From 1970 to 1977, Elton John released an astonishing run of albums packed with hits and deep tracks, from Madman Across the Water and Honky Château to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. It was like Christmas morning every time a new Elton John album appeared, but he and Bernie Taupin also released major A-sides between albums, much as The Beatles had done. Elton John kept using the standalone single format throughout his career, while other Elton John recordings remained tied to albums and deep cuts.
In the 1970s, if those tracks weren’t on the original studio LPs, you bought the 45 rpm single; many were added to albums or compilations years later. This list focuses on standalone A-sides and other major Elton recordings that weren’t originally part of his regular studio albums, including songs later collected on reissues, soundtracks, and greatest-hits packages. Elton John and Taupin were writing at an unbelievable pace, and the singles outside the albums are part of what made that era so remarkable. Elton John’s albums told only part of the story.
# 10 – The Goaldiggers Song
We open with perhaps the rarest record on the list. “The Goaldiggers Song” was a limited 1977 charity single written and performed by Elton to raise money for the Goaldiggers appeal, which helped provide sports facilities for underprivileged young people in Britain. Only a small number of copies were pressed, and it never became a commercial chart single, which is why even many hard-core Elton John fans have never heard it.
The verses are almost comical in places, but then Elton hits the chorus and it is pure Elton John. There is even a moment that reminds me a little of “Ticking” before the harmony turns in a completely different direction. That unexpected musical turn is exactly why this strange little charity record belongs here. Elton John could make even a novelty assignment sound unmistakably like himself.
# 9 – Don’t Go Breaking My Heart
“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” was supposed to be a one-off Motown-inspired duet, but Elton John and Kiki Dee turned it into one of the biggest singles of 1976. Elton and Bernie Taupin wrote the song under the playful pseudonyms Ann Orson and Carte Blanche, and the record became Elton’s first No. 1 single in the UK, staying there for six weeks, while spending four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It finished No. 2 on Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 for 1976 behind Paul McCartney and Wings and “Silly Love Songs.” The chemistry between Elton John and Kiki Dee made the song feel effortless, and it remained outside Elton’s regular studio albums until later reissues and compilations gave it a permanent home.
# 8 – Ego
“Ego” is one of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s sharpest looks at celebrity, vanity, and the ridiculous side of being a rock star. Released as a standalone single in March 1978, the song arrived between Blue Moves and A Single Man without appearing on either original album. Elton leans into the joke instead of standing outside it, with Taupin’s lyric turning fame into something funny, needy, and slightly grotesque while the music keeps shifting between straight rock and a waltz-like feel. The single reached No. 34 in both the United States and the UK, and the Michael Lindsay-Hogg video pushed the theatrical side even further. “Ego” never became one of Elton’s signature hits, but it is exactly the kind of ambitious standalone single that makes this part of his catalog so much fun to revisit.
# 7 – Step Into Christmas
“Step Into Christmas” was released on November 23, 1973 as a true standalone holiday single and has only grown in stature with every passing Christmas. Elton and Bernie Taupin wrote it, Gus Dudgeon produced it, and Elton recorded it with Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray, Nigel Olsson, and Ray Cooper at Morgan Studios in London on November 11, 1973.
The song reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Christmas Singles chart and initially peaked at No. 24 in the UK, decades before its annual returns to the charts turned it into a modern holiday standard. The record is also a thank-you to the fans, which is part of its charm: the band sounds as if it is throwing a Christmas party inside the studio and inviting everybody listening to come through the door.
# 6 – Rock And Roll Madonna
“Rock and Roll Madonna” was released as a UK-only single on June 19, 1970 and did not chart, but it remains one of the great early Elton John recordings that existed outside the original album sequence. Recorded at Trident Studios with Caleb Quaye on electric guitar, Roger Pope on drums, and David Glover on bass, the track uses added crowd noise to create the feeling of a live performance even though it was made in the studio. It later became much easier to find when it appeared on Rare Masters
and the 1995 remastered edition of Elton John
# 5 – Lady Samantha
“Lady Samantha” is the oldest single on this list, released in January 1969 several months before Elton John’s debut album Empty Sky. Elton and Bernie Taupin wrote the song, Steve Brown produced it, and the recording featured Caleb Quaye on guitar, Tony Murray on bass, Roger Pope on drums, and Elton on keyboards and vocals. It was not included on the original Empty Sky LP, although it finally appeared as a bonus track on the 1995 remaster and on later archival collections. Three Dog Night also recorded “Lady Samantha” in 1969, giving the early John-Taupin composition another life before Elton himself had become a major star. It is an important glimpse of the songwriting partnership right before everything changed. Elton John was almost there.
# 4 – Pinball Wizard
Not many artists could take a song by The Who and make it feel like an Elton John record, but that is exactly what happened with “Pinball Wizard.” Elton recorded Pete Townshend’s song at Ramport Studios in April 1974 for Ken Russell’s film version of Tommy, in which Elton played the spectacularly oversized-shoed Pinball Wizard. The recording first appeared on the Tommy soundtrack, not on an Elton studio album, and became a commercial UK single in 1976, reaching No. 7. “Harmony” was used as the B-side on the UK single and several international pressings, giving one of Elton’s most beloved deep tracks an unusual place in the story. The piano-driven arrangement transforms the Who classic without losing any of its power.
# 3 – Candle In The Wind 1997
The 1997 version of “Candle in the Wind” belongs in a completely different emotional category from everything else on this list. After the death of Princess Diana, Bernie Taupin rewrote the lyric and Elton recorded and performed the new version as a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales. Released as a standalone charity single, it raised millions for the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and went on to sell more than 33 million copies worldwide, making it one of the biggest-selling singles in recording history. The song was born from grief rather than a normal album cycle, and Elton’s restrained performance is exactly why it remains so powerful.
# 2 – Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Elton John’s version of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” took a Beatles psychedelic classic and turned it into a huge Elton John single without losing the strange beauty of the original. Recorded during the 1974 Captain Fantastic sessions at Caribou Ranch, the track features John Lennon on guitar and backing vocals under the name Dr. Winston O’Boogie. Released in November 1974, Elton’s version spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1975. Lennon then joined Elton onstage at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving night 1974, where they performed “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night,” and “I Saw Her Standing There” in what became Lennon’s final major concert appearance. The studio single’s B-side, “One Day (At a Time),” was another Lennon composition.
# 1 – Philadelphia Freedom
“Philadelphia Freedom” was simply a masterpiece in pop music, and it is the perfect number-one choice for this list. Elton and Bernie Taupin wrote the song during the Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy sessions at Caribou Ranch in August 1974, with the single finally released in February 1975. Elton dedicated it to his friend Billie Jean King and her World TeamTennis club, the Philadelphia Freedoms, while Taupin wisely wrote a lyric broad enough to turn the song into something far bigger than a tennis tribute. Gene Page’s spectacular orchestral arrangement surrounds Elton, Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray, Nigel Olsson, and Ray Cooper with strings, horns, and flutes, helping create that unmistakable Philadelphia-soul sweep. The record reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and remained a true non-LP single until Greatest Hits Volume II finally gave it an album home in 1977.
Updated September 13, 2026.
Top 10 Elton John Non-Album Singles article published on ClassicRockHistory.com © 2026
