The bad news for Elton's hard rock fans in 1973 was that the guy who made "Madman Across The Water" less than two years before had left the building. In his place was a pop craftsman with a keen interest in making music for the masses.

The good news, of course, was Elton's arrival as a full-fledged pop star came with some terrific music, still very enjoyable more than a quarter century later. Actually, his pop leanings were in evidence in 1972 with the release of "Honky Chateau," but this time the gloves are off, and his aim is clearly Casey Kasem country. The result was his first two top-five singles in the U.S., the chart-topping "Crocodile Rock" and #2 hit, "Daniel." "Don't Shoot Me" reached the top of the charts, too, just as "Honky Chateau" did.

If you like "Honky Chateau," chances are good you will like "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player," which in many ways feels like a sequel. The title, for instance, sounds like something the singer in "Honky Cat" might have said if offered an extra chorus. "Crocodile Rock" deals with a faithless girlfriend named Susie, while someone with the same name and inclinations also appears in a song named after her on "Honky Chateau."

The two hits on "Don't Shoot Me," painful as it is to say, aren't as enduring as the hits on "Honky Chateau." Frankly, both "Daniel" and "Crocodile Rock" suffer from radio overplay in a way "Honky Cat" and "Rocket Man" don't. That's not to say they aren't great songs, just less enduring. Elton works in some interesting keyboard tones with "Daniel" and plays to the '50s nostalgia craze (quoting Pat Boone, ye gads!) with "Croc Rock," a song I grooved to as a youngster when it first came out and dearly love today. Yet when it comes on my stereo, my focus sometimes wanders a bit.

What makes "Don't Shoot Me" a vital chunk of Eltonia is the rest of the album. People deride pop music, and often for the right reasons, but this is pop of an especially high order. "Teacher I Need You," "Elderberry Wine," and "Blues For My Baby And Me" all sound like how-to clinics on making enduring post-Beatles pop, clever and engaging and affecting, each in a different way. If they played these tunes on the radio as much as "Crocodile," I'd probably tire of them, too, but they don't and I'm grateful for that when I get to groove to them today.

The rest of the album showcases Elton's diversity. "I'm Gonna Be A Teenage Idol" has fun with the notion Elton was becoming just that, working off a charming melodic underpinning and a solid rhythmic undertow which Elton was indeed becoming a star by using to great effect while other singer-songwriters of his day faded off into obscurity with their bell-bottom Birkenstock blues about the polluted environment or not having a date for the prom. "High Flying Bird" shows Elton's winning sentimental side, while "Have Mercy On The Criminal" revisits "Madman" waters with a better result than most of the songs off that earlier album.

Many people rag on "Texas Love Song," but to me it shows lyricist Bernie Taupin was aware of his overromanticizing the South and Western regions of the U.S. and wanted to acknowledge what one of the more narrow-minded denizens of those parts might think of him if they ever met. Sure, the protagonist comes off like Michael Rooker in "Mississippi Burning," but where does it say pop music narrators all have to be nice and sweet? It's a challenging song lyrically, while the music is suitably low-key and rather more authentic-feeling than most of Elton's (otherwise brilliant) country-rock excursions.

Especially cool is the inclusion in the remastered CD of four bonus B-sides, three of which ("Screw You," "Jack Rabbit," and "Whenever You're Ready (We'll Go Steady Again)" being every bit as good as the "Don't Shoot Me" album cuts, and forcing me to give this a solid five-star rating despite not being crazy about "Midnight Creeper." Really, if you like anything Elton ever recorded for public consumption, you will like this solid gem of a record even better on CD.

Elton John's 1972 classic "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player" became a smash hit on the strength of it's two top ten hits "Daniel" (peaking at number 2 on Billboard charts), and "Crocodile Rock" (John's first number 1 hit in America). These singles helped "Don't Shoot Me..." reach the top of Billboard charts in February 1973, and kept the album in the top 40 for nearly 8 months. These two instantly recognizable tunes aside, the album as a whole is a little uneven.
With the track "Blues For My Baby And Me", John forcefully attempts to come up with a hook. As a result its lengthy and wordy chorus quickly becomes tiring with its numerous repetitions. "Have Mercy On The Criminal" sounds like an out-take from "Tumbleweed Connection" without the melodic brilliance that made that album such a favorite among critics and fans. "Midnight Creeper", and "Elderberry Wine" are obvious fillers; and "Texan Love Song" is certainly not one of John's greatest country-flavored ballads.
The album does contain, however, some of John's greatest hidden treasures. Tracks like "Teacher I Need You", and "High Flying Bird" are brilliant forgotten gems with the impressive melodic sensibilities that John was popular for. Overall, the album is not as immediately accessible as "Elton John" is , or "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", but time does reveal its strength lies with individual tracks, and not with the project as a whole. One may have thought that the John/Taupin partner-ship was finally running out of "steam" after the release of this record (which was their 6th studio album); the incredible double LP "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", which followed "Don't Shoot Me..." within months, proved otherwise.
The 1995 reissue of the album contains the b-sides to the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", and "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" singles as bonus tracks. It also includes a piano version of "Skyline Pigeon", which was originally played with a harpsichord on John's "Empty Sky" recording. This version, which was recorded during the sessions of "Don't Shoot Me...", is a priceless interpretation of one of John's most beautiful masterpieces.

The young Elton at his zenith. I still think that the three songs that open this album are among the greatest songs Elton ever recorded: Daniel ( a classic, of course), Teacher I Need You (little known but fantastic) and Elderberry Wine, one of Elton's most underrated gems. The piano work on this song alone makes it worth your while to purchase this album.

In addition, Crocodlie Rock is as good as it was 28 years ago, when this was released. It's still impossible to listen to this album and not have a smile on your face and feel happy. Elton and Bernie produced some of the great songs of the 70's and four of them are on this record.

If you are trying to decide which Elton albums to sample, this and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" should be at the top of your list.

"Don't Shoot Me" is Elton's best not for the overplayed and tired "Daniel" and "Crocodile Rock," but for the lesser-known gems that went undeservedly unnoticed by the radio program managers.

If you haven't heard this record in its entirety, you're truly in for a treat. Songs like "Texan Love Song" and "High Flying Bird," rarely played on FM radio, still hold up well and are arguably themselves worth the price of the CD.

The surprising "Texan Love Song" is unlike anything else Elton has ever recorded and brilliantly captures the social tension of the period with its "us vs. them" commentary and excellent acoustic accompaniment.

"High Flying Bird" is so beautiful you'll wonder why it never received the acclaim it deserved.

I think this album, like no other by Elton, truly stands the test of time not for its hits, but for its "throwaways."

Strongly recommended!

Some albums are merely highwater marks for a particular artist, while not being outstanding compared against others in the field. This is not one of those. This is, quite simply, an album that every rock music CD collection should contain.

There are no missteps here. The beautiful "Daniel" (which John says was a song of tribute to returning Vietnam veterans, inspired by an article in _Newsweek_) and 50s rock tribute "Crocodile Rock" (Elton's first #1 single) are the most well-known numbers but there are richer treasures to be had here. Any man who ever had a schoolboy crush will recognize himself in "Teacher I Need You", the horn drive of "Elderberry Wine" belies its lyric about a lover who's left (the title derives from a favourite drink she used to make for them), and the subtle drama of "Blues for my Baby and Me" suffused with a sitar from Davey Johnstone that's not a pasted on novelty, as sitar often sounds, but an integral part of the arrangment that lends extra sonic weight to the song.

"Have Mercy on the Criminal" is full-on melodrama, while Elton takes the place of a devil-may-care gigolo in "Midnight Creeper", confessing "Long haired ladies, well, they look so fine locked in my cellar full of cheap red wine, But, I don't think those ladies really mind, honey..". "Texan Love Song" is a barbed threat from a man threatened by a longhaired rival who he blames for corrupting the youth with "communistic politics and them negro blues", and "High Flying Bird" is another sweet love song from Elton.

The album as released would be 5 stars on its own, but it's further buttressed by the addition of 4 bonus tracks, all of which are better than average Elton compositions. "Skyline Pigeon", a rewrite of a 1969 song on his first LP _Empty Sky_, particularly stands out in a version that replaces the harpsichord of the first rendition with piano and much better orchestration. (Elton himself calls it "the first really good song that we ever wrote.")

This is one of those very rare albums I can recommend without reservation. Buy it....period.