Elton John, Honky Chateau (1972)

This is the album where "Rocket Man" appears. It's a tidy little album, Elton John's fifth, and deservedly labeled one of the greatest albums of all time.

It's just storytelling and piano music, man, or at least mostly so, and as at least some great albums are, it's not the kind of work that will take your breath away, but it will keep you entertained from end to end, and that's enough.

Apart from "Rocket Man," perhaps the only other well-known track on the album is "Honky Cat," the lead-off. That's not to disparage the other songs, which might have you fooled about their quality because they're these one-word songs: "Mellow," "Salvation," "Slave," "Hercules."

By the way, "Hercules" is a reference to Elton John himself. Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, he changed his name to Elton Hercules John. And as you know, he's been a knight in the queen's (now the king's) army since 1987.