Honky Château by Elton John

Honky Château, Elton John's fifth studio album, came out on 19 May 1972, named for the 18th-century French chateau where it was cut, the Château d'Hérouville. Gus Dudgeon produced, and Elton sounds like he's having the time of his life.

The record swaggers between loose-limbed rock and roll and rhythm and blues, with Elton's piano bouncing and rolling at the center of it all. "Rocket Man" and "Honky Cat" were the two singles, and a third, "Hercules," was lined up but never made it out; "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" is another highlight. It became Elton's first number one album in the US, kicking off a run of seven in a row, went gold that July and turned out to be his last record on the Uni label in America.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.