Fifty years ago, on 22 October 1976, Elton John released Blue Moves, a sprawling double album and his first on his own Rocket Record Company. On Thursday 22 October 2026 it turns 50, so we've been through the crates to see what Elton John Blue Moves vinyl we can actually put in your hands, plus the records that sit either side of it. Pour a brew, find a biscuit, and settle in: there are four sides to get through.
What is Blue Moves? (Asking for a friend who only knows it from Top Gear)
Blue Moves was Elton's eleventh studio album and his second double album, after Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The basic tracks were cut at Eastern Sound in Toronto in March 1976, with overdubs later in London and California, and it was the last Elton album produced by Gus Dudgeon until Ice On Fire in 1985. It was also the last full album with Bernie Taupin for a few years, which gives the whole thing a slightly end-of-term feel.
It's a long one: 18 songs over four sides. Elton's own site describes how at least two of the songs were written well before the sessions began, which was rare for him at the time. There's a proper band jam, too. "Out Of The Blue" is a six-minute instrumental that the band cut live in a big room in Toronto, and if you watched BBC Two in the 1980s or 1990s you already know it. It played over the closing credits of the original Top Gear for much of the show's run, so for a whole generation it's the sound of a man in a sheepskin coat finishing his thoughts on the Vauxhall Cavalier.
The album even has a track called "Theme From A Non-Existent TV Series", which, given what happened to "Out Of The Blue", feels like Elton was showing off.
Critics in 1976 were mixed. Some thought it was too long, others thought there weren't enough strong songs to fill four sides. Time has been kinder, and Elton has called it one of his favourites. We're with Elton on this one.
Blue Moves 50th anniversary: the singles and the charts
Blue Moves reached No. 3 on the UK albums chart, with 15 weeks on the chart, and No. 3 on the US Billboard 200, which broke his run of US No. 1 albums. It went Gold in the UK and Platinum in the US.
- "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" came out on 1 November 1976. It made the US top 10 and the UK top 20, and in 2002 Blue's version with Elton went to No. 1 in the UK.
- "Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance!)", the closing track, reached No. 28 in the UK, where it was a double A-side with Kiki Dee's "Chicago".
- "Crazy Water" was a UK-only single in February 1977 and reached No. 27.
It's worth remembering the year Elton was having. In June 1976 "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", his duet with Kiki Dee, went to No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic, and by the time Blue Moves arrived he'd decided to take an indefinite break from touring. Busy chap.
Why is Elton John in the news?
Mostly because of this anniversary, and because the farewell never quite stops echoing. His Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour ran to 330 shows and finished in Stockholm on 8 July 2023, so for a lot of people the records are now the main way to hear him. A 50th birthday is a good excuse to go back to the album that fans tend to call his most underrated.
How to check Elton John Blue Moves vinyl before you buy
Blue Moves is a double album, so there's twice as much to go wrong. Here's what we look at:
- Catalogue numbers. The UK original is Rocket ROSP 1. US copies came out on MCA with their own number, and later UK budget reissues exist too. Make sure the spine, the back of the sleeve and both labels agree.
- Both discs, the right discs. Check you've got sides one to four and that each label matches its disc. Double albums get split up and "married" back together more often than you'd think.
- The printed inners. Original copies came with printed inner sleeves. If they're missing, the record still plays fine, but the copy isn't complete.
- Sleeve wear. Look at the spine and the edges for splits, and at the cover painting for ring wear. A double album's spine takes a lot of punishment from being squeezed into a shelf.
- Quiet passages and grade. Ballad-heavy albums like this one show surface noise in the quiet bits, so grading matters more than it does on a stomper. Our vinyl grading explainer covers what VG, VG+ and EX really mean.
We won't make up values for you. Condition and completeness matter far more than any "rare" wording in a listing title, and VG is a perfectly playable grade when it's graded honestly.
Elton John in the WholelottaVinyl crates
In stock as we write: all used vinyl, hand-graded and photographed as the actual copy, at our independent record shop in Mansfield.
The birthday record (UK): Elton John – Blue Moves 2LP (ROSP 1, 1976), graded VG+/VG, £5. A UK Rocket pressing with its printed inner, so you get all four sides and the bits that go with them. Five pounds for 18 songs works out at about 28p a song, which is cheaper than a Woolies pick 'n' mix ever was.
The American cousin: Elton John – Blue Moves 2LP (2-11004, 1976), graded VG+/VG, £5. A US pressing with its printed inner. Handy if you like to compare pressings, or if you simply want a second copy to play while the first one stays in its sleeve looking smug.
The one before: Elton John – Rock Of The Westies LP (DJLPH 464, 1975), graded VG+/VG, £5. The 1975 DJM album that came just before Blue Moves, home of "Island Girl", and this copy still has its lyric sheet and printed inner.
The big one: Elton John – Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy LP (DJLPX 1, 1975), graded VG/VG, £15. A UK DJM gatefold with the poster, and that famously busy cover you could stare at for a whole side and still find something new.
The one after: Elton John – A Single Man LP (TRAIN 1, 1978), graded EX/VG+, £5. The next studio album after Blue Moves, made during the break from Bernie Taupin. A UK Rocket pressing with its printed inner, and the vinyl grades EX.
The 7" singles: Elton John – Someone Saved My Life Tonight 7" (DJS 385, 1975), graded VG/VG, £2, the UK DJM single from Captain Fantastic, and Elton John – Song For Guy 7" (XPRES 5, 1978), graded VG+/VG+, £2, a UK Rocket single and one of his gentlest moments on 45. Both are £2, so they count towards our 10 singles for £10 deal.
Buy any three records and 10% comes off the whole crate at checkout, so three £5 LPs come to £13.50. New customers can use Autumn10 for 10% off instead (one code per order). Every record gets a Pro-Ject VC-S3 clean before it's posted (see why choose us), and you can add a Degritter ultrasonic clean for £2; details are on the cleaning service page.
Looking for "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" on 7", or a copy of the "Bite Your Lip" single? Put it on our wanted list and we'll keep an eye out.
Where does Blue Moves sit in Elton's run?
Think of it as the end of the first great Elton era. From 1970 to 1975 he and Taupin turned out album after album, two of them US No. 1 debuts in 1975 alone (Captain Fantastic and Rock Of The Westies). Blue Moves is the big, moody, slightly exhausted full stop at the end of all that. After it came the break from touring, the break from Taupin and A Single Man, before the pair started working together again on 21 At 33 in 1980.
If you're building an Elton shelf, Blue Moves is the one that tells you where the 1970s run ended up, and at £5 for a double it's the cheapest education in pop history you'll find this side of a charity shop. It also makes a nice companion to our other 1976 birthday posts, ELO's A New World Record and ABBA's Arrival.
Clearing the loft? We'll take it off your hands
If your own Elton records are gathering dust next to the Christmas decorations, we buy used vinyl collections, big or small. Have a look at how we buy vinyl records, or get in touch with a few photos and we'll take it from there. Ladder not included.
Dig the crates
There's plenty more where these came from. Browse the Elton John crate, dig through the whole shop, or add what you're hunting for to the wanted list. You can also reserve online and collect from our Mansfield record shop, and as second-hand vinyl goes, a £5 double album is about as good as it gets. Happy 50th, Blue Moves. You still sound better than the Cavalier.
