Honky Château, released in 1972, is the seventh official album release for Elton John. It was titled after the 18th century French chateau where it was recorded, Château d'Hérouville. The album reached number one in the US, the first of seven consecutive US number one albums for Elton John.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 357 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was certified gold in July 1972 and platinum in October 1995 by the RIAA. This was the final Elton John album on the Uni label in the US and Canada before MCA consolidated all of its various labels under the MCA brand. This and John's earlier Uni albums were later reissued on MCA Records.
This album marks the beginning of John's transition from a singer/songwriter in the mould of James Taylor, Leon Russell or Carole King to a more rock 'n' roll style that would become more evident on such albums as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou and Rock of the Westies.
It was also the first album to feature John's road band of Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums (along with new member Davey Johnstone on electric & acoustic guitars and other fretted instruments, including banjo, mandolin, steel guitar, sitar, dulcimer, lute and countless others) as the sole core group of musicians. Previously, due to his record label's insistence, John had been limited to using his road band for only one track each on Tumbleweed Connection and Madman Across the Water; the rest of the songs on those two albums were performed by various groupings of session players. Johnstone had played acoustic guitar, mandolin and sitar on "Madman Across the Water", but on "Honky Chateau", he would be invited to join permanently as a full-band member and he extended his contributions to electric guitar, banjo, slide guitar and backing vocals.
The opening track "Honky Cat" is a New Orleans funk track reminiscent of Dr. John and Allen Toussaint and features a four-piece horn section arranged by producer Gus Dudgeon. Also of note is the debut on record of the backing vocal combination of Johnstone, Murray and Olsson, who first added what would soon become their "trademark" sound to "Rocket Man". The trio's unique approach to arranging their backing vocal tracks would be a fixture on John's singles and albums for the next several years.
In 1995, Dudgeon remastered the album, adding only an uptempo, rock and roll version of "Slave" that was sidelined in favor of the steamier, more laconic version that made the LP's original line-up.
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