Rock of the Westies except where noted. “Ann Orson/Carte Blanche” is a pseudonym used by John. Production Rock of the Westies Rock of the Westies, released in October 1975, is the tenth studio album release for Elton John. As with "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy", "Rock of the Westies" debuted on the US "Billboard" 200 chart at No. 1, the only two albums at that time to have done so. It was less successful in the artist's home territory of the UK, where it reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart. Robert Christgau ranked it as No. 7 on his list
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy terms with failure—or trying desperately not to be one. We lived that story." John, Taupin and the band laboured harder and longer on the album than perhaps any previous record they'd ever done to that point. As opposed to the rather quick, almost factory-like process of writing and recording an album in a matter of a few days or at most a couple of weeks (as with "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"), the team spent the better part of a month off the road at Caribou Ranch Studios working on the recordings. Producer Gus Dudgeon was apparently also very satisfied with