After his brilliant run with MCA records, Elton John joined the early roster of mogul David Geffen, who pledged to make his Geffen Records a haven for Artist's Artists. His initial signings were John Lennon, Donna Summer and Elton. His first album for Geffen, "The Fox," had a minor top 40 single on it that isn't even included here, "Nobody Wins." Thus Elton entered a slower period that didn't really reinvigorate until the third Geffen album, "

" and "I Guess That's Why The Call It The Blues."

What this set does show is that, even in a somewhat shallow period of success, Elton John still could create finally tuned pop gems. From "Mama Can't Buy You Love" and "Little Jeannie" (his last two hits on MCA before the switch), to "Heartache All Over The World," (off the lesser-known "

"), this best-off really does pack on hits. But it also misses a few key tracks ("Who Wears These Shoes," "In Neon" and "Nobody Wins" would have been nice), yet includes one shoulda-been with "Too Low For Zero." You're still getting several top tens ("I Guess That's Why..." and "Sad Songs Say So Much" are now classics) to offer that proof of Elton's staying power.

While this particular disc is out of print, is has been pretty much replaced by "

" once MCA resigned him. If you're looking for these tunes, you can find most of them there.

This compilation was only released in the US and Canada, and it was to complete his contract with his label there Geffen before going back to MCA (MCA, Geffen, and international label Mercury all are sister labels at Universal today). Even though several collections of the Rocket Man have been released over the past few decades, he disowned this one as it clashed with the sucessful Live in Australia released around the same time and was the official stop-gap as he recovered from vocal surgery and sat in with George Harrison on his new studio album. This is one of the first releases of Sir Elton John I can remember. I didn't even think this was still made anymore. My copy is an old LP I picked up in Canada. Tried to buy the CD twice but it wasn't the right one. Greatest Hits 1976-86 superceded this grey market album in 1992 (even though it's not licenced to an obscure indie label like some released in Europe).

"Little Jeannie", "Blue Eyes" and "I'm Still Standing" represent the MTV era (though Elton has grown to loathe making videos!). "Too Low for Zero" was never even a single, let alone a hit. "Mama Can't Buy You Love" and "Little Jeannie" were released by MCA in North America though all of the tracks here were on PolyGram-distributed vanity label Rocket everywhere else. This is still a worthy effort in Johns vast catalogue.