Babylon
Guy Babylon (December 20, 1956 – September 2, 2009) was an American keyboardist/composer, most noted for his work with Elton John.
Babylon was born in New Windsor, Maryland. He attended Francis Scott Key High School before moving on to the ...
, John's keyboard player who died a year before its release. "If It Wasn't for Bad" was nominated for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards for ''Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals'' and
"Hey Ahab" became a staple in John's concert tours.
Track listing
Personnel
*
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 ...
: vocals (1-15), piano (2-4, 6-15)
*
Leon Russell
Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and ...
Jim Keltner
James Lee Keltner (born April 27, 1942) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. He was characterized by Bob Dylan biographer Howard Sounes as "the leading session drummer in America".Howard Sounes. ''Down ...
: drums & percussion (1-9, 11-15)
*
Jay Bellerose
Jay Bellerose is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session and live performance work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists.
Biography
Bellerose was born in Maine. A jazz enthusiast, he attended ...
Debra Dobkin
Debra Dobkin is an American vocalist, percussionist, music producer, and painter.
Biography Early history
Music and the fine arts have always played important roles in Dobkin's life. She was selected at age 6 for children's scholarship classe ...
: beaded gourd (6)
*Mike Ford: percussion (11)
*
Dennis Crouch
Dennis David Crouch (born April 30, 1975 in Columbia, South Carolina) is an American patent attorney who worked for McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP (MBHB) in Chicago, Illinois, until 2007.Dennis Crouch''Thank you MBHB, Hello Missouri!'' ...
:
acoustic bass
The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar a ...
(1-4, 6–10, 12-15)
*
Don Was
Don Edward Fagenson (born September 13, 1952), known professionally as Don Was, is an American musician, record producer and record executive. Primarily a bass player, Was co-founded the funk-rock band Was (Not Was). In later years he produced s ...
: bass guitar (5, 11)
*
Davey Faragher
David Allen "Davey" Faragher (born August 18, 1957) is an American bass guitarist from Redlands, California. Faragher's career took off and received critical notice as a founding member of the nineties band Cracker, and his subsequent work wit ...
: bass guitar (5)
*Drew Lambert: electric bass (16)
*
Marc Ribot
Marc Ribot (;
born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer.
His work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, rock, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Wait ...
T Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett III (born January 14, 1948) is an American record producer, guitarist and songwriter. He rose to fame as a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band during the 1970s. He has received multiple Grammy awards for his work in film ...
: electric guitar (3, 6, 12)
*
Doyle Bramhall II
Doyle Bramhall II (born December 24, 1968) is an American guitarist, producer and songwriter best known for his work with Eric Clapton and Roger Waters. He is the son of the songwriter and drummer Doyle Bramhall.
Early life
Bramhall was born ...
pedal steel
The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can p ...
(7)
*Russ Pahl: pedal steel (6)
*
Booker T. Jones
Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. (born November 12, 1944) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known art ...
:
Hammond B-3 organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...
(1, 5, 9, 11)
*
Keefus Ciancia
Keith Ciancia, better known as Keefus Green or Keefus Ciancia is an American musician, composer and music producer. He has won an Ivor Novello Award and been nominated for an Emmy. Along with his long time creative collaborator, T Bone Burnett, ...
dulcimer
The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments.
Hammered dulcimers
The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...
(4), percussion (11)
*
Darrell Leonard
Darrell Leonard is an American, Los Angeles-based, trumpet player, composer and arranger.
He recorded and toured with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends from 1970 through 1973.
He is a Grammy Award winner for his work with Taj Mahal and the Phantom ...
George Bohanon
George Roland Bohanon, Jr. (born August 7, 1937) is a jazz trombonist and session musician from Detroit, Michigan.
In the early 1960s, he participated in Detroit's Workshop Jazz ensemble, with Johnny Griffith (musician), Johnny Griffith, Paula Gr ...
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and m ...
: backing vocals & BGV arrangement on "When Love Is Dying"
*
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
: vocals on "Gone to Shiloh"
*
Rose Stone
Rose Stone (born Rosemary Stewart, March 21, 1945) is an American singer and keyboardist. She is best known as one of the lead singers in Sly and the Family Stone, a popular psychedelic soul/funk band founded by her brothers, Sly Stone and Fre ...
Lou Pardini
Lou Pardini (born June 5, 1952) is an American Grammy-nominated keyboardist, songwriter and vocalist who is now best known as a former member of the rock band Chicago. He is known for his work with notable musicians such as Stevie Wonder, Santana, ...
: backing vocals (2, 6, 9, 12, 15)
*
Jason Scheff
Jason Randolph Scheff (born April 16, 1962) is an American bassist, singer, and songwriter. From 1985 to 2016, he was the bassist and one of the lead vocalists for the rock band Chicago; he is the longest-serving member in the bassist/vocalist p ...
Tata Vega
Tata or TATA may refer to:
Places
* Jamshedpur, a city in Jharkhand, India also known as Tatanagar or Tata
* Tata, Hungary, a town in Hungary
* Tata Islands, a pair of small islands off the coast of New Zealand
* Tata, Morocco, a city in Tata ...
*Produced by T-Bone Burnett
*Executive Producers: Elton John and Johnny Barbis.
*Production Coordination: Adrian Collee, Jon Howard and Ivy Skoff.
*Recorded by
Mike Piersante
Mike Piersante is a recording engineer and mixer.
2009 Grammy Awards
Mike Piersante won two Grammy Awards in 2009 for his work as Engineer/Mixer. The first Grammy was for "Please Read the Letter" a duet track by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. ...
and Jason Wormer.
*Assistant Engineers: Ben McAmis, Kyle Ford, Mark Lambert, Brett Lind, Chris Owens, Kory Aaron and Vanessa Parr.
*Recorded at Quad Studios (Nashville) and
The Village Recorder
The Village (also known as Village Recorders, or the Village Recorder) is a recording studio located at 1616 Butler Avenue in West Los Angeles, California.
History
The building was built by the Freemasons in 1922 and was originally a Masonic t ...
(Los Angeles).
*Mixed by Mike Piersante at The Village Recorder.
*Edited by Jason Wormer
*Mastered by
Gavin Lurssen
Gavin Lurssen is an American mastering engineer. He owns Lurssen Mastering in Hollywood, California.Lurssen Mastering (Los Angeles, CA).
*Guitar Technician: Paul Ackling
*Transcription by John Eidsvoog and Julie Eidsvoog.
*Design: Peacock
*Photography:
Frank W. Ockenfels 3
Frank W. Ockenfels III (referred to professionally as Frank Ockenfels 3) is an American photographer, artist, and director who is best known for his Portrait photography, portraits of prominent celebrities like David Bowie, Angelina Jolie, Kurt ...
, Joseph Guay,
Annie Leibovitz
Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of Jo ...
and Steve Todoroff.
*Management (Elton John): Rocket Music Management.
*Management (Leon Russell): Johnny Barbis.
*Management (T-Bone Burnett): Larry Jenkins, assisted by Jessica C. Mitchell.
Reception
''The Union'' received mostly positive reviews with critics praising it as some of the pair's best work to date. It reached No. 3 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the 30 Best Albums of 2010.
Charts
Grammy Awards
, -
,
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
, , "If It Wasn't for Bad" , ,
Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals
The Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality pop songs on which singers c ...