Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy national Top Albums chart and only broke a run of what would have been fifteen consecutive weeks at the top by falling one position to number 2 in the ninth week (31 May–6 September). On the UK Albums Chart, it peaked at number 2. In 2003, the album was ranked number 158 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. This was the last album until "Too Low for Zero" that Elton John and his classic band would play on together. Written, according to lyricist Bernie Taupin, in chronological order, "Captain Fantastic" is a concept
Your Song self-deprecating narrator stumbles to get out his feelings, which despite being a melodramatic device, AllMusic calls "effective and sweet": "Your Song" was the inspiration for the song "We All Fall in Love Sometimes" on John's 1975 album "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy". "Your Song" was praised by critics upon its release and in subsequent years. Writing in the NME on its release Derek Johnson wrote, "The song itself is glowing and strangely haunting, the scoring is smooth and delicate and the performance is symptomatic of a new era in pop idols." Bill Janovitz from AllMusic described it as