[Magnus_CA]

I'm looking for good recordings of The Police and Elton John on CD.  It's my first cd from either artist so I'm not opposed to a greatest hits.

Thanks in advance for the referral!

[jakepunk]

The Police put out 5 studio albums.  Synchronicity was their last album at the pinnacle of their fame, and it is a great album.  I always liked Regatta de Blanc.  I would suggest getting Message in Box and so you have (just about) everything they ever put out, including their early punk stuff.

[Bob in St. Louis]

I've got a bunch of Eltons, and they all suck quality wise. Maybe with the exception of "Live in Australia" with was recorded live DDD with an orchestra. (Been a while since I've listened to any of them)
But all the old 'good stuff' that made him famous kinda blows.

Bob

[woodsyi]

Obviously you are not in your 40's.....

If you have a TT, I think I have at least 10 copies of Yellow Brick Road.  Some consider it his best and others are burned out from it being over played.  You can have one for the cost of shipping.

[Woodsea]

Woodsyi...That was good.  I have seen him a few times.  My first 45 was Philadelphia Freedom, originally for a b-day present.  I played it relentlessly, so my parents had to buy another for my friend.  I was a decade old at that point.
http://www.superlyrics.com/artist/Elton_John.html

[Magnus_CA]

Obviously you are not in your 40's.....

If you have a TT, I think I have at least 10 copies of Yellow Brick Road.  Some consider it his best and others are burned out from it being over played.  You can have one for the cost of shipping.

TT? 

[woodsyi]

Obviously you are not in your 40's.....

If you have a TT, I think I have at least 10 copies of Yellow Brick Road.  Some consider it his best and others are burned out from it being over played.  You can have one for the cost of shipping.

TT? 

You are definitely not in your 40s.  TT is turn table.  You know the thing that goes around and plays the long playing vinyl records? 

[Magnus_CA]

Obviously you are not in your 40's.....

If you have a TT, I think I have at least 10 copies of Yellow Brick Road.  Some consider it his best and others are burned out from it being over played.  You can have one for the cost of shipping.

TT? 

You are definitely not in your 40s.  TT is turn table.  You know the thing that goes around and plays the long playing vinyl records? 

ok.  lol.  I'm not in my 40's, but my first music playing device was a Fisher-Price record player!  I think I still have it somewhere.

I'm looking for CD's, specifically.

[PhilNYC]

All of the Police studio albums were remastered and re-released in 2003.  Do a search for "Police digipak" on Amazon to see all of them. 

My personal favorite is Regatta de Blanc...edgy-yet-sophisticated, every song is different and interesting. "Message in a Bottle", "Walking on the Moon", "Bring on the Night"...you can't go wrong with this CD.

Outlandos d'Amour is my second-favorite...a little more punk-influenced, with their breakthrough hit "Roxanne"

Zenyatta Mondatta is where the production quality of the Police recordings started to get a bit more polished and less edgy, although "Driven to Tears" remains one of my favorite Police songs of all time (and "Canary in a Coal Mine" remains one of my least favorite).

Ghost In The Machine was the beginning of the end of The Police for me.  It's still a pretty good collection of songs, but IMHO they stopped sounding like a *band* on this album and more of a "production".

Syncronicity is all slickness and production IMHO.  I like the extra track "Murder By Numbers", which does sound like a band, but the rest of it is over-produced, synth-influenced music that is more about Sting than the band itself.

My two cents.  Hope this helps...

[Magnus_CA]

All of the Police studio albums were remastered and re-released in 2003.  Do a search for "Police digipak" on Amazon to see all of them. 

My personal favorite is Regatta de Blanc...edgy-yet-sophisticated, every song is different and interesting. "Message in a Bottle", "Walking on the Moon", "Bring on the Night"...you can't go wrong with this CD.

Outlandos d'Amour is my second-favorite...a little more punk-influenced, with their breakthrough hit "Roxanne"

Zenyatta Mondatta is where the production quality of the Police recordings started to get a bit more polished and less edgy, although "Driven to Tears" remains one of my favorite Police songs of all time (and "Canary in a Coal Mine" remains one of my least favorite).

Ghost In The Machine was the beginning of the end of The Police for me.  It's still a pretty good collection of songs, but IMHO they stopped sounding like a *band* on this album and more of a "production".

Syncronicity is all slickness and production IMHO.  I like the extra track "Murder By Numbers", which does sound like a band, but the rest of it is over-produced, synth-influenced music that is more about Sting than the band itself.

My two cents.  Hope this helps...

I bought all 5 digipak albums this afternoon! 

[soundbitten1]

I have a Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Ultradisc II cd of Yellow Brick Road available in excellent shape but the front insert is missing . Send a PM if you are interested .

[BobRex]

The CD remaster of "Captian Fantastic" is rather good.  "Live in Australia" - well, I can't comment on the CD, but the lp is terrible - compressed to hell, over EQ'd, just plain bad!  The SACD of "Yellow Brick Road" has gotten good press if you are into SACDs.

[zacster]

Synchronicity was the last LP I bought before switching entirely over to CD, waaaay back in the 80s.  I still have it, I still play it albeit rarely, and I still use the same turntable, a Planar 3.

My son was getting into the Police a few years ago and always commented on how much better the LP sounded than his CD.  If the CD was mastered in the early days its no wonder, a lot of them sound awful.  The ones that say something to the effect of "This recording was originally produced on analog equipment.  While effort was made to produce the best sound on this CD, the limitations of the original equipment may be heard"  are particularly galling.  The mastering of these onto CD was sometimes just atrocious while the original LP sounded fine.  DVD-Audio disks made with care from original master tapes sound great, but these original CDs are just plain bad.

Perfectly bad sound, forever.

[Scott F.]

If you want to get 'into' Elton John, you really need to know where he came from. Elton and Bernie Taupin hit the American airwaves as a rather straightforward rock band. Their first American release was the self titled Elton John.


On this are a bunch of great songs like Your Song, Take Me To The Pilot, Border Song, The King Must Die and Grey Seal. This album pretty much established Elton on American radio.

His next releases are nearly just as good.

Tumbleweed Connection had Where To Now St. Peter?, Amoreena, Burn Down The Mission, and Madman Across The Water (Original Version). All in all, a very good release.

Madman Across the Water was his next.

Although not quite as good as Tumbleweed, it did have a few quite good releases. They did tend to be a bit on the 'pop' side of things but still not bad at all. Check out Tiny Dancer and Levon.

Honky Chateau came next.

With songs like Honky Cat and Rocket Man, Elton was quickly converting to the 70's pop genre. One of the few holdout songs from his previous stylings was Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters.

Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player pretty much alienated his previous rock fans.

Songs like Daniel, while quite good were couched in bubble gum rock hits like Crocodile Rock and Elderberry Wine.

Then came Yellow Brick Road.

While this release still had its share of pop hits like Bennie and the Jets and Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, it had a few meaty songs (though still a bit sedate) rockers could appreciate like Funeral For A Friend and All The Girls Love Alice.

After YBR, then came Caribou with a couple of decent songs like The Bitch is Back, Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me,  and I've Seen the Saucers.


After Caribou, Elton went primarily pop. His rock fan base pretty much evaporated. I pretty much lost interest in his music at that point too so I won't be much help with his newer stuff.

I you are a rocker, you will defiantly enjoy his early music. The recording quality is commensurate with the times. Decent but not great. His early music is quite good though.

Check out the samples at Amazon

[Magnus_CA]

Thanks for all the replies guys.  As I said before, I purchased all 5 of The Police's digipak CD's. I'm going to get my feet wet with a Greatest Hits from EJ.

Perhaps later I'll branch out into Scott's recommendations.

[nathanm]

Boy, I hope Elton John doesn't find out a bunch of people are discussing and promoting interest in his music by using the eeeeevil INTERNET!

[Bob in St. Louis]

Boy, I hope Elton John doesn't find out a bunch of people are discussing and promoting interest in his music by using the eeeeevil INTERNET!

DAMN Good point Nathan!  Well said man! 

[SwedeSound]

Nobody - that I can see - has suggested the Police LIVE album. This was recorded at the apex of their career in Boston (I think) and really showcases how talented this trio was/is? and is imminently listenable. Seek it out and you won't be disappointed.

-Jason