The new Elton John album ‘The Diving Board’ has been an immediate hit in the USA and UK but totally stiffed in Australia.
‘The Diving Board’ debuted at no. 3 in the UK, no. 4 in the USA and no. 28 in Australia. It is his most successful album in the USA since ‘Blues Moves’ 37 years ago in 1976. ‘Blues Moves’, featuring the hit song ‘Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word’ peaked at no. 3 in America.
First week sales for ‘The Diving Board’ in America were 48,000. In Australia it sold 915 copies in the first week and in the second week dropped out of the Top 50 down to no. 65 with 494 sales. In Australia, one of Sir Elton’s biggest markets and where he tours regularly, his new album failed to sell 1500 copies in the first two weeks.
T-Bone Burnett who worked with Elton and Leon Russell on ‘The Union’ produced ‘The Diving Board’. Burnett stripped back the sound to recreate the feel of the early Elton John albums. Sir Elton describes the album as ‘the most exciting solo record I’ve done in a long, long time”.
Elton’s biggest albums in the USA were ‘Honky Chateau’ in (1972) featuring ‘Rocket Man’, ‘Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player’ (1973) featuring ‘Crocodile Rock’, ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ (1973) featuring ‘Candle In The Wind, ‘Caribou’ (1974) featuring ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me, ‘Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy’ (1975) featuring ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ and ‘Rock Of The Westies’ (1975) featuring ‘Island Girl’. They all reached number one on the Billboard chart.
