Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - 40th Anniversary
Bobby Kimball, Nigel Olsson, John Mahon and Giorgio Onorato Aquilani teamed up to deliver their tribute to the 40th Anniversary of Elton John’s "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road".
To many people - whether die-hard Elton fan or not - "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" is a true landmark album in modern music history if not the ultimate Elton John album of all times. For that reason it's not surprising that not only Elton himself is looking back to his musicial creation from 40 years ago, but many fellow musicians and fans do as well.
In this regard, Giorgio Onorato Aquilani from Italy makes no difference and his long time friendship with Bobby Kimball brought to life this beautiful new project. Some of you might remember Giorgio as he released the album "Party of the Century" featuring ten of his own songs plus a cover version of Elton's "Friends". On that album he was being helped by Bobby and a number of famous musicians including several members of TOTO, but also by current Elton John band member John Mahon and former Elton John band member Charlie Morgan. The album is available on iTunes or CDbaby.
Now Giorgio is taking a next step with the release of two cover versions of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" - dedicated with love to Elton John and Bernie Taupin. And once again he has assembled a great line-up of musical friends, some of which he already worked with on "Party of the Century".
Current Elton John band members John Mahon and Nigel Olsson are providing backing vocals on the first track, which is a duet of Giorgio and Bobby Kimball, singer and founding member of TOTO. John's and Nigel's work on this track is outstanding in many aspects: Their colloborative singing is building a bridge between the 1974 version of this Elton classic and this most recent cover. The two generations of Elton John band inspire this new recording with the spirit and feeling from 40 years ago without being just a simple plagiarism of the original recording.
The duet cover version is doing great in managing the tightrope walk of being close to the original version but breathing new life into the track at the same time without any lack of respect to the original. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" is such an Elton John signature song that not many dared to cover it over the past 40 years. In its original key, it's a tricky song to sing and sure has been tortured a lot in karaoke bars all over the planet.
Be sure to stay tuned after the final chord of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" for Giorgio's hidden track, another one of his own compositions.
Giorgio and Bobby have been kind enough to provide the two songs to visitors of Bobby’s official website.
Besides the music one also has to pay attention to the wonderful cover artwork.The painting “Beyond the yellow brick road” is by Joseph Watchman Kaliher, a renowned contemporary artist. His works can be found in many prestigious Art collections such as the Fondazione Enrico Coveri and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Villa Demidoff in Florence. In his atelier in Florence Kaliher has collaborated with Paloma Picasso as well as with famous architect Michele Bonan. Amongst his admirers are many illustrated individuals and collectors, such as the Marquis Lodovico Antinori, the Prince Colonna of Naples, the Count Walfredo Della Gherardesca, the jewelers Vennari and the industrials Demico and Collini, the Ferragamo and Modestini families and many more. You can download a high resolution version of his “Beyond the yellow brick road” artwork by clicking on the cover above. More about his works can be found on Kaliher's website.