Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin

Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin
Compilation album by various artists
Released October 22, 1991
Recorded various
Genre Rock
Length 78:54
Label Polydor
Producer many
Singles from Two Rooms
  1. "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"
    Released: September 1991
  2. "Rocket Man" b/w "Candle in the Wind"
    Released: December 1991
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Evan Cater, Allmusic[1]

Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin is a 1991 tribute album consisting of interpretations of sixteen songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. The title refers to a song on John's album 21 at 33, "Two Rooms at the End of the World", and to the duo's unusual collaborative style; it is also the title of a 1991 film documenting their collaboration. The album gained an uneven reception,[2] though some performances were singled out for praise, including Sinéad O'Connor's interpretation of "Sacrifice"[3] and Kate Bush's reggae-inflected version of "Rocket Man", which in 2007 won The Observer readers' award for Greatest Cover of all time.[4]

Oleta Adams' version of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", peaked at #33 in the UK charts. Kate Bush's "Rocket Man" was released as a single and peaked at #12 in the UK and #2 in Australia (where it beat the original version's chart position by several places). Wilson Phillips' cover of "Daniel", while not released as a single, peaked at #7 in the US Adult Contemporary chart due to strong radio airplay.

Track listing

  1. "Border Song" - Eric Clapton 4:21
  2. "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)" - Kate Bush 4:57
  3. "Come Down in Time" - Sting 3:38
  4. "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" - The Who 4:32
  5. "Crocodile Rock" - The Beach Boys 4:21
  6. "Daniel" - Wilson Phillips 4:03
  7. "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" - Joe Cocker 3:57
  8. "Levon" - Jon Bon Jovi 5:27
  9. "The Bitch is Back" - Tina Turner 3:38
  10. "Philadelphia Freedom" - Hall & Oates 5:12
  11. "Your Song" - Rod Stewart 4:49
  12. "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" - Oleta Adams 6:02
  13. "Madman Across the Water" - Bruce Hornsby 6:10
  14. "Sacrifice" - Sinéad O'Connor 5:12
  15. "Burn Down the Mission" - Phil Collins 6:58
  16. "Tonight" - George Michael 7:23

Kate Bush

Kate Bush's reggae-inflected version of "Rocket Man" was released as a single and peaked at #12 in the UK and #2 in Australia (where it beat the original version's chart position by several places). In 2007 the track won The Observer readers' award for Greatest Cover of all time.[4]

"I was really knocked out to be asked to be involved with this project," Bush said, "because I was such a big fan of Elton's when I was little. I really loved his stuff. It's like he's my biggest hero, really. And when I was just starting to write songs, he was the only songwriter I knew of that played the piano and sang and wrote songs. So he was very much my idol, and one of my favourite songs of his was 'Rocket Man'. Now, if I had known then that I would have been asked to be involved in this project, I would have just died… They basically said, 'Would we like to be involved?' I could choose which track I wanted… 'Rocket Man' was my favourite. And I hoped it hadn't gone, actually – I hoped no one else was going to do it… I actually haven't heard the original for a very long time. 'A long, long time' (laughs). It was just that I wanted to do it differently. I do think that if you cover records, you should try and make them different. It's like remaking movies: you've got to try and give it something that makes it worth re-releasing. And the reggae treatment just seemed to happen, really. I just tried to put the chords together on the piano, and it just seemed to want to take off in the choruses. So we gave it the reggae treatment. It's even more extraordinary (that the song was a hit) because we actually recorded the track over two years ago. Probably just after my last telly appearance. We were quite astounded when they wanted to release it as a single just recently."[5]

The B-side of Bush's single was her version of "Candle in the Wind". The CD single added an instrumental version of the same song.

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
France (SNEP)[6] Platinum 300,000*
United Kingdom (BPI)[7] Platinum 300,000^
United States (RIAA)[8] Platinum 1,000,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

  1. ↑ Evan Cater, Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Rolling Stone, "Elton by Others is an Uneven Enterprise", October 2, 1991.
  3. ↑ People magazine, "Two Rooms But One Great Songbook", September 23, 1991.
  4. 1 2 "The top 50 greatest covers as voted by you", The Observer, UK 2007.
  5. ↑ BBC Radio 1 interview, 14 December 1991
  6. ↑ "InfoDisc : Les Certifications (Albums) du SNEP (Bilan par Artiste)". Institut français d'opinion publique (in French). InfoDisc.fr. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
  7. ↑ "British album certifications – Various – Two Rooms". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved October 23, 2015. Enter Two Rooms in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Platinum in the field By Award. Click Search
  8. ↑ "American album certifications – Various – Two Rooms". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved October 23, 2015. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
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