Wonderful Crazy Night
2016 studio album by Elton John
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Wonderful Crazy Night is the thirtieth studio album by British musician Elton John. It was released on 5 February 2016.[2] It is John's first album since 2006's The Captain & the Kid to feature the Elton John Band[3] and was written and recorded in 17 days.[4][5] John's long-standing percussionist, Ray Cooper, makes his first appearance on any of John's albums since Made in England in 1995. This is Kim Bullard's first appearance on keyboards, replacing Guy Babylon, and Matt Bissonette replaced Bob Birch on bass. The album debuted at number eight on the U.S Billboard 200 with sales of 58,000 album-equivalent units sold.[6]
| Wonderful Crazy Night | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 5 February 2016 | |||
| Recorded | January–April 2015 | |||
| Studio | The Village, Los Angeles, California | |||
| Length | 41:15 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | ||||
| Elton John chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Wonderful Crazy Night | ||||
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Critical reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 70/100[7] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [8] |
| The Guardian | [9] |
| The Independent | [10] |
| Rolling Stone | [11] |
Wonderful Crazy Night received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 70, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 17 reviews.
Accolades
| Publication | Accolade | Year | Rank | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rolling Stone | 50 Best Albums of 2016 | 2016 | 39 |
Track listing
All tracks are written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin[13]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Wonderful Crazy Night" | 3:13 |
| 2. | "In the Name of You" | 4:33 |
| 3. | "Claw Hammer" | 4:22 |
| 4. | "Blue Wonderful" | 3:37 |
| 5. | "I've Got 2 Wings" | 4:35 |
| 6. | "A Good Heart" | 4:50 |
| 7. | "Looking Up" | 4:06 |
| 8. | "Guilty Pleasure" | 3:38 |
| 9. | "Tambourine" | 4:17 |
| 10. | "The Open Chord" | 4:04 |
| Total length: | 41:15 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Free and Easy" | 3:55 |
| 12. | "England and America" | 3:51 |
| Total length: | 49:01 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Free and Easy" | 3:55 |
| 12. | "Children's Song" | 3:49 |
| 13. | "No Monsters" | 4:58 |
| 14. | "England and America" | 3:51 |
| Total length: | 57:48 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Free and Easy" | 3:55 |
| 12. | "England and America" | 3:51 |
| 13. | "Looking Up" (live) | 3:22 |
| 14. | "Wonderful Crazy Night" (live) | 3:15 |
| Total length: | 55:38 | |
Personnel
Musicians
- Elton John – acoustic piano, lead vocals
- Kim Bullard – keyboards
- Davey Johnstone – guitars, harmony vocals
- Matt Bissonette – bass, harmony vocals
- Nigel Olsson – drums, harmony vocals
- John Mahon – percussion, harmony vocals
- Ray Cooper – tambourine (3, 5, 8, 9)
- Tom Peterson – baritone saxophone
- Joe Sublett – tenor saxophone
- Jim Thomson – tenor saxophone
- John Grab – trombone
- Nick Lane – trombone
- William Roper – tuba
- Allen Fogle – French horn
- Dylan Hart – French horn
- Gabe Witcher – horn arrangements and conductor
- Ken Stacey – harmony vocals
Production
- Producers – Elton John and T Bone Burnett
- Associate producer – Kylie Kempster
- Recorded and mixed by Jason Wormer
- Second engineers – Gabriel Burch, Jeff Gartenbaum, Vanessa Parr and Alex Williams.
- Additional engineer – Vanessa Parr
- Digital editing – Mike Piersante
- Mastered by Gavin Lurssen at Lurssen Mastering (Hollywood, CA).
- Piano technician – Carl Lieberman
- Equipment technician – Rick Salazar
- Production coordinator and contractor – Ivy Skoff
- Photography – Joseph Guay and Juergen Teller
- Art direction and design – Mat Maitland
- Creative directors – Elton John and Toby King
Charts
| Chart (2016) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[14] | 11 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[15] | 8 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[16] | 26 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[17] | 26 |
| Canadian Albums (Billboard)[18] | 18 |
| Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[19] | 32 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[20] | 43 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[21] | 35 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[22] | 10 |
| Irish Albums (IRMA)[23] | 41 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI)[24] | 15 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[25] | 11 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[26] | 17 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[27] | 5 |
| Spanish Albums (Promusicae)[28] | 32 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[29] | 15 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[30] | 7 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[31] | 6 |
| US Billboard 200[32] | 8 |
| US Indie Store Album Sales (Billboard)[33] | 5 |