Elton John said 1976 album is one of his favourite of all time

Over the course of his illustrious career, Sir Elton John has built one of the most celebrated catalogues in popular music. With more than 30 studio albums and countless hits to his name, choosing a single favourite might seem impossible.

But when asked to pick a handful of records that stand out most personally to him, Elton consistently returns to one album that wasn't a commercial peak, but a creative turning point: Blue Moves.

Released in 1976, Blue Moves came at the height of Elton John's fame, following an extraordinary run of six consecutive US number one albums. By contrast, Blue Moves only reached number three on the Billboard 200 - hardly a failure, but not quite the chart domination he was used to. However, for Elton, chart positions weren't what made the album special.

Speaking to the Grammys, Elton named Blue Moves as the first of his three favourite albums he's ever made. In his 2019 autobiography Me, he reflected on why the record continues to hold deep meaning for him: "I'm very proud of it, but the music was complex and hard to play, quite experimental and jazz-influenced."

Indeed, Blue Moves marked a shift in tone and style. Where previous albums had often leaned on pop hooks and radio-ready singles, this double LP allowed Elton and lyricist Bernie Taupin to explore new musical territory.

The album's ambition is evident in tracks like the atmospheric instrumental 'Out of the Blue', the swirling 'Crazy Water', and the melancholic ballad 'Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word'.

While some critics at the time struggled with the album's more subdued and sophisticated approach, Elton himself saw it as an important moment of artistic evolution. He and Taupin chose not to stand still, instead embracing a broader, more adventurous approach. The result was an album that may not have been built for the singles charts, but one that offered "different shades" of Elton's work - a phrase he used to describe why Blue Moves remains so close to his heart.

The other two albums Elton has publicly identified as personal favourites also reflect important chapters in his career. The second, Madman Across The Water, was released in 1971 and arrived during a prolific creative burst. Remarkably, it was his third album to be released that same year, and it featured the now-iconic opening track 'Tiny Dancer'.

At the time, Elton was operating with near-unmatched momentum, and Madman Across The Water captured the sound of an artist at full throttle. With rich orchestration and emotionally vivid lyrics, the record has since become a staple of his early legacy.

Completing his trio of favourites is Songs From The West Coast, a much later album released in 2001. Despite arriving decades after his commercial peak, the record was widely praised and even earned three Grammy nominations. What made it particularly special for Elton was the way it reconnected him with his roots - this was the first time he and Bernie Taupin had written together in the same room.

In describing why he chose these three albums, Elton said: "The other [albums] speak for themselves... some of them didn't have that many singles on them, they just have different shades of my work on them."

Reflecting on the broader context of his career, he also expressed a strong attachment to the 1970s as a decade, calling it his favourite period in music history: "Everyone was playing with everybody, there was fusion everywhere... I grew up through, and recorded through, the most creative period in the history of popular music."