Since we now have access to many new Elton John recordings, I am going to share them! Some other Elton John uploaders such as "Elton Bootlegs" and "EltonJohnGigs" are also going to help me out on these recordings as well! Stay tuned to those channels--they are also going to be uploading new stuff within a week! As for my channel, I am uploading Elton's second show on the North American 1986 Tour! This is the first complete recording of this leg (meaning we have the first recorded performances of "Tonight," "One Horse Town," "Better Off Dead," and "Rocket Man" from this leg! We also have the first performances of "Daniel" and "Your Song" on this show! The recording is complete, and has fairly decent quality (though somewhat distant)!

Since this is a newly released recording, this will get a huge description: Similar to Detroit (and the other shows from these early North American dates), Elton's voice sounds strong, and doesn't sound anything like the gigs where his voice is in bad shape! He does seem to "play it safe" on this show, and is often conservative on songs (compared with Detroit)! He sings some songs very similar to versions you would hear on the September and October shows (though his voice is in far better shape), but don't let that put you off! All the songs sound good, so we'll go through them all!

"Tonight" sounds nice, and wouldn't sound out of place on earlier legs of this tour, "One Horse Town" is an excellent conservative version, and throws in a C5 and E5 in falsetto to show to people that his falsetto wasn't lost! "Better Off Dead" sounds good, "Rocket Man" has conservative phrasing, but when he gets into the improv section, he hits many strong Bb4 falsetto notes, "Philadelphia Freedom" is pretty good, and "Burn Down The Mission" has him not going for some of the higher notes in the first chorus--but he nails the bridge, and hits some of the second chorus high notes (plus he gets some good notes in the outroduction section)! "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is alright, but Elton doesn't hit any of the C5s he hit on Detroit or future gigs like Kansas City or Chicago!

Elton's voice then gets slightly stronger, and delivers one of the best versions of "The Bitch Is Back" on the tour! The medley sounds strong, "Paris" sounds nice (still beats the album version), "Restless" is delivered very aggressively, and Elton combines 1985 phrasing with random embellishments! "Bennie And The Jets" has your typical funny phrasing, and Elton uses legitimate falsetto on the third chorus, "Love Song" sounds awesome, "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" is nice, and "This Town" is one of the best versions on the North American Tour (has awesome phrasing, and delivers it with more "punch" at the ends of lines)!

Elton then delivers one of the most unique versions of "I'm Still Standing" on the tour: He sounds like Sheffield 1985 on the first verse, uses phrasing reminiscent of the versions from the UK Tour, and sounds similar to the Prince's Trust version on the bulk of the song! All in all, it's a great version--but Elton hits a couple Bb4 attempts flat! "Nikita" sounds very nice, and sounds very clean during the outroduction (he usually sounds rough on that part during the North American shows), "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" is a great conservative version (and he doesn't make up lyrics like most versions from this tour leg), "Candle In The Wind" sounds nice, "Daniel" is great, and "Your Song" has some awesome oversinging in it!

- Greg, GregsynthWizard