Elton John fans are in for a treat with today’s release of Jewel Box, a collection of 148 Elton rarities lesser-known B-Sides and deep album cuts, including 60 previously unreleased songs, all chosen by Elton himself.
Elton talked about his and Bernie Taupin's lesser-known songs: "We're very fortunate to have a huge catalog of songs that are great. And some of the songs that aren't famous, like 'Original Sin' or 'This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore' or 'American Triangle' are some of the best songs we've written. They are equal as far as I am concerned to the songs that are famous. But because we've had our day in the sun and radio doesn't play our records they don't get exposed as much. But I know in my heart they're just as good as the songs we wrote in the past."
Jewel Box is available to fans in an eight-CD set, digital download or streaming.You can also pick this up on Elton's favorite format – vinyl -- as a two, three or four album set.It also includes a book with Elton's notes and a song commentary.
Here’s a section of Elton’s liner notes in Jewel Box: "This box set contains songs that were the embryo of something special -- early naive compositions that are of a time and place ... then we learned to walk, and then run, and then sprint. It is hard to listen to them now without feeling pangs of nostalgia and joy. But our craving for great music at a time when music was truly great gave us the thirst and the impetus to try and do anything. We did, in a glorious way, we flew and we used our kinship to become who we are now."
[courtesy of Classic Hits Today]