Rocket Man: The Definitive Hits

Rocket Man: The Definitive Hits (retitled Rocket Man: Number Ones for its North American release, and Just Like Belgium: The Definitive Hits for its Belgian release) is a compilation album by Elton John featuring 13 number one songs and a number of bonus tracks and live renditions. Worldwide there have been released 17 different versions of the album, including a CD/DVD combo. All versions include the title track, "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)".
The album was released on 26 March 2007. It was to celebrate Elton John's 60th birthday on 25 March. The album was certified platinum in the UK for shipping 300,000 units in February 2010. In the US the album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 9 and was certified gold for sales of 500,000 copies in October 2008 and platinum for 1,000,000 copies in November 2014 by the RIAA.
Sir Elton Hercules John CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, 25 March 1947) is an English composer and singer, who accompanies himself on the piano. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date. In his five-decade career Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. He has more than fifty Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 58 Billboard Top 40 singles, 27 Top 10, four No. 2 and nine No. 1. For 31 consecutive years (1970–2000) he had at least one song in the Billboard Hot 100. His single "Something About the Way You Look Tonight"/"Candle in the Wind 1997" sold over 33 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling single of all time. He has also composed music, produced records, and has occasionally acted in films. John owned Watford Football Club from 1976 to 1987. He is an honorary Life President of the club, and in 2014 had a stand named after him at the club's home stadium.
Elton John was born Reginald Dwight in 1947, and raised in the Pinner area of London. He learned to play piano at an early age, and by 1962 had formed Bluesology. John met his songwriter partner, Bernie Taupin, in 1967, after they had both answered an advert for songwriters. For two years they wrote songs for other artists, including Roger Cook and Lulu, and John also worked as a session musician for artists such as the Hollies and the Scaffold. In 1968 his debut album, Empty Sky, was released. In 1970 a single, "Your Song", from his second album, Elton John, reached the top ten in the UK and the US, his first hit single.
He has received six Grammy Awards, five Brit Awards – winning two awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music and the first Brits Icon in 2013 for his "lasting impact on British culture", an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, a Disney Legend award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him Number 49 on its list of 100 influential musicians of the rock and roll era. In 2013, Billboard ranked him the most successful male solo artist on "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists" (third overall behind the Beatles and Madonna). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, is an inductee into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. Having been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996, John received a knighthood from Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services" in 1998. John has performed at a number of royal events, such as the funeral of Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in 1997, the Party at the Palace in 2002 and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace in 2012.
He has been heavily involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s. In 1992, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation and a year later began hosting the annual Academy Award Party, which has since become one of the highest-profile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film industry. Since its inception, the foundation has raised over $200 million. John, who announced he was bisexual in 1976 and has been openly gay since 1988, entered into a civil partnership with David Furnish on 21 December 2005, and after gay marriage became legal in England, wed Furnish on 21 December 2014. He continues to be a champion for LGBT social movements worldwide and same-sex marriage.
Hard to believe, but there's never been a good single-disc overview of Elton John's biggest hits available in America until 2007's 18-track Rocket Man: The Definitive Hits. (The American release subtracted one track and was titled Rocket Man: Number Ones.) He's had plenty of collections, including a good single-disc European set that circulated in the late '90s, but Rocket Man is the first to really offer a solid career-spanning overview as a single-disc set. Of course, even though this pulls number ones from various charts in the U.S. and U.K., there are big hits missing -- whether it's classics like "Honky Cat," which never reached the pole position in the U.S., or latter-day number ones like "I Don't Want to Go on You Like That," which did top the adult contemporary chart -- but it's hard to argue with what's here (with the possible exception of "Sacrifice," which does represent his late-'80s/early-'90s adult contemporary work but isn't one of his best hits). All the big songs -- "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Bennie and the Jets," "Daniel," "Crocodile Rock," "Philadelphia Freedom," "Can't You Feel the Love Tonight," "Your Song," "Candle in the Wind" -- are here, which will satisfy the casual fan for whom this is designed. Those who would lament the absence of "Levon," "Someone Saved My Life Tonight," "Mama Can't Buy You Love," "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues," or "I'm Still Standing" should turn to another compilation: this is not the set for them. But for the fan who wants a good sampling of Elton throughout the years, this is ideal.