Songs in the Key of Life in a series of concert dates in the U.S. and Canada. The start of the tour coincided with the 38th anniversary of the release of "Songs in the Key of Life". Highly anticipated, the album surpassed all commercial expectations. It debuted at number 1 on the "Billboard" Pop Albums Chart on October 8, 1976, becoming only the third album in history to achieve that feat and the first by an American artist (after British singer/composer Elton John's albums "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" and "Rock of the Westies", both in 1975). In Canada, the album achieved the same
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