''Made in England'' is the twenty-fourth 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 1995. It was produced by John and

Greg Penny Greg Penny (born October 12, 1955) is an American record producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, musician, songwriter and artist best known for his work as a producer for Elton John and k.d. lang. He is currently the president of Flower ...

, the first time since ''

Leather Jackets A leather jacket is a jacket-length coat that is usually worn on top of other apparel or item of clothing, and made from the tanned hide of various animals. The leather material is typically dyed black, or various shades of brown, but a wide ...

'' without Chris Thomas. The album was dedicated to John's boyfriend and future husband

David Furnish David James Furnish (born 25 October 1962) is a Canadian filmmaker and former advertising executive. He is married to English singer, pianist and composer Sir Elton John. Early life and education David Furnish was born in Toronto, Ontario, th ...

. It was also dedicated to the memory of Denis Gauthier and Peter Williams. It was the last album to feature regular percussionist

Ray Cooper Raymond Cooper (born 19 September 1947) is an English musician who has worked as a session and road-tour percussionist. During his career, Cooper has worked and toured with numerous musically diverse bands and artists including Elton John (as ...

until 2016's ''

Wonderful Crazy Night ''Wonderful Crazy Night'' is the thirtieth studio album by English musician Elton John. It was released on 5 February 2016. It is John's first album since 2006's '' The Captain & the Kid'' to feature the Elton John Band and was written and reco ...

''.

Bob Birch Robert Wayne "Bob" Birch (July 14, 1956 – August 15, 2012) was an American musician. He was primarily a session musician and sideman to a variety of notable artists. Early life At an early age, Birch was inspired to pursue music by his f ...

became John's full-time recording and touring bass player and continued that role until his death in 2012. The song "Please" was covered by bluegrass singer

Rhonda Vincent Rhonda Lea Vincent (born July 13, 1962) is an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Vincent's music career began when she was a child in her family's band The Sally Mountain Show, and it has spanned more than four de ...

and

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

singer

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...

for the 2018 tribute album '' Restoration: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin''.

Background

While still promoting his work for ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...

'' soundtrack, in September 1994, five months before its release as a single, Elton John debuted "

Believe Believe may refer to: *Belief, a psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true, with or without proof for such proposition *Faith, a belief in something which has not been proven Arts, entertainment, and me ...

" during the opening night of a concert tour with Ray Cooper in Phoenix, AZ. "Believe" reached No. 15 in the UK and No. 13 in the US, and was the only American hit from the album to reach the top 20. During November, John toured Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Switzerland, Poland, France, Italy, the UK, and Japan, and other countries two months later. Several songs from the album made it to the tour's playlist, including "

", " Made in England", "House", "Blessed", "Lies" and "Pain". A few special notes about some of the songs: on "

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

", the song originally ended simply with John singing the last line, "Belfast". In an interview with fan magazine ''East End Lights'' some time later, arranger

Paul Buckmaster Paul John Buckmaster (13 June 1946 – 7 November 2017) was a Grammy Award-winning British cellist, arranger, conductor and composer, with a career spanning five decades. He is best known for his orchestral collaborations with David Bowie, Sha ...

(in his first project with John since 1978's ''

A Single Man ''A Single Man'' is a 2009 American period romantic drama film based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. The directorial debut of fashion designer Tom Ford, the film stars Colin Firth, who was nominated for the Acad ...

'') said he thought the song needed a more uplifting end, and added the outro, making it sound as if it were being played in an Irish pub somewhere up the road. John reportedly was initially wary of the idea, but Buckmaster said he changed his mind upon hearing it and approved the new coda for the final version;

George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the B ...

, who owned

AIR Studios Associated Independent Recording (AIR) is an independent recording company founded in London in 1965 by record producer Sir George Martin and his business partner John Burgess, after their departure from Parlophone. The studio complex was founded ...

London where the album was recorded, wrote the horn and string arrangement on "Latitude"; and John and

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 ...

are credited as arrangers on "Man", which also includes organ by Squeeze and

Mike + The Mechanics Mike and the Mechanics (stylised as Mike + The Mechanics) is an English rock supergroup formed in Dover in 1985 by Mike Rutherford, initially as a side project during a hiatus period for his earlier group Genesis. The band is known for hit singl ...

frontman

Paul Carrack Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

Singles

Track listing

Outtakes

There are many

outtake An outtake is a portion of a work (usually a film or music recording) that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DV ...

s from ''Made in England''. These songs include "Building a Bird", "Leaves", "Hell", "Skin", "Tick-Tock", "Undone", "Red", "

Live Like Horses "Live Like Horses" is a song written by English musician Elton John and Bernie Taupin, included on John's 1997 album '' The Big Picture''. The album version is sung as a solo by John and the single version, released in December 1996, features ...

", an alternate version of "Belfast", and an alternate version of "Believe". "Red" was later released on the French compilation ''Sol En Si'', and a version of "Live Like Horses" was later released on '' The Big Picture''. "Building a Bird" was recorded by Nigel Olsson for his 2001 ''Move the Universe'' CD, released only in Japan. "Hell" and the original cut of "Live Like Horses" have circulated on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. The remaining outtakes have yet to circulate.''Rocket Man: Elton John from A-Z'' ()

Personnel

– lead and backing vocals, acoustic piano (1-7, 9-11),

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. T ...

(7), keyboards (8), string arrangements (9) *

– keyboards, programming, backing vocals (8), string arrangements (9) * Teddy Borowiecki –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

(6) *

–

Hammond 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 ...

(9) *

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 1 ...

– guitars,

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 ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, backing vocals (8) *

– bass, backing vocals (8) * Charlie Morgan – drums *

– percussion * Paul Brennan –

pipes Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circula ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

(6) * Dermont Crehan – violin (6) *

– orchestral arrangements and conductor (1, 3, 4, 6) *

– string and French horn arrangements (7), conductor (7) *

Gavyn Wright Gavyn Wright is a British violinist and orchestra leader with the London Session Orchestra and Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He is best known for his orchestral arrangements on pop productions (including Elton John, Simply Red, Bush, Mecano, Oasis, ...

– orchestra leader (6), conductor (9) *

The London Session Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

– orchestra (1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9)

Production

* Elton John – producer * Greg Penny – producer, mixing * Jon Ingoldsby – recording, mixing * Andy Strange – assistant engineer * Chris Bellman – mastering at

Bernie Grundman Mastering Bernie Grundman is an American audio engineer. He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1984 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan, and Mi ...

(Hollywood, California). * Adrian Collee – studio coordination * Steve Brown – album coordination * Pete Mills – drum and guitar technician * Bill Harrison – percussion technician * Greg Gorman – photography * Wherefore Art? – design * John Reid – management

Accolades

Grammy Awards

, - ,

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, , "Believe" , , Best Pop Vocal Performance – Male , , , -

American Music Awards

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, , Elton John (performer) , , Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist, , , -

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Made in England (Album) 1995 albums Elton John albums Albums produced by Greg Penny Albums produced by Elton John Island Records albums The Rocket Record Company albums Albums arranged by Paul Buckmaster Albums arranged by George Martin Albums conducted by George Martin